Mesa-based Norwegian Company Nammo Talley Snags Big IDIQ Contract for M72

Nammo awarded contract for shoulder launched munitions

5 January 2015 Nammo Talley has been awarded a multi-year indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to supply the M72 Light Assault Weapon (LAW) to the U.S. Department of Defense

The contract specifies M72 LAW variants for anti-armor and anti-structure missions, as well as sub-caliber training systems and other support services. The first delivery order against the contract has already been placed and exceeds $25 million. The maximum value of the four-year contract is approximately $63 million, but is contingent upon the total quantity of options exercised.

Nammo Talley, is the only manufacturer of man-portable, unguided, shoulder launched munitions (SLM) in the United States. The company has produced over 350,000 LAWs for U.S. and allied military forces. Program management and final assembly of the energetic rounds will occur at Nammo Talley’s headquarters in Mesa, Arizona, while inert launcher fabrication will take place primarily in Davidsville, Pennsylvania.

“This is another important milestone for the battle-proven M72 LAW. It also sustains the vital ammunition industrial supply base in a period of decreasing volume.” said Chad Parkhill, Nammo Talley’s Product Line Director for SLM. “We’re ready and proud to provide U.S. and allied forces with what we believe are the lightest, most capable and cost-effective shoulder fired weapons in the world.”. 
https://www.nammo.com/news-and-events/news/nammo-awarded-contract-for-shoulder-launched-munitions/

A broader company overview is supplied by Bloomberg:
Nammo Talley, Inc. designs, develops, and produces propellant-based products in United States. It develops aircrew escape systems, automobile airbag components, submunition dispensing systems, shoulder-launched weapons, and various propellant-loaded devices. The company’s products include extended range munitions, gas generators, rocket motors and ballistics, weapon systems, pyrotechnics for military and commercial ballistic devices, non-azide automotive inflators, military initiators, non-halon fire-suppression devices, and specialty devices for safety systems. It also provides engineering and test services. The company was formerly known as Talley Defense Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Nammo Talley, Inc. in August, 2008. The company was founded in 1960 and is based in Mesa, Arizona. As of April 2, 2007, Nammo Talley, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Nammo AS.
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=1027538

4051 North Higley Road

Mesa, AZ 85215

United States

Phone: 480-898-2200

Fax:

480-898-2358

Channel Change-Up: RENTV Commercial Real Estate News & Media Company

Just amazing what news sources are available for local economic development - it doesn't always come first in an official announcement from an office in City Hall on Main Street when it hits the media.
With a name like Hangars at 5616 inquiring minds might wonder what's that  all about - it's not a 3.5 lb hunk of prime meat - it's a below market $7 Million dollar acquisition from GE Capital of a 75,000 square foot property that is currently 100% vacant and includes the purchase of 5.6 acres of land at Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport.
Whoa! Seven million dollars for about 75,000 vacant square feet that includes 22,900 sq ft of high-end office space and 5.6 acres of land? 

Somebody's gotta have a very serious plan to capitalize on this investment. It does not appear to be a demand-supply mismatch.
It is being acquired by an investor with an expected commitment for approximately half of the space. Who's that investor in private hangar space who's also the owner of the largest private hangar at Scottsdale Airpark? 
Another addition to the investor's portfolio with the unique amenities of this project and confidence in the growth of PMGA and the burgeoning growth of Arizona's aerospace sector as whole.
The purchase of The Hangars at 5616 was not announced online until June 8, 2015
SOUTHWEST JET BUYS BIG HANGAR SPACE AT PHOENIX MESA GATEWAY AIRPORT Posted on Jul 8, 2015 3:00  pm MDT Southwest Jet Buys Big Hangar Space

Theory R Properties was founded in 2002 by Gary Daichendt, the former executive vice president of worldwide operations for Cisco Systems Inc. After a successful career that included being the number 2 executive of what was once the world's highest market cap company, Gary desired to start an investment firm that would offer not only great returns but also reflect a high level of integrity in the marketplace.

Spice Lee did The Right Thing

The name 'Theory R' is meant to reflect a constant reminder to "do what is Right." As a young executive, Gary became convicted when listening to a Christian radio talk station where the guest espoused that when contemplating a business decision, it becomes readily apparent as to what "the Right Thing to Do is" if we will only ask ourselves that question. The guest referred to this as Theory R. Gary used this phrase and philosophy in his career from that day forward and was delighted to name his investment firm after it.

