Optima McDowell Mountain Village Archives - Page 7 of 8

Optima: LEEDing the Way in Sustainability and Conservation

Optima, an award-winning real estate development firm, recently announced plans to move ahead with its next Arizona residential development, Optima McDowell Mountain Village, in North Scottsdale after receiving the city’s approval for the $1-billion sustainable mixed-use community.

Breaking ground spring/summer 2023, the 22-acre site, located on the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and the Loop 101 Freeway, is comprised of six concrete-framed, eight-story buildings that will include 1,330 luxury residences and 36,000 square feet of commercial and retail space. The development will be a mix of condominiums and apartments.

And it premiers a couple of special features.

Rainwater Harvesting and Water Conservation

Optima McDowell Mountain Village will be the largest private rainwater harvesting site in the United States, with an approximately 210,000-gallon storm water tank in a concrete vault at the lower level of the site. The tank will recapture water to repurpose for irrigation. Based on data from two other Optima communities in Scottsdale, the residences within the community are expected to use half as much water as the average Scottsdale multifamily residence and a quarter as much water as the average Scottsdale single-family home. Optima is also providing the City of Scottsdale with 2,750 acre-feet of water that will be deposited into the Scottsdale water system.

New Green Standards

The community will be the first project in Arizona to be built under both the new International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), which provides for an additional 9% energy savings over the previous code, and International Green Construction Code (IgCC). Both codes establish guidelines to create energy-efficient and sustainable buildings.

A few highlights of the sustainable features include 75% open space that will be a combination of artificial turf, xeriscape landscaping and native plants; high-performance mechanical systems, solar panels; 100% underground parking to mitigate the heat-island effect, and Optima’s signature vertical landscape system. The underground parking reduces the heat island effect by 9 to 12 degrees. The vertical landscaping system, with its self-containing irrigation and drainage, will enable a palette of vibrantly colored plants at the edge of each floor to grow both up and over the building. The integration of enhancements to the vertical landscape and architectural shading systems protects homes from the sun and creates additional privacy, while filtering the air and lowering ambient temperature.

Designed in partnership with David Hovey Sr., FAIA, the six buildings feature undulating landscaped facades that echo the shapes of the McDowell Mountains with elevations that will create depth, shadow and texture. The outdoor terraces provided for every residence will be edged with trailing native plants cascading down the building and the colors of the desert will be incorporated throughout the community with bronze glass, railings and planters. Glass-enclosed, 15-foot-high ground-floor levels will feel utterly transparent.

Amenity Rich

Each of the six buildings will contain a variety of state-of-the-art, health-based and resort-style amenities that include a rooftop deck with a 50-meter Olympic-length swimming pool; a sauna, spa and cold plunge; a running track that will follow the perimeter of the roof; and more, along with spectacular views of the surrounding desert landscape and mountains. The ground-floor will feature spacious, well-appointed lobbies; a fitness center and yoga studio; a residents’ club with game room and theater; an outdoor pickleball arena; indoor and outdoor kids’ play spaces; a dog park and pet spa; a business center and conference room; and more.

The convenient location is just a five-minute drive to the shopping, dining and entertainment destinations of Scottsdale Quarter and Kierland Commons, while the proximity to major highways and freeways will provide residents with easy access to the surrounding Valley. In addition, the development will feature a bicycle and pedestrian path around the perimeter of the development that will connect to the bicycle and multi-use paths of the City of Scottsdale Bicycle Master Plan.

Optima McDowell Mountain Village will be Optima’s most sustainable project to-date and will utilize the kind of architectural detail that characterizes Optima’s Arizona projects, representing the next evolution of Optima’s design and construction.

David Hovey Jr., AIA, is president and COO of Optima, Inc. and Optima-related entities. He oversees all company entities and business units, including development, architecture, construction, land acquisition, entitlements, corporate finance, sales and marketing, investor relations and asset management.

