Discount Tire, which has about 1,300 employees in Arizona, is having a new headquarters built at the northeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Thompson Peak Parkway. Construction is set to begin in August, with Discount expected to move in by October 2002. Opus West is developing the project for Discount Tire and will own the building, which is near the Grayhawk residential community.

The tire and wheel retailer and service center, which operates 450 stores nationwide, wanted to keep its main headquarters in Scottsdale, says Bob Holman, executive vice president. The new headquarters will initially house 250 employees.

Discount Tire's headquarters currently is located in Scottsdale Airpark, which is about three miles south of the proposed site. Last year, the company had considered a site at Bell Road and the Loop 101, but dropped the plans in the wake of neighborhood opposition.

With plans to double in size over the next decade, Discount Tire has purchased the land adjacent to the site for future expansion. With the development, Discount Tire is following a well-worn path of office development in Scottsdale. During the current boom, more new office construction has occurred in Scottsdale than in any other area of the Valley. Nearly 40 new office projects have been developed in the past five years. Scottsdale now has an inventory of approximately 10 million sf and it closing in quickly on Phoenix CBD's 14.5 million sf.