New home coming for Sunday business coverage

Reminder: Beginning Jan. 11, local business coverage, includingComings & Goings, will have its own section.

As part of the change, Friday's local agriculture coverage will move to the Sunday business section.

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Plans just keep coming into the city of Yuma's Development Services Department, reports John Curts, assistant director for economic development.

He described the projects as "just everything." Housing accounts for about one-fourth of the activity and the remainder is commercial.

One particularly busy segment has been the health care segment. Construction of the Yuma Regional Medical Center addition continues, and a variety of medical offices and facilities are springing up, such as the dialysis center under construction by Gambro's on the north side of 24th Street opposite 21st Drive.

There's also the construction of ProMed, a professional and medical plaza being developed by Jacobson Companies across 24th Street from the hospital. It will include four three-story buildings of about 50,000 square feet each, a parking building and a restaurant site. The first phase is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2004.

Also, things continue to move forward for Yuma Palms Regional Shopping Center. The Design Review Committee has approved plans for Dillard's and JCPenney, two major tenants for the project. And on Jan. 20, the committee is slated to consider plans for the shopping center's theater complex as well as Furniture Row, which intends to build a four-furniture store complex on Redondo Drive.

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A new corporate building for Western Newspapers Inc. is in the works. Design plans are being completed and construction is expected to begin the first quarter, with a move-in target date of October 2004, said Blake DeWitt, second vice president of the company.

The 7,200-square-foot building will be at 1740 S. Arizona Ave. That will be conveniently near a couple of the company's clients. It also will provide more space for the growing company, which will be the sole occupant.

Western Newspapers, which is currently located at 290 S. 1st Ave., publishes a number of newspapers around Arizona and the region. Don Soldwedel is chairman of the board for the company, and his son, Joe, is president.

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Report Comings & Goings to business@yumasun.com or call Business Editor Joyce Lobeck at 539-6853.