Did You Know: Optima McDowell Mountain Village will be the largest private rainwater harvesting site in the United States, with an approximately 210,000-gallon storm water tank in a concrete vault at the lower level of the site.

The Next Frontier

Scottsdale has long been a mecca for tourists, but now commercial development is ramping up and moving north to what’s being dubbed a corporate corridor north of the Loop 101. More than 500 acres in that area are left for development.

Read more on Phoenix Business Journal

Visit Optima McDowell Mountain Village for more details

Masters of the Southwest: A Father-Son Duo is Redefining Sustainable Desert Living

On a sunny winter day, residents of Optima Kierland are pursuing their morning rituals—walking the dog, working out in the fitness room, running on a track around the rooftop pool, powering up a Zoom call in the lounge, heading to the underground garage for the commute to work. But the 1,000-unit condo and rental complex, spread across five towers, is not your typical brown-box-and-a-balcony multifamily project so prevalent around the Valley. Instead, it is a sustainable, architectural tour-de-force, balancing concrete and glass, shade and sunlight, voids and cubic forms, all cooled with lush plantings that defy boundaries between outside and in.

The project is one of the latest achievements by father-and-son architects David Hovey Sr. and David Hovey Jr., who, along with other family members, run Optima, headquartered in Scottsdale and Chicago. Known for their edgy, architecturally striking designs of multifamily complexes and innovative construction techniques and materials, the Hoveys—and their company—have found the secret sauce to success. Optima is a soup-to-nuts company that develops, designs, builds and manages projects, overseeing everything from site selection to specifying kitchen sink faucets.

“I’ve been a fan of the Hoveys’ architecture for a long time,” says architect Anthony Floyd, who heads Scottsdale’s green building program and has worked with the Hoveys on sustainability strategies for several of their projects. “They’ve changed how we view multifamily housing here. What they create is unlike what we’ve seen in Arizona—or even the world.”

The history of this modernist dynasty began with Hovey Sr. Born in New Zealand to a Kiwi mother and a U.S. Marine father, he moved with his family to Chicago when he was 15 years old. “Chicago is the foremost city in the world for modern architecture,” Hovey Sr. says. “Being there sparked my interest in architecture.”

Hovey Sr. enrolled in the Illinois Institute of Technology, where Mies van der Rohe had served as dean and shaped the school’s modernist bent. “Mies was no longer at IIT when I studied there,” he remembers, “but some of us went to his house one night and didn’t leave until 4 a.m. He lived in an old brick apartment—not one of his designs—because he didn’t want to be constantly accosted by clients.”

During college, Hovey Sr. worked as an assistant to the curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago, igniting his love of modern art and inspiring his later work in metal sculpture. His first job out of school was with a small firm, but, wanting to experience a larger office, Hovey Sr. signed on with noted Chicago architect Helmut Jahn, working there for four years during the 1970s.

“My son and I are contemporary architects. We are interested in the design, materials and technologies of the 21st century. We’re not interested in allusions to the past.”

David Hovey Sr., FAIA, architect

But there was always an itch to do his own thing. “My IIT professor, Arthur Takeuchi, always said that an architect was the low man on the totem pole when it came to projects,” Hovey Sr. recalls. “He said the best outcome was to be not only the designer but also the developer and client.”

Heeding those words, Hovey Sr. launched Optima in suburban Chicago in 1978, along with his wife, Eileen Sheehan Hovey, who handled the real estate component of their projects. Before long, they were specializing in design-driven multifamily complexes around the city and, later, joined by their children, Tara Hovey, who handles financial strategies for the company, and David Jr., who earned his master’s in architecture at his father’s alma mater and now serves as CEO.

Frequent winter visitors to Scottsdale, the family opened a second Optima office in the desert in the early 2000s, sensing a market that was open to innovative modernist housing. By then, Hovey Jr. was helping push forward Optima’s shape-shifting experimentations with design, materials and construction methods. “When I was working as a construction superintendent on our job sites,” says Hovey Jr., “I observed inefficiencies between architecture and construction that could be improved by prefabrication.”