Theory R Properties is a west coast based investment firm that was founded in 2002 to focus on specific commercial property investments. Our strategy is to acquire and enhance unique mid-tier commercial properties ($10M to $100M) that require active management. Our capable and experienced staff directly manages the operations and improvements to all of our properties. We are 'active' not passive investors. This has resulted in increased income returns as well as significant property value appreciation.

The uniqueness of our properties is represented in ocean front, bay front, airport runway, or even unique acreage in prosperous communities such as Orange County, California; Malibu, California and Scottsdale, Arizona. We partner with the local communities with genuine interest in 'win win' scenarios for the community, our tenants and Theory R. Our philosophy is also to maintain low leverage reducing downside risk and lowering our borrowing costs. By applying our experience and expertise in active daily management of the properties, we increase the upside value and income levels of our investments. We are long term investors.

What separates us from other commercial property investment firms is our remarkably low administrative overhead, ability to negotiate and close on transactions quickly, and the absence of a 'purchase and flip' mentality. It is always our desire that the people we do business with recognize integrity in every transaction.

You can look at the other properties here > Theory R Properties

RENTV http://www.rentv.com/content/homepage/etcetc/news/20011

About RENTV.com
4/01/10
With its distinctive, branded style of reporting on the commercial real estate industry, RENTV has become one of the most trusted sources of industry news since its founding in 1998. It was launched by Steve Bloom, a broker in LA who had also worked for developers in NYC, who saw that the industry needed new, more exciting forms of media content. The company’s first product, launched in October 1998, was the RENTV.com web site, which has since grown to cover all of California, the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest, with separate sections for Retail, Multifamily, Finance and Property Management News. 

Q3 2015 Economic Development Newsletter Released

Yesterday the City of Mesa Office of Economic Development released its quarterly 8-page Economic Report.
Highlights include new openings and business developments at Riverview, Phoenix Mesa Gateway, Valley Metro Central Mesa Light Rail Extension, corporate and residential expansion at Mesa Fiesta District, college and university graduation and program updates, expansion of healthcare facilities, sports and tourism reports, a new travel app from VisitMesa, and report on Greater Phoenix global regional competitiveness and a trade mission to Mexico
You can read the whole newsletter with this link >
Q3 Mesa Office of Economic Development Newsletter

Although not mentioned in the Economic Reporter, Southwest Jet Center in an announcement on July 1st made a big investment in The Hangars at 5616 at the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Aerotropolis.
Readers may ask why your MesaZona blogger keeps including the word Aerotropolis in different posts; look for a future post on that subject.
More details about Southwest Jet Center will be forthcoming in a new and separate posting.

Here are some informative details about Severtson Corporation. It was created in 1986 in response to the US Air Force’s need to find both a quality optical coating and a uniform application process for the screens of their domed simulators.Demand for Severtson’s product soon had the company working for large corporations and military organizations in over 40 countries.In the early 1990’s a contract with IMAX Corporation brought Severtson Corporation into the cinema screen industry.In 2003 Severtson Corporation launched its own line of Home Theater/Pro Av screens with a basic fixed-frame screen and later expanded the line to include a screen for every need.Beginning in 2009 Severtson Corporation became a full-service cinema screen manufacturer.

The combined experience of building small home theater screens and large cinema screens has given Severtson Corporation the expertise to meet the needs of the Pro AV market for both professional indoor applications as well as large outdoor venues.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2011, Severtson Corporation continues to be a global leader in innovation and quality. The addition of a new facility with its state-of-the art robotic application system not only increases the company’s production capability, it also increases the number of screen sizes available to their clients.

From its unlikely origins in the family kitchen to today’s three modern production facilities, Severtson Corporation has remained committed to the principles of innovation and uncompromising quality that have made them who they are toda

You Tube Video of CEOToby Severtson Welcomes All to the Premier Showing of Into the Storm https://youtu.be/2WLsP9jXfv0

Mesa Company Digital Current #1 Enterprise SEO

From Itbusinessnet.com

Top Enterprise SEO Agencies Recognized by 10 Best SEO
MESA, Ariz. (PRWEB) June 29, 2015

A professional team specializing in online marketing, 10 Best SEO recently recognized some of the best enterprise SEO agencies on the web. 10 Best SEO specializes in choosing the most exclusive companies by taking in variables such as research, traffic and analytics in deciding the Leading Enterprise Search Engine Optimization Company. The top companies on 10 Best SEOs list are Digital Current, Boostability and SocialFix.

