Pfeffer Development: firm keep busy in Alaska, outside.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: BUILDING ALASKA

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Pfeffer Development, an Anchorage commercial real estate development firm, is continuing to export niche know-how to municipalities in the Lower 48 while keeping busy with a handful of medical and retail projects in Anchorage, the Matanuska Valley and Fairbanks.

Nearly two years after Venture Development Group LLC was re-branded as Pfeffer Development, Mark Pfeffer's firm using the talent from Venture's run, he points out continues to be a force in the local construction scene and beyond. Pfeffer's emphasis, he said, will remain on development activities.

Venture Development Group was for many years a notable collaboration between Pfeffer, who remains a kpb architects principal, and Neeser Construction's Jerry Neeser. The group was responsible for a litany of projects, including development and construction of a comprehensive rental car center at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, completed in 2007.

BREAKING NEW GROUND

Pfeffer describes the $62.8 million airport auto rental facility in Anchorage as the first of its kind in the private sector that is, the first U.S. rental car center built by a limited liability company under contract to rental car companies as individuals, rather than built by an airport as a capital improvement project. Pfeffer Development has since been invited by auto rental industry representatives to consult in other airport auto rental facility projects, first in Seattle and then in Austin, Texas.

In 2006, rental car agencies hired the firm to help facilitate the successful progression of the Sea-Tac Consolidated Rental Car Center development. After several years of challenges that threatened to stall the project, Pfeffer Development was able to assist the rental car agencies and the Sea-Tac Airport by working through negotiations to reach development resolutions.

The Austin project would be similar to Anchorage's AS the facility is located next to the terminal. As of late summer, the feasibility study phase approved by Austin's city council had been completed, and the final pricing and negotiations phase, which also was approved, was advancing. The Austin project would accommodate vehicles, fueling stations and car washes. If approved for the delivery phase, the project would commence in 2011 and be completed in 2013.

SERVICE ENVIRONMENT FOCUS

At Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, the four-story, 618,000-square-foot facility across from the South Terminal, which has more...