Though they became known for apartments and condos, the father and son have long experimented with techniques and approaches by building single-family spec homes, completing several over the years in North Scottsdale. “We had to find a new language for architecture here in Arizona,” Hovey Sr. says. “Studying Frank Lloyd Wright’s shelters, we learned to design optimum structures in the desert, ones that celebrated the indoor-outdoor relationship and incorporated sustainable features, such as solar power and passive cooling. We took what we learned from these spec homes and translated that into our multifamily work.”

After completing their first Arizona project, the Biltmore Optima, the Hoveys wanted to include landscaped roofs and terraces for the next site, Optima Camelview. Hovey Jr. worked with ASU to study desert plants in terrace- and rooflike beds at a site in Glendale. “We looked at about 150 kinds of plants and trees,” Hovey Jr. notes. “We learned which survived in extreme sun or shaded spots and which didn’t.”

Optima Camelview, a condominium project, won accolades and awards for its—literal—green design of lushly landscaped terraces, as well as other sustainable strategies, such as shaded glass walls, underground parking and public open space. Optima Sonoran Village, rental apartments in downtown Scottsdale, followed, expanding on the design theme, as did the recently completed Optima Kierland. Under construction now is Optima McDowell Mountain, which will be a six-tower development of rental apartments and condos, mixing in street-level retail and even more amenities and green elements, such as rainwater harvesting, than the previous projects.

As the Hoveys moved forward with projects, they developed relationships with core groups of craftspeople, such as Jerry Barnier, founder of Suntec Concrete. “We started working together about 15 years ago,” says Barnier, “and we found that the Hoveys are very receptive to pushing the design forward efficiently. They understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to construction. They push everyone to do their best work.”

Despite recent pushback about high-density development in some parts of the Valley, the Hoveys are secure in their place in the desert’s urban landscape. “Having density and height on a site allows us to create open space that’s accessible to the public—and not just our building residents,” Hovey Sr. points out. “It also gives us room to have setbacks that are landscaped. Our McDowell Mountain project is planned around a central park open to everyone.”

Always looking for future possibilities, the father and son prefer to concentrate on one or two projects at a time. “Each development we do is a progression, a journey of how we envision people living in the 21st century.”

Optima Sonoran Village in downtown Scottsdale has five residential towers set around landscaped courtyards with views of Camelback Mountain. Each apartment has plant-fringed balconies that add to the greenscape.

A stint working at The Art Institute of Chicago sparked David Hovey Sr.’s love of contemporary art and his own work as a sculptor, including “Kiwi,” which graces an Optima project in Chicago.

Optima Kierland Center, the Hoveys’ most recent project, is a series of condo and apartment dwellings offering luxe amenities, including cooling landscaping, rooftop pools and running tracks, a golf simulator and a dog “spa” for washing pooches.

In the heart of the Camelback Corridor, Biltmore Towers was the Hoveys’ first foray into the Arizona multifamily market and featured unique design elements, such as recessed balconies, red trellises and orange sunscreens.

Optima Verdana in suburban Chicago includes retail offerings at street level and apartments above.

The Camelview Village condo development put Optima on the local design radar, with innovations such as landscaped balconies and open space, as well as an edgy, modernist design. According to architect and Scottsdale’s green building head, Anthony Floyd, both David Hovey Sr. and David Hovey Jr. lived in units on site. “That’s what I call proof of concept,” says Floyd. “They could see what worked—and what didn’t.”

In downtown Chicago, Optima Signature and Chicago Center includes 42- and 57-story towers, with forms, details and colors inspired by Russian painter Kazimir Malevich and American artist Donald Judd.

Also in Chicago, the Lakeview project features indoor open space as a response to the climate.

