Phoenix Business Journal • November 28, 2025

RAY SCHEY: Phoenix has seen unprecedented growth, and the arrival of TSMC is creating even more ripple effects across the commercial real estate market, from industrial to multifamily to office. How is this impacting the types of projects being planned and built today?

DEREK WRIGHT: It has created a much more diversified project environment than we’ve traditionally seen in Arizona. High-tech, sophisticated developments are more prevalent, and there has been a shift in how owners, developers and tenants are choosing to contract those projects.

RON ENSLEY: We’re also seeing a virtually unprecedented amount of foreign investment, which is driving all project types. We’re going to continue to see that growth, not just with TSMC and all that it supports, but with infrastructure and power, retail, office, you name it.

VALERIE GRANGER: With the arrival of TSMC and its affiliates, there has certainly been an influx of more complex and high-velocity projects in our market.

ANDREW GEIER: When I moved here in 2001, it was all about rooftops and retail… chasing residential construction. Now there’s so much more depth to our business sectors. People forget how young Phoenix is, but as we get older, we mature. That complexity is reflected in our construction projects.

SCHEY: The words diversity and complexity keep coming up. How are developers and contractors addressing this new echelon of projects as construction requirements become more multifaceted?

GEIER: Solving the equation for a successful development project has become much more dynamic. That is creating valuable new opportunities for an integrated project team to collaborate, and for each team member to bring their unique expertise to the table. In my experience, the result is always a more thoughtful solution that balances design, sustainability, cost and speed to market. It definitely reflects a growing complexity in our industry – something that can’t be achieved without an integrated approach. But when teams coordinate and share goals, they do create more efficient and effective project outcomes.

ENSLEY: I’d throw in the risk mitigation component. From the developer’s perspective, I’m looking for trusted alliances with the right groups, like Andrew and his team, and Derek and Valerie at Suntec. As project benchmarks rise, we want to know we’re working with somebody who’s been there, done that. To Andrew’s point, Phoenix is still a very young city and there are only so many of us that can do this level of work. Getting in with the right people early on, developing those relationships, and making sure that we’re working together as we go forward. That’s a lot of the approach we’re taking.

WRIGHT: Everybody in our industry seeks predictability, especially when it comes to a project being delivered on time and on budget. How do I find predictability when costs, manpower and the market itself fluctuates? How do we, as a company, insulate and ensure that we can be as successful as possible within those influences? For us, it begins with placing our people as our highest priority and then collaborating with our partners to create those predictable outcomes. One great advantage, for us, is also our in-house design-build capability.

Schey: That’s well stated. In each of your experiences, how does design-build help set today’s projects up for success compared to more traditional methods? And why is it becoming a preferred option for modern development?

GRANGER: Traditional methods tend to position designers and builders against each other, instead of putting them on the same team. In a design-build environment, everyone’s working together from the start for the best end result. It gives you a better final product, and everyone’s happier because collaboration is driving the ultimate cost and quality.

WRIGHT: You could say design build is the marriage of emotional and professional capacity. We are all, of course, emotionally entrenched in the success of our projects, but when you approach the process as a design-build team, it’s much different than, “Give me a price and we’ll tell you if you are in the game or not.” It changes the conversation to, “I want to help us all win and here’s how we can accomplish what’s needed.”

GEIER: We could use architects as an example. What makes architects so talented, generally speaking, is that they are creatives. So, when an architect is looking at a light fixture, they’re looking for the best light fixture that meets the design criteria and looks amazing in the context of the overall design. Having a trade partner at your side who can say, “Hey, I love this, but I see an alternative that’s 80% cheaper and looks 95% identical,” is a huge benefit that creates real value. To me it’s simple. When you bring people together, your results improve.

GEIER: Costs are one advantage, because when you’re doing a design-build project, there are no surprises. Developers can sleep at night because they know that the starting price and the ending price are the same. You start with the must-haves like structure, power, air conditioning. Design-build helps you value-engineer that portion so that you can move on to the wants, making a project easier to lease or secure higher rents or whatever it may be.

Cost certainty is a major advantage of the design-build approach, in part because you’re collaboratively identifying the essential components of a project and then developing the most efficient solutions for those needs. That allows budget dollars to be preserved for the aesthetic elements that tenants really value. I’ve watched the design-build process build confidence with clients. They can see that every project dollar is being spent efficiently and that all details are resolved up front, which will help to avoid costly surprises for them during construction.

