Orsett Properties Ltd., a Wellesley, MA-based firm, is developing Foothills Vista, a mixed-use project at the southeast corner of 48th Street and Chandler Boulevard. The project is just west of Interstate 10. To date, five sales, totaling 5.6 acres, have been completed. The recent pad site sales carry a value of $3.27 million.

Orsett purchased the acreage in 1999. Intown Suites, a limited service hotel chain, has built a hotel on the site and Phillips Petroleum has built a convenience store gas station on a pad toward the intersection of 50th Street and Chandler Boulevard. Others buying pads include Arizona Del Restaurants, which is building a Del Taco; Waffle House Inc., which is putting in a Waffle House; and Desert Star Properties LLC, which is building a Carl's Jr. Construction on those three restaurants is expected to begin immediately, with openings set for year-end.

A sit-down restaurant is in escrow for another parcel and should be signed by summer's end, says Ron Ault, a retail development specialist and senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis. Ault and broker Dave Newquist, also of CB Richard Ellis' Phoenix office, represent Orsett in the sale of the pads.

A 12,000-sf, multi-tenant retail building that Orsett built, which is half occupied by a Hooter's Restaurant, will be matched by another one of similar size. Construction is set to get under way immediately.

Meanwhile, a retail anchor is having 41,000 sf developed on the site. The retailer's identity will be revealed in a few weeks, says Sid Montague, Orsett's senior vice president. Some pads have sold for as much as $20 per sf, he says.

Wal-Mart was originally to have been the anchor tenant, but the city balked at the idea. Nevertheless, Orsett thought the parcel couldn't fail.

"It was a great location," Montague says. "There isn't any property available on the west side of the freeway. The demographics are great. There are something like 103,000 people living within a five-mile radius that earn $90,000 per household. What's not to like." At build-out, the project will have 140,000 sf.

Orsett recently has completed a 103,000-sf flex office building on the southern half of the parcel. The building has two signed tenants, totaling 20,000 sf, and another lined up for 3,500 sf, Montague says. The space is leasing for $12 per sf, with a $20 per sf tenant improvement budget.

In October, Orsett plans to begin construction on an 88,000-sf, two-story office building at the northeast corner of the parcel, near 48th Street, Montague tells GlobeSt.com.