E&V Investments LLC purchased a 23-acre site, at the southwest corner of Washington Street and 86th Avenue in the Tolleson Commerce Park, for $1.4 million. Tolleson is approximately 15 miles west of downtown Phoenix.

The development group plans to begin construction in April on the first phase of the project, a 225,000-sf distribution building. Tri-Paper, a Phoenix-based masking paper manufacturer, has pre-leased 80,000 sf in the first phase. The project offers rail service.

Westpac Construction is the general contractor on the project, and Dickinson Architects Inc. is designing the building.

The second phase of the building will be a 175,000-sf distribution building.

The Tolleson area has been one of the most active for development of massive distribution and warehouse projects over the past year. At the start of the fourth quarter, more than one million sf was under construction, on top of the 1.2 million already completed during the year.

Tolleson, along with Goodyear and the west Phoenix area, has become the location for large distribution and warehouse projects. The area has advantages: plenty of available land and at prices much lower than just about anywhere else in the Valley, development-friendly municipalities, convenient access to Interstate 10 and Interstate 17 and rail service. The vacancy rate for industrial space at the start of the fourth quarter in west Phoenix, which has an existing inventory of more than 14 million sf, was 5.46%, according to a study by CB Richard Ellis, compared to an overall vacancy rate of 7.69%.

The Phoenix office of Southwest Commercial Brokerage represented the buyer in the transaction, while the Phoenix office of DAUM Commercial Real Estate Services represented the land seller.