Caterpillar is slated to bring 600 jobs to Arizona via the headquarters development. (JustGoodNewsBiz.com photo)

Sundt Construction is getting the go-ahead to start construction on a new $43 million division headquarters in Arizona for Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar's Surface Mining & Technologies division is to be based in Tucson at the base of A Mountain just west of Interstate 10.

Caterpillar is slated to bring 600 jobs to Arizona via the headquarters development, according to a Rio Nuevo spokesperson.

The Rio Nuevo Board — which oversees a voter-approved development district to bring jobs and investments to Tucson — has authorized finalization of a lease deal with Illinois-based Caterpillar.

The board has also approved actions to allow Sundt to move forward with the Caterpillar headquarters.

The Rio Nuevo group has paid $7 million to acquire the title to the property where the CSM&T base is going and is spending $4.8 million to clean up a landfill on the construction site.

Caterpillar would be a big boost to Tucson's corporate base which is much smaller than Phoenix. Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) has its missile division based in Tucson.

Caterpillar is one of the 30 stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Other blue-chip Dow companies with big Arizona footprints include UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC), American Express (NYSE: AXP), Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

Caterpillar's stock was trading at $104.86 in Wednesday action. The machinery, tractor, construction and mining equipment manufacturer's stock is up 13 percent so far this year, according to Google Finance.

Sundt is based in Tucson and has a big office in Tempe.

Mike Sunnucks writes about stocks and financial markets, real estate, government and sports business.

(Source: Phoenix Business Journal http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2017/06/14/construction-starting-on-43m-600-worker.html)

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