(Read more on the industrial market.)

CASA GRANDE, AZ-A 105-acre tract has traded hands for $5.3 million. An area partnership plans to develop part of the land, predominately zoned light industrial, and sell the balance for $120,000 per acre.

One of the buyer's partners, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. in Tucson, is taking 10 acres to build a distribution facility. Kris Martin, senior associate with Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial LLC's Phoenix office, says the beverage company, a subsidiary of Purchase, NY-based PepsiCo., will break ground on 35,000 sf in the first half of 2008, but may add to its space in the future. The other partner, Arizona Land Group LLC of Phoenix, will horizontally develop the remaining acreage.

Martin brokered the land transaction for the buyer and the seller, Jim Pate of Casa Grande. Martin says a single user conceivably could build up to 1.3 million sf on the land. “We're marketing this to developers who want to take improved lots and go vertical or an end user who wants a build to suit,” he says. The land is being marketed by Grubb & Ellis/BRE senior vice president Ross Smith, first vice president Sandi Elmore and Martin.

Martin tells GlobeSt.com that improvements to the site will be completed by Q2 2008. “Not gutter and curbs, but improved sites,” he says. “Someone could potentially tap that property and break ground in the late second quarter on a new building.”

Although Casa Grande is south of the metro, its proximity along Interstate 10 means growth is heading in that direction. Martin points out that the only thing lying between Chandler, the metro's southernmost city, and Casa Grande is the Gila Indian Reservation. He blames lack of infrastructure as the reason that more activity hasn't yet occurred. “Sewers have been the biggest story down there,” Martin adds. “After speaking with the Casa Grande Economic Development Corp., we learned that users were looking for land, but none of the industrial land had those improvements.”

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