Orsett plans to start construction in the second half of the year on a 171,600-sf back-office project. The project is expected to be available for lease by early 2002. The Summit Venture Pinnacle Group, led by Barry Zemel, sold the land. The Phoenix office of Cushman & Wakefield, with brokers Bob Lundstedt and Ashley Brooks, negotiated the land sale and are handling the leasing of the back-office building.

Office and back-office projects have been flocking to the northeast Valley over the past three years, as more residential development has shifted in that direction and new freeways have opened up the area to convenient transportation.

Loop 101, which runs east and west through north Phoenix and Scottsdale and north/south along the eastern edge of Scottsdale, has attracted more office development, as sections have opened or have neared opening. The section of the Loop 101 that will connect Interstate 17 to Cave Creek Road, which is east of Seventh Street, is scheduled to be open by April 2001.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the office vacancy rate had dropped to 5.6% in that area, compared to an overall area vacancy rate of 9.75%. More than 400,000 sf of office space is under construction.

Orsett Properties is also putting up a 88,000-sf, two-story office building on a 5.7-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Seventh Street and the Loop 101 alignment. Completion is scheduled for the third quarter on the $9 million project. The company is also developing an 82,000-sf office project in Tempe, just west of Interstate 10 at the northwest corner of Baseline Road and Calle Los Cerros.