McCarthy Building Cos. Breaks Ground on 12-Acre Training Campus in Tempe
St. Louis-based contractor McCarthy Building Cos. has broken ground on a 12-acre training campus in Tempe, Arizona, aimed at developing leadership and technical skills across its workforce, Construction Dive reports.
Market Impact
McCarthy announced the project on Aug. 12, following its January purchase of a former hotel and convention site in Tempe. The renovated complex, called the McCarthy Anchor Campus, will span 171,030 square feet across 13 buildings and serve the firm’s 8,000 craft and salaried employees nationwide. Renovations are expected to take about 16 months, according to R.J. Morris, McCarthy’s senior vice president of the Anchor Campus, who spoke with Construction Dive.
The campus will include flexible classrooms, breakout spaces, wellness amenities and adaptable outdoor areas. McCarthy has hired hospitality management firm Pyramid Global Hospitality to run the facility. The company already operates an Innovation and Craft Workforce Center in Chandler, Arizona, focused on hands-on training for craft professionals. “The McCarthy Anchor Campus builds on our existing learning and development programs by creating new opportunities for employees across the country to come together to learn, collaborate and develop new skills in one dedicated space,” Morris said.
The investment lands amid a broader industry push into self-funded trades training. Meta launched a $115 million America’s Workforce Academy in June geared toward skilled-trades training for data center jobs, and followed up with an apprenticeship partnership with North America’s Building Trades Unions. Google separately committed $50 million to support labor unions and training centers.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Craft-labor training is increasingly happening in-house at GCs like McCarthy, which subcontractors should watch as a signal that large firms expect to source more skilled labor internally rather than relying solely on outside trade schools or union halls.
- Subcontractors in Arizona, particularly around Tempe and Chandler, may find partnership or training-collaboration opportunities with McCarthy given the firm’s growing regional footprint and its existing Innovation and Craft Workforce Center in Chandler.
- With the Anchor Campus targeting completion in roughly 16 months (mid-2027), subcontractors bidding on renovation work, including guest room buildouts, demolition and conference center construction, should track McCarthy’s subcontract packages as the design-build project progresses.
- The scale of corporate investment in trades training, including Meta’s $115 million and Google’s $50 million initiatives, suggests subcontractors should position their own crews for potential tie-ins with these employer-backed apprenticeship and training programs as they expand into construction and data center trades.