“Curves and Voids,” a sculpture by David Hovey Sr., graces the gardens at Sonoran Village.

“Our single-family homes are experimental. They are our ‘Case Study’ projects from which we take ideas and apply them to our multifamily work.”

—David Hovey Sr., architect and Optima founder

Banner Health breaks ground on new Scottsdale medical campus; plus more Valley deals to know

Banner Health has started construction on the first phase of its new Scottsdale medical campus, which promises to offer a range of health care services. Plus, our weekly roundup of real estate deals includes a $29.43 million industrial acquisition, the sale of Scottsdale Marketplace and more.

Read more on Phoenix Business Journal

Visit Optima McDowell Mountain for more details

APPROVED: Scottsdale luxury mixed-use development

A mixed-use project that could represent a capital investment of $1 billion in north Scottsdale received its thumbs up.

Read more on Rose Law Group Reporter

Visit Optima McDowell Mountain Village for more details

BEX 2023 Forecast Gives Shape to a Tumultuous Year

From Founder and President Rebekah Morris down through the entire Research, Editorial and Support staff, the crew at BEX Companies proudly self-identifies as “Data Geeks”. The annual Construction Activity Forecast Event is our time to shine and show off the extreme (some might even say excessive) volume of data we’ve put together over the year and compare it to the previous year’s output and result.

For our 2023 event(s), 365 attendees registered to drink from the data firehose and soak up as much information as they could in a whirlwind two-hour presentation by Morris and DATABEX Manager Lya Parrish. For the first time, demand was so heavy the event had to be presented twice to accommodate everyone who wanted to come.

Following brief introductory remarks from Parrish explaining how data for the 11 covered markets is collected and analyzed, it was off to the races with Morris’ now-familiar overview of the state of the overall Arizona construction market, its impacts and what has changed over the last 12 months.

State of the Market

Morris started her annual summary noting the three major factors impacting construction in the state—Population Growth, Employment, and Inflation and Interest Rates—the last of which she noted had not been a major factor until 2022.

Population growth has been a primary factor in Arizona since the end of the Great Recession, trending generally upward over the past 10 years and hovering around 1.5% annually.

That has, of course, fueled demand across the range of construction markets. Ironically, what it has not done is return construction employment to its pre-Recession levels. At its peak in 2006, Arizona construction employment was 240,300 jobs. That plummeted in the recession down to 110,900. Even with the exceptional boom in project counts and valuations, however, by 2022 construction employment had only rebounded to 186,700.

Even with a workforce that’s 22.3% below its former peak, however, 2022 construction activity totaled $22.4B, a 24% year-over-year increase and a $730M increase over the 2006 past peak.

On the inflation side, a combination of supply issues and cost increases held market growth back in 2021, Morris said. “Construction was constrained in Arizona. We couldn’t get materials, couldn’t get labor. There were, and there are still, some significant permitting delays. We did not grow the industry, but we certainly grew our Producer Price Index, that inflation number,” which hit 10%. The PPI for 2022 came down to approximately 6.7%.

Construction activity, however, grew by 24%. “I don’t have a precise answer on, ‘How much did inflation grow versus how much did the market grow?’ What we know is that we grew jobs. We’ve got specific counts by market sector. We have very specific project-level detail. We can tell the overall market grew much more than inflation.”

After going over the general numbers, Morris put the data into context across construction markets. She reported that in 2019, the cost/SF for a small office renovation was between $50 and $100. In 2022, that had risen to $150-$250. For new mid-sized apartment complexes, the cost/SF was $150-$175/SF. In 2022 the average was between $220-$275.

The researchers and the audience were fortunate enough to have an apples-to-apples comparison for high-end multifamily. In 2020, the Optima Kierland luxury apartment development was announced with a per-unit cost estimate of $632K. For the Optima McDowell Mountain Village project announced in 2022, the per-unit development cost had risen to $751K.

