Duke Pencils 218,400-SF Office Plan on New Site

GILBERT, AZ-Duke Realty Corp. has paid $12.7 million for 19.4 acres to develop two spec office buildings, totaling 218,000 sf, and five acres of retail. El Dorado’s first phase is a 109,400-sf, three-story office building that will break ground in May.

The developer plans to deliver the first phase in March 2009. Michael Freret, senior vice president in Phoenix for the Indianapolis-based developer, says the second phase will be a twin, but its groundbreaking will be purely market driven.

Freret tells GlobeSt.com that Duke has an option with Ty LeSueur of Gilbert to buy another 20 acres just south of the site at Val Vista Drive and Willis Road. That land could support two more office buildings, each about 110,000 sf. “We’d like to eventually make that a four-building corporate destination,” Freret says.