The Broadway Recreation Center Chiller Installation was a unique project for the contracting community of metro Phoenix. The aging City of Mesa facility, home to the Mesa Association of Sports for the Disabled, was in need of an HVAC upgrade and face-lift for years. The city, facing severe budget cuts, simply did not have the funds.

Working with the Arizona Builders Alliance, the project team secured donations from Valley subcontractors and coordinated more than a hundred volunteers who came out for ABA’s community volunteer day to donate their time painting, cleaning and spreading a new layer of gravel over the grounds.

Other donations brought the project $100,000 under the engineers original estimate. Mesa Mayor Scott Smith says the project is a great example of public-private cooperation that can enable a city to improve itself despite financial struggles.