Nearing the end of her introductory segment, Morris talked about how, not very many years ago, the market share breakdown between Housing, Public and Private projects was generally one-third to one-third to one-third. Showing a seismic shift in demand volumes, Housing currently stands at 27.2%, Public at 20.4% and Private at a whopping 52.4%.

Capital Improvement Programs

Morris next launched into coverage of projects and trends in Capital Improvement Programs and the Public sector, which for research purposes consist of Education, Public Spaces, Utilities and Transportation.

Of the Top 10 Capital Improvement Programs analyzed this year, only two—Valley Metro and Mesa—showed decreases. Phoenix led with $9.778B, followed by the Arizona Department of Transportation at $6.752B.

Bringing up the rear at Number 10 was the Town of Queen Creek, which saw its CIP explode with a 232.1% increase to reach $972.3M.

Arizona Projects 06-30-23

1. Optima, Inc. has announced construction is expected to begin on the 22-acre, $1B+, 1,330-unit Optima McDowell Mountain Village this summer. Phase I will deliver approximately 210 apartments and another 210 condominiums.

2. Martens Development and its general contracting partner Willmeng Construction broke ground on Mission Park, a two-building, 723.5KSF Class A industrial park at I-10 and Perryville Road in Buckeye.

3. Sunbelt Investment Holdings Inc., along with general contractor Graycor Construction Company Inc., have debuted design plans for and started construction on Phase I of Camelback 303, totaling 516.3KSF. The project initiates SIHI’s 4MSF industrial park in the Loop 303 Corridor in Goodyear. Phase I is designed for use by a single tenant or is divisible to three tenants.

4. DCS Contracting broke ground on the Ocotillo Road: Sossaman Road to Hawes Road for the Town of Queen Creek. This project will widen Ocotillo Road to two lanes in each direction with a center turn lane, bike lanes, sidewalks, drainage improvements, utility modifications, street lights and traffic signal installations. Improvements are anticipated to be completed by late 2024.

CapMatrix secures for Optima McDowell Mountain project

CapMatrix Ltd, a full-service capital markets and corporate strategic advisory firm, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, is pleased to announce the successful placement of land and horizontal infrastructure financing to support the ongoing development and improvements at Optima McDowell Mountain.

Optima McDowell Mountain is the latest Arizona development for Optima, Inc., and at completion the project will feature 6 luxury residential towers boasting over 1330 units of for sale condo and luxury rental units at the Southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Loop 101 freeway. The project builds upon Optima’s tremendous success just a few miles South, with their Optima Kierland development.

“In today’s market, there are no easy financing assignments, especially for land and horizontal development, but with Optima’s excellent reputation, and the success of their previous projects in Arizona, we are proud to be able to deliver the financing they needed” said Deron Bocks, President & Managing Partner of CapMatrix Ltd.

The financing was provided by Western Alliance Bank, and represented the first deal between Optima and Western Alliance, “The teams at CapMatrix and Western Alliance did an exceptional job of really digging in and understanding our unique financing needs for this project, and the end result was a creative and flexible financing solution that will enable us to continue to execute our vision for this signature asset”, said Mark Riehle, Chief Development Officer of Optima, Inc.

ASM bakes job pie on ‘development row’

Did you hear the one about the corporate giant bringing hundreds of jobs to North Scottsdale?

This isn’t about Axon – which is already in the 101/Hayden Road neighborhood. The Taser maker is fighting to move ahead with a controversial plan to build a new office building surrounded by upwards of 1,900 apartments.

While the police equipment juggernaut says it will quadruple its work force if allowed to move ahead with a scheme the city and others are challenging, another tech powerhouse has encountered no resistance as it quietly charges ahead on building a new corporate home.

No apartments here at ASM, less than a mile north of Axon.

And why would ASM’s 1,300 engineers and other workers want to live on the Dutch company’s new American headquarters and “campus?”

ASM’s next-door neighbor is Optima McDowell Mountain Village, where 1,300 apartments are being built.

