Wells Fargo Signs Big Lease Deal

PHOENIX-Wells Fargo Bank has leased 70,000 sf and will be the anchor tenant in an office building recently completed in an area that has become a hotbed of office and industrial development.The bank is leasing more than half the Kitchell Metro Center, a 133,000-sf office building just north of Cactus Road at Interstate 17 in Phoenix. Wells will occupy the entire second floor of the two-story project, which was developed by Phoenix-based Kitchell Development Co.”The two main reasons why we chose this site are the large, 70,000-square-foot floor plate and the ability to expand as we need more space,” Leo J. Bauman, vice president of Real Estate for Well Fargo, tells GlobeSt.com. Bauman wouldn’t disclose terms of the new lease.The building’s design, by Tempe-based Will-Hayes, features tilt-up concrete walls with high-performance glass windows around the entire perimeter on both floors. The nearby Interstate 17 is one of the major thoroughfares crisscrossing metropolitan Phoenix. It is five miles south of Loop 101, which, when completed, will be a major east-west freeway.As the Loop 101 has neared completion, the area surrounding it has become increasingly popular with office and industrial developers. Several major corporations have occupied space in the area and Petsmart Inc., the pet retailer, recently built a new headquarters facility in the area.The northwest Phoenix submarket has become one of the tightest in the metro area. At the start of the third quarter the vacancy rate dropped to 7.5%, compared to 10.7% overall.