Image from LinkedIn

Number one on the list is Digital Current, based out of Mesa, Arizona. Working with this company is about finding the right strategy of flexibility and communication in order to accomplish SEO goals in creating content. In their efforts to provide the best enterprise search engine optimization solutions, Digital Current collaborates with their clients to find out what their ambitions are and then follows a plan to enrich their search to reach a target audience. They provide the best advice possible since they are up-to-date on content movements, which enables their clients to move ahead of their competition. Digital Current Website

Communication is also important to create close relationships and motivation in order to move forward in modifications and clarity. Boostability specializes in this and is the runner-up for the top spot on 10 Best SEOs list. It's important to know how to get people to visit a site even though the content is exceptional. Being a leading enterprise SEO agency, Boostability provides valuable advice for small businesses to gain visibility and results when optimizing their site. They offer a free consultation before starting the quest of getting high search engine rankings.

http://www.itbusinessnet.com/article/Leading-Enterprise-SEO-Agencies-Recognized-by-10-Best-SEO-3955820

Staff Image from Digital Current website

Digital Current is a performance-driven search marketing agency focused on driving revenue for our clients through an integrated customer acquisition marketing strategy. We specialize in SEO, PPC, Content Strategy, Conversion Optimization and Link Development.
Digital Current has grown from a two room strip-mall office to a staff of over 30 full-time marketing professionals. While the office space may have changed, Digital Current’s passion for innovation and commitment to uncompromising quality and superior results remains the same. Our mission is to develop lasting and strategic partnerships with our clients by delivering enduring results that maximize the return on their online marketing investment.
SEO, Search Engine Optimization, PPC, Content Marketing, Conversion Optimization, Link Development
Specialties: SEO, Link Development, Strategy & Planning, Content Development, Content Promotion, Conversion Optimization, SEM, Local Search, PPC  LinkedIn Company Profile

ArtPlace America > ArtSpace Mesa Lofts/Here in The New Urban Downtown Mesa

Image from artspace.org

Your MesaZona blogger did not have to be introduced to the idea of living downtown in a bona fide real neighborhood - there were many real and long-existing neighborhoods in all those cities - and artists sometimes living in the same building or just down the street - for a long time before I arrived. Nearly everything I needed could be found within about a 5-block area and that's within walking distance! Public transit was a matter of fact for decades, not soon-to-arrive.

In Washington D.C. it was Georgetown, in Philadelphia it was Logan Circle, in Boston it was The North End & Fort Point Channel Warehouse District, in New York City it was The Village & The Upper WestSide - here in Mesa it's "downtown".

I'm a refugee from NYC who left after the 9112001 World Trade Tower attacks who chose to live in downtown Mesa. This post is done today as a follow-up after reading an article from May 27, 2015 about downtown Mesa that was written about in Construction Reporter News

http://constructionreporternews.com/2015/05/27/artspace-promoting-housing-and-studios-for-artists-tackles-west/

Image from artspace.org

Mesa Artspace Lofts: Economic Impact for the Mesa and Valley Community

Starting in 2012, Artspace officials did a survey of over 650 artists [that's a lot of artists!] with 247 responding that they might be interested in living in Mesa; with that support, they entered into a dialogue with Mesa residents regarding what is now a planned 71,000 square-foot complex that will house 50 living units as well as 5,000 square feet of commercial space for nonprofit arts organizations and creative businesses, as well as 1,200 square feet of community space for events, exhibtions and educational programs. The estimated cost to build at the planned 155 South Hibbert Street location is $13.5 million. Entering into a development partnership with the Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation, Artspace hopes to begin construction of its Mesa site later next year.

Residential units will vary in type including studio, one-, two-, and three-bedrooms. Unit rents will serve households below 60% of area median income levels. 
The project is a TOD (Transit Oriented Development) site located one block from the new light rail corridor, major arts and culture assets and other downtown amenities.