ENSLEY: Design-build does help you establish the backbone of the project first – MEP, structural and enclosure costs might run up to 70% of the budget. Then you can focus on the remaining percentage that’s going to sell or lease the space or sell the building or whatever the case may be.

GEIER: In Ron’s case we’re talking about high-rise residential, but I think this benefit is universal. We do a lot of industrial projects with Suntec’s design-build team, and it makes perfect sense there as well.

WRIGHT: Different projects will drive different contract structures, but the professional buy-in – when everybody’s invested in the outcome and delivering what they say they’re going to – makes magic happen on the job site. Magic for owners and for contractors.

GRANGER: Agreed. Each project will be different based on the product type, the contractor, the materials, the subcontractors. But when you know the team members going in, you can create a design that works and pulls all of these details into your drawings to begin with, so there’s no hiccup when we start construction.

ENSLEY: Before design-build it could feel, as a developer, like you weren’t getting an accurate price for the entire job. You knew there would be holes and gaps that you couldn’t anticipate up front.

GRANGER: This way avoids unnecessary detail substitutions, product substitutions, changes for value engineering and so on. Instead of having to go back and rework our original design, all substitution requests and VE ideas can already be built into our original design-build drawings.

GEIER: To Valerie’s point, I love the efficiencies that are created, and to Ron’s point, the design-build process does really pull forward the decision-making timeline. In the early stages of a traditional project approach, I’ve seen trade partners either significantly underbid scope or be overly conservative, expecting that they’ll have a chance to revise later. Neither of these benefits our clients. Early pricing in a design-build approach is much more meaningful.

ENSLEY: Which is opposite of the traditional approach.

GRANGER: A continued interest in design-build, I hope!

ENSLEY: A couple of years ago, I wasn’t design-building structure and enclosures, and now that’s kind of becoming the norm. Phoenix is evolving with new contractors, new developers, new subcontractors, but there’s only a select few that do true design-build.

WRIGHT: Ray, would you please print that? But seriously, Maricopa County is an economic engine that looks different, acts differently and reacts differently than when Andrew moved to Arizona. It trends in tandem with foreign investment and the onshoring of manufacturing back to the U.S. That positions us really well to capitalize on those opportunities.

ENSLEY: We have, what, a million people projected to move here in the next 10 years? Every sector of construction will continue to grow, whether it’s single family, built-to-rent, infrastructure, airport, you name it. Phoenix has always been a sprawl market and that will continue, but to a lesser degree. If you look at the aerials, there are a lot of old buildings that need to be repurposed and a lot of infill spots left for new development. I’d love if all of those new residents were in high-rise residential projects!

GEIER: AI is also, of course, a factor. From a design standpoint, creatives will continue to play a vital role, and so will people with unique industry knowledge and insight. It’s on the back end that I think AI has the greatest potential to help with specific design criteria and to fill in gaps efficiently. During the construction process, I’m hopeful that AI will streamline operations across the board and provide us with meaningful data that can positively influence how we approach and execute on our future projects.

WRIGHT: I heard a report on the way here. There are roughly 500 data centers under construction in the U.S. and 2,200 more planned or announced. Do we have the grid capacity? The power generation capacity? The water and cooling capacity? Those things will greatly determine the trajectory of what happens both on the construction side of the industry and the development side. But there’s certainly more to come.

ENSLEY: With TSMC, Intel and all the companies that are supporting, we have direct flights to Singapore, and Japan’s coming. Flights we’ve never had before, and even increased traffic from other parts of the U.S. I think we’ll see that as more of the norm, not the exception.

GRANGER: The diversity of those traveling to – and operating within – our market has changed the expectations of our buildings as well, placing a demand for sophistication front and center. That wasn’t the case when I first started working in Phoenix, but it has definitely grown over time. More than ever, our internal teams and trades need to leverage their expertise and bring that knowledge to each unique project. The earlier in the construction process we can do this, the more successful we’ll be at delivering long-term value for everyone involved.

WRIGHT: Sprint

ENSLEY: Collaboration

GRANGER: Bright

GEIER: Bright