Epicenter of Industrial Development Shifts to Arizona

Earlier this year, as available sites for large new warehouses dwindled in the nation’s tightest industrial market in SoCal’s Inland Empire, GlobeSt. reported on a surge of industrial projects in Greater