Though impressive, the number of positions ASM is creating is just a cut of a massive job pie being baked here on “development row.”

On a sprawling lot south of ASM, the smaller Banner Health Center Plus that starts construction soon and a planned Banner Scottsdale Medical Center could employ upwards of 2,500. Across Hayden Road from Banner, Rick Smith promises to balloon his Axon staff of 850 to 5,500 if his live-work-play campus is not blocked.

As Optima and Axon both plan shops and restaurants, the number of new employees along development row could approach 10,000.

While a few of these big developments are pending, ASM is at full-speed-ahead.

The Netherlands company designs and manufactures “equipment and process solutions to produce semiconductor devices for wafer processing.” Wafers serve as bases for semiconductor chips.

On its 20 acres, ASM plans “a combination of capital expenditures related to infrastructure and lab equipment,” with research and engineering jobs coming – as hinted by plans for a five-story garage, in addition to two offices and labs.

According to a news release, “ASM, a semiconductor supplier with local customers like Intel and TSMC, is investing $300 million in its new Scottsdale facility and plans to add 500 new high-paying jobs as part of the expansion.”

A development agreement requires ASM to provide 600 acre feet of water – about as much as 2,000 homes would use in a year – to the city.

(City of Scottsdale)

With 800 employees already at its current Phoenix headquarters, the additional staff would bump ASM’s Scottsdale payroll to 1,300. ASM showed it was serious by entering into a joint development agreement with the city.

A crucial difference between this and Axon’s plan: As ASM is not trying to put up living spaces, no rezoning was required for it to build.

The city issued building permits May 7. While writing a check for around $360,000 in permit fees, ASM told the city the value of its commercial shells for an office, lab and garage is $116 million.

Contractor Oakland Construction Company got right to it, starting foundational work the second week of May.

Compared to many developers who struggle for financing, this company can afford to pay its way. ASM’s revenue for 2024 was $3.2 billion, jumping 11.31% from 2023

‘Bring your water’

Across the 101 from Grayhawk and the booming Scottsdale One development, ASM’s new North American headquarters will cover 250,000 square feet – double the size of its Phoenix facility.

ASM has research and development centers in Arizona, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Japan, South Korea and Italy and manufacturing sites in Singapore, South Korea, Italy and the Netherlands.

On Sept. 10, Scottsdale City Council unanimously approved $7 million in water and sewer line reimbursements to a trio of developers in that “netherland” south of the Loop 101, between Scottsdale and Hayden roads: global corporation ASM, healthcare giant Banner Health and “retail development specialist” De Rito.

One week later, Council unanimously approved a separate development agreement with ASM.

The new ASM development deal calls for the city to reimburse the tech company for up to $6.3 million “for a portion of public infrastructure costs.”

Then-Councilman Tom Durham, before making the motion to approve the development deal, praised the Dutch-based company’s plan to bring the water it will use in Scottsdale. Former Scottsdale Water Executive Brian Biesemeyer explained it will be provided by SRP.

In early 2024, even as Durham and other city officials were rejoicing over ASM’s relocation, Biesemeyer expressed concerns over the Dutch company’s plans to recycle 80% of its wastewater.

In an internal email, Biesemeyer warned it was crucial for ASM to understand “they cannot dump to our sewer if their recycle plant is down.”

Near the beginning of 2024, Paul Crothers, ASM’s vice president of operations, projected the company’s North Scottsdale water use: Just under 90,000 gallons per day during Phase 1 of development, shooting up to about 234,000 gallons per day in Phase 2.

That would mean from 30 to 80 million gallons per year.

Optima McDowell Mountain Village receives approval from Scottsdale City Council – Phoenix Business Journal

Optima will construct six buildings that will be either apartments or condominiums as part of the project that will also include commercial office space.

City documents show that Optima looks to start on construction as soon as possible after being given the green light from Scottsdale City Council. phoenix