By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
After receiving multiple inquiries over the years from site selectors looking for large sites for future employment centers, and having few options to present to them, Pima County is advancing an Area Specific Plan that could fuel major economic development activity in the years to come.
Pima has several areas and specific properties it owns and leases for various types of economic development activities—including downtown urban space, interstate-adjacent office and industrial properties—and the 500-acre Aerospace Research Campus intended for aerospace, technology and research and development uses.
In the 1970s, the County acquired approximately 3,000 acres south of Interstate 10 and Houghton Road from the Arizona State Land Department. That space currently features the Pima County Fairgrounds and the Southeast Regional Park, which largely consists of other recreational uses and undeveloped desert.
Site selectors for major employment centers and similarly scaled projects have asked about properties of between 100 and 400 acres over the years. The ARC has several planned and existing users for aerospace and defense applications, and there is no longer land available for major relocation and development.
As far back as 2016, County administrators and economic development staff began working on plans within the SERP to use vacant land to satisfy those types of projects’ requirements. Pima County documents say, “This master planning effort has been identified as the Southeast Employment and Logistics Center. Initial SELC master planning efforts included identification of conceptual development blocks, utility and infrastructure capacity needs to make the site a functional commercial and industrial center.”
Benefits the County is touting for SELC include:
- Proximity to major roads and freeways, as well as Union Pacific Railroad connections;
- Planned and existing access to other major area employers;
- Support from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for compatible commercial uses;
- Proximity to wastewater and sewer connectivity;
- Land-use flexibility for large and small project development needs, and
- The ability for ASLD to include SELC in its planning process, since the Center is surrounded by ASLD land.
Southeast Employment & Logistics Center Specific Plan Phase 1
This week, the Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission will meet to consider the Southeast Employment & Logistics Center Specific Plan Phase 1.
Phase 1 covers slightly more than 290 acres at the NEC of the plan area west of Houghton Road, east of Harrison Road and north of the East Brekke Road alignment. This section is constrained by the Air Force base’s operational needs, so residential uses are prohibited, as are some other operations like schools, hospitals, hazardous chemical storage and water treatment facilities.
Working in partnership with Kimley-Horn & Associates, the County has put together detailed assessments of the location’s condition and estimated impacts and requirements for various possible development scenarios.
The team has identified two primary use sets: office/business center and light industrial. To illustrate how those ideas could be implemented, it has produced three conceptual plans.
The first concept shows how data centers could be developed under a light industrial plan. The illustrative use shows 10 220KSF data center halls and two logistics and administrative building spaces of unidentified sizes.
The second plan shows biomedical research and development uses combined with manufacturing and warehouse spaces. This concept features 1.2MSF across eight buildings ranging from 50KSF to 300KSF.
The final concept shows 2.05MSF of possible warehouse, light industrial and office/business park uses spread over nine buildings of between 70KSF and 600KSF.
Each conceptual plan shows the landscape buffer area, utility and road easements, proposed improvements and estimated traffic volumes, all of which are presented in extensive detail in the body of the planning document.
While the documentation is presented only in support of the 290-acre Phase I component currently under evaluation, the County estimates the entire SELC could manage sites of more than 500 acres and up to 21MSF of industrial uses with up to 420KSF of commercial space.