Pre-development support:JP Morgan Chase and Local Initatives Support Corporation (LISC)

Programmatic support community partners: Mesa Arts Center and NEDCO

10 Years Ago Mesa Invested $98 Million in an Arts Center > Tool for Planning & Development

Well, it's more than that: Arts & Entertainment Center, Public Performance Space, Contemporary Art Museum, Studios and Classrooms, Offices, Lecture Halls, and Theaters - it's the largest in the State of Arizona and an International Design Award-winning venue, but what has that gigantic investment done to create economic development in close proximity from all the "foot traffic" of about a million visitors in downtown Mesa? . . .  they come for a couple of hours and then leave, right?
Scroll down below to take the time to watch this 12:01 YouTube video recorded from November of last year. Jamie Bennett works with ArtPlace America and addresses a questions like the one above and asks "Who are your artists?

ArtPlace America just recently announced

Call for Field Scan Research: Housing, Public Health, and Public Safety

Jun 25, 2015 By: Jamie Hand, Director of Research Strategies

Calling all cross-disciplinary researchers! Today marks ArtPlace's second open call for research consultants. We currently seek to commission three “field scans” that document and explore the relationship between arts and culture and the following community development sectors: Housing, Public Health, and Public Safety.  
Check out the full Call for Research Consultants for detailed information about the opportunity and instructions on how to apply. Submissions are due Thursday, August 6, 2015, and scans are expected...Read More

ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) is a ten-year collaboration among a number of foundations, federal agencies, and financial institutions that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities.

ArtPlace focuses its work on creative placemaking [a new phrase in the urban lexicon] which describes projects in which art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development that in the best of circumstances must be locally informed, human-centric, and holistic.

In practice, this means having arts and culture represented alongside sectors like housing and transportation – with each sector recognized as part of any healthy community; as requiring planning and investment from its community; and as having a responsibility to contribute to its community’s overall future.

In scanning the community planning and development field, we found five types of stakeholders working across ten sectors that, while not comprehensive, capture a majority of work taking place in communities: It's called the Community Development Matrix http://www.artplaceamerica.org/about/introduction#matrix

ArtPlace Community Development Matrix

It is ArtPlace's goal to demonstrate the unique value add that arts and culture can bring to each of the 50 cells of this matrix.The call in the June 25th announcement is focused on only three of the sectors.

In going back to the opening of this post, readers can begin to use this matrix as a reference point to what the Mesa Arts Center has contributed to the new urban downtown's future for both strong points and for areas in which more planning and getting results may be needed.

ArtPlace believes that successful creative placemaking projects do four things:

1. Define a community based in geography, such as a block, a neighborhood, a city, or a region
2. Articulate a change the group of people living and working in that community would like to see
3. Propose an arts-based intervention to help achieve that change
4. Develop a way to know whether the change occurred

Everyone's On Twitter > MAKE MESA WEIRDER????????

Image from Downtown Mesa Association

QUESTION: Is that what the residents of The New Urban Downtown Mesa want? . . . or just another public relations play on social media by certain individuals or an organization with an agenda of some kind?

Makes your MesaZona blogger wonder: 
Weirder than What?
When there's NO VISION from the Downtown Vision Committee more than three months after a six-month deadline to produce a vision, this is what people like the mayor and others occupy their time with!  
C'mon Let's Focus . . . what you see in the image to the left is far from weird - it looks more like an episode from The Twilight Zone, with a little patch of AstroTurf on the asphalt and NO PEOPLE > that's what your blogger finds weird.
Pardon me, but after millions of dollars spent on "redevelopment" and "live-ability" and "sustainability"  and "a vibrant and exciting downtown" this is what we've got to show for it?
It's not even fun goin' for the weird or trying to make Mesa weirder - it's a waste of time.

In this image shown time and time again here, readers of MesaZona blog can see what could be The New Urban Downtown Mesa.
Your blogger doesn't have the time for make Mesa weirder, but if you would like to enjoy Twitter comments,here are some of the people taking to Twitter to Make Mesa Weirder

• erin goodman on Twitter: "@MesaMayorOffice says artists ... 
• jamie bennett on Twitter: "Mayor @johngilestweet urges arts ... 
• Augie Gastelum on Twitter: "@johngilestweet & @sarmoti ... 
• jamie bennett (@sarmoti) | Twitter
• ArtPlaceAmerica (@ArtPlaceAmerica) | Twitter 
• terry benelli (@terrybmesa) | Twitter 
• Mayor John Giles (@MayorGiles) | Twitter