AVONDALE, AZ-Embarking on an aggressive development program, developer PB Bell & Associates Inc. has acquired 15.5 acres for a $41-million project. The developer plans to break ground on the 314-unit Ashton Pointe Apartments in the third quarter.
PB Bell acquisitions manager Greg Linaman says the project at 119th Avenue and McDowell Road is slated for completion in second quarter 2010. The mix of three-story buildings will be 35% one-bedroom units, 50% two-bedroom units and 15% three-bedroom units. PB Bell will manage the complex once it's up and running. The City of Avondale cleared the Ashton Pointe plan in mid-December, according to its economic development specialist.
Todd & Associates Inc. of Phoenix designed Ashton Pointe and MT Builders Cos. of Scottsdale will be building it. Cushman & Wakefield of Arizona Inc. brokered the land purchase between PB Bell and the seller, a local private partnership.
Linaman tells GlobeSt.com that PB Bell is looking for more development land in the area. He says the goal is to have about 1,600 to 1,800 units either completed or under construction by 2010, based on what's currently in the Scottsdale developer's pipeline.
"We didn't break ground on anything in 2007," Linaman says. "It's not that we didn't feel good about the area last year, but recently we've been able to find stronger land deals."
Linaman says the fallout of the condominium market means that asking prices for multifamily land are more realistic than they've been in the past few years. That is not to say that the next two years won't bring challenges. "2008 and 2009 will be interesting, but overall we still think this is a great time to be building," he says. "And generally speaking the West Valley is a good place to be building in right now."
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