Nevada state engineer Jason King cleared the Southern Nevada Water Authority to draw 83,988 acre-ft of water annually from four valleys in rural White Pine and Lincoln counties in northeast Nevada, advancing toward the adoption of a proposed groundwater pipeline network that is designed to slake Las Vegas' growing thirst. Image Courtesy of SWNA SWNA's proposal calls for a 300-mile buried pipeline to supply Las Vegas with water. "This is another step in a permitting process that will help provide a greater degree of certainty for our long-term water supply," says John Entsminger, SNWA's senior deputy general manager, in a

A new retail property under way near Phoenix acquired an anchor tenant. Phoenix Premium Outlets, which broke ground two weeks ago in Chandler, Ariz., will be home to a Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH store and approximately 90 other high-end retail shops. Image courtesy Architects Orange The 90-store Phoenix Premium Outlets will feature nine primarily tilt-up concrete structures housing approximately 360,000 sq ft of leasable space. Phoenix-based contractor Kitchell is building the 360,000-sq-ft project for Simon Property Group, an Indianapolis-based real estate developer with 57 similar outlet malls in the U.S. and 70 worldwide. Located on 50 acres of land

A new office tower is in the works at Hayden Ferry Lakeside in Tempe, Ariz. Phoenix-based Ryan Cos. US Inc. will develop and build the 10-story office tower located at Mill Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway. Related Links: Read this October 2006 article from the ENR Southwest archives on a previous office tower built at Hayden Ferry Lakeside Sunbelt Holdings, Scottsdale, Ariz., acquired the plot of land at Hayden Ferry Lakeside as part of a larger portfolio from original developer SunCor in 2010. The new tower will be the third office tower at the development along the shores of man-made

A major new residential project broke ground in downtown Phoenix. Located on a 3-acre site south of Roosevelt Street, between Third and Fourth streets, the $52-million project adds fuel to a current building boom of campus-related housing in the Southwest region. Developed by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Concord Eastridge and Memphis, Tenn.-based EdR, the unnamed apartment complex will contain 326 units within two buildings, one seven and the other eight stories high. The ground floors will include a total of 7,500-sq-ft of retail space, to be subdivided among several tenants depending on demand.Crews with Phoenix-based general contractor Hardison/Downey Construction began working on site infrastructure

Las Vegas Paving Corp., a 54-year-old, privately owned heavy-highway contractor based in Las Vegas, is regularly ranked among the top two general contractors on ENR Southwest’s annual Top Contractors ranking, and was the 2nd ranked transportation contractor in the three-state Southwest region in 2011. Las Vegas Paving’s largest project start of the past year was the $116.8-million Route 215 Bruce Woodbury Beltway, Tenaya Way to Decatur Blvd. project, which expands an existing interim roadway to four lanes and adds full interchanges and overpasses. Photo courtesy Las Vegas Paving Lou Esposito, Las Vegas Paving risk manager Photo courtesy Las Vegas Paving

New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory will shed 400 to 800 people through voluntary layoffs this spring, or about 10% of its permanent staff, to cut $300 million from its budget. It will leave the 69-year-old, 36-sq-mi. laboratory with 11,271 students, post-doctoral, term and union workers, which is the same staff number as four years ago. Photo courtesy Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Lab has a current annual budget of $2.2 billion. The site is managed by Los Alamos National Security LLC, comprised of Bechtel National, the University of California, Babcock & Wilcox Co., and URS for the

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney energized a crowd of construction industry executives by promising to undo much of the regulatory and labor initiatives of the Obama administration, during a speech Thursday in front of members of the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. in Phoenix. Just hours later, ABC announced its endorsement of Romney's candidacy during its board of directors meeting. Photo courtesy ABC Romney won the endorsement of the Associated Builders and Contractors following his address to the group's board of directors on Thursday in Phoenix. Romney, who had sparred the night before with Republican primary opponents at the party’s

HealthSouth Corp., Birmingham, Al., has acquired land in Phoenix and plans to construct a new 48,000-sq-ft inpatient rehabilitation hospital. Located at the intersection of N. 91st and Pinchot avenues, construction is expected to begin at the site in the fourth quarter, with completion by the third quarter of 2013. Image courtesy HealthSouth The new 48,000-sq-ft rehabilitation hospital is expected to be completed by third quarter 2013. Image courtesy HealthSouth Similar to HealthSouth's Mesa hospital completed in 2009, the Phoenix facility will include specialized rehabilitation programs using advanced technology to help patients recover from major injuries and surgeries. Plans for the

A federal judge in New Mexico has ruled in favor of plaintiffs who contended that the portions of the 2007 Albuquerque Energy Conservation Code are preempted by federal law. The Jan. 25 decision by U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez essentially rejected the city’s attempt, through its building code, to impose heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment-efficiency standards in commercial, multi-family and single-family residential buildings that are more stringent than federal standards. The lawsuit was filed on Sept. 30, 2010 by a group led by the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute. In another move late last year, the Albuquerque city

Southern Nevada’s long simmering plans for a sports arena took a step forward with a funding pact that could see the $650 million, 17,500-seat Silver State Arena break ground this summer. A memorandum of understanding between United Arab Emirates-based International Development Management and Shenzhen, China-based China Security & Surveillance Technology (CSST) was unveiled Feb. 10, calling for CSST, with support from its Chinese banking partners, to fully fund construction of a 750,000-sq-ft sports arena in Henderson, about 12 miles south of Las Vegas. The deal covers only the indoor arena portion of a potential $1.3-billion project that calls for a separate