By Gary Nelson for East Valley Tribune
One of the last big empty pieces of land near Chandler Fashion Center may not be empty much longer.
A family-owned company called VanTrust Real Estate LLC is asking the city for permission to build a large mixed-use complex on the southeast corner of Chandler Boulevard and Price Road, just east of the shopping center. The project is called Chandler 101.
The City Council will consider the rezoning request on September 12th.
Since the shopping center opened in 2001, adjacent tracts have filled in with offices, apartments, hotels and retail. But the 20-acre, L-shaped former industrial site to the east has remained vacant since 2006, when a defunct industrial plant there was leveled.
The zoning request currently on the table would refine a plan originally approved under different ownership in 2009, during the depths of a recession that hammered the development industry.
The 2009 zoning allowed for up to 820KSF of office space, 24.4KSF for retail/restaurant use, a hotel and a conference center.
The biggest change under the new proposal is the addition of 200 apartment units in the southeast corner of the site. The conference center is no longer being considered and some of the other square-footage allowances have been tweaked.
The developers envision a clear separation between the commercial and residential areas. Under their proposal, vehicular access to the apartments will be from Coronado Street on the east and south, rather than from Price Road or Chandler Boulevard. A pedestrian path will link the residential and commercial portions.
In a nod to potential developments in the auto industry, the developers asked the city to allow fewer parking places than normal “due to … the expected long-term impacts of ride-sharing services and the advent of autonomous vehicles.”
And rather than submit a specific site plan, they are asking for entitlements within certain ranges — buildings up to eight stories, for example, and up to 600KSF of office space. Specifics will come later.
Read more at East Valley Tribune.