By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
Every construction and development news outlet in the state – AZBEX included – that includes the East Valley as part of its coverage has devoted an extreme number of column inches to Mesa’s colossal pace of industrial development this year.
Note that I said “extreme,” rather than “excessive.” When one city adds more than 20MSF to planned developments in one sector in the span of six months, it is difficult-to-impossible to overstate the impact.
As I was hunting around for ideas for this issue’s front page, our DATABEX Manager sent me a message that I might want to take yet another look at Mesa industrial. I was hesitant, at first, since I just did a market recap a couple months ago (AZBEX, October 19th) and reported another major project a couple weeks after that (AZBEX, November 12th). My reluctance disappeared when she told me she was adding yet another 3MSF in new projects this week’s updates.
A Look at the Newcomers
Four new arrivals flew onto our Mesa industrial radar this week. Following is a brief overview of the Who, What and Where as we know them.
Warner Gateway 202, as proposed by Scannell Properties, will put nine new buildings with 1.78MSF of warehouse space and 94KSF of office area on 123 acres of a 163-acre site at the SWC of Ellsworth and Warner roads. The remaining acreage is divided into two parcels that will be used for a future build-to-suit development and a future retail/commercial project. Multiple points of entry are planned on both Warner and Ellsworth, with most truck traffic oriented toward Warner and most employee and other traffic directed to Ellsworth.
Ryan Companies is requesting approval for the Confluence at Mesa Gateway Phase II development. Phase I, totaling 516KSF across six buildings, is currently under construction at Ray and Ellsworth roads. Phase II would add three buildings – two of 108.8KSF and one of 135KSF – all with 32-foot clear heights.
Ray Road and 71st Street Industrial is a proposed new +/-210KSF speculative project from Phelan Development Corporation for five industrial shell buildings in the Ray Road Commerce Center. Planned building sizes are 54KSF, 52KSF, 47KSF and two of 29KSF each. The final uses will be determined by the eventual tenants, but the project will feature screened truck courts that can accommodate vehicles ranging from large semi-trucks to in-town vehicles, “making the appeal to a variety of potential tenants for showroom, manufacturing and warehousing.”
Gateway Interchange Business Park from EastGroup Properties will, if built as intended, deliver 655.4KSF across seven buildings on 50.3 gross acres along Hawes Road at Loop 202. Planned building sizes range from 53.3KSF up to 111.7KSF. The buildings’ linear designs are intended “to ensure they can be flexibly combined or subdivided to accommodate a wide range of potential businesses wishing to locate and potentially grow within the business park,” according to the submitted project narrative.
The 2021 2nd Half Pipeline
In addition to the more than 3.25MSF of new project space proposed above, DATABEX has added 20* other industrial projects in Mesa in the second half of 2021. Interestingly, only three of those were added in Q3. All the rest have come along since October 1st.
As was the case in our October 19th report, the 85212 ZIP Code continues to be ground zero for proposed industrial developments, making up 15 of the 20 projects submitted in the second half.
Those 20 projects, taken together, total $2.5B in project valuation and 19.4MSF in planned building space – for an average project size of $125.3M and 971.6KSF.
Since the average-sized project for the second half would easily warrant its own free-standing article covering the project details, perhaps it’s not hard to understand and justify all those column inches after all.
