River Cities Business Journal: Construction

Compiled from staff reports and press releases

KINGMAN - A Scottish construction firm has been awarded a contract to build a new power plant in Mohave County.

The $48 million contract for the Black Mountain Generating Station on Yuma Road in Golden Valley has gone to Wood Power Group Solutions Inc., the American subsidiary of the Wood Group of Scotland. Construction is set to begin in September, and the plant is expected to come online in May 2008.

UniSource Energy Corp. has announced that the Black Mountain Power Plant will be a natural gas-fired “peaking plant,” with two combustion turbine units generating 45 megawatts (MW) each.

A peaking plant only is used when demand reaches the high point - or more - than conventional service systems can accommodate. The plants can produce power quickly, as soon as within 10 minutes, according to company officials.

Currently, UniSource secures power through a full-needs contract with Pinnacle West, a subsidiary of Arizona Power Service, but that contract comes to an end in 2008.

“We need to have facilities in place to serve our customers,” UniSource spokesman Joe Salkowsky said in a previous interview. “One of the things we're looking to develop is generating resources in Mohave County. The peaking units are part of the picture.”

Black Mountain will have minimal staffing. Salkowsky said the plant itself would be operated remotely from Kingman with a few people on hand for service and maintenance.

Website to boost

economic development

MOHAVE COUNTY - Businesses interested in researching the feasibility of relocating into Mohave County have a new high-tech tool.

The Mohave County Economic Development Division (MCEDD) has launched a website packed with research material, documents, statistics and links to information concerning this fifth-largest county in the United States, Deputy Director Jonas Peterson said March 5.

“The site can be reached by going to Mohave County's home page - http://www.co.mohave.az.us/ - and selecting ‘Departments,' then ‘Community and Economic Development,' and then ‘Economic Development,'” he said. “Or one could just go directly to: http://www.mohavedevelopment.org/

There are several specific-interest informational links on the site.

“The Economic Development Information Center (EDIC) link on the first page leads to a listing of close to 400 publications, boards, databases and websites organized under headers such as ‘Incentives,' ‘Buildings & Sites,' ‘Industry Clusters,' ‘Financing,' ‘Income Levels,' ‘Housing,' and more. These customized documents are designed to assist the marketing of our area and are user-friendly through the category and subcategory organization.”

Businesses seeking to relocate, local investors looking to launch or expand businesses and local residents and students seeking demographic and economic statistics will all be able to find useful information.

More than 300 Havasu homes up for foreclosure

LAKE HAVASU CITY - More than 300 Lake Havasu City homes are being foreclosed.

That's according to the Web site http://www.realtytrac.com, which shows 335 homes where owners have defaulted on their mortgage payments. The Web site shows the date the property will be sold at auction and minimum bid amounts.

It ranges from a $0 starting bid for a Cielo Drive home that goes to auction April 27 to more than $500,000 for a 3,200-square-foot golf-course home on Palmer Drive that will be sold in May.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported earlier this month that foreclosures nationwide climbed to 1.19 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006. That's an increase of 14 basis points from the third quarter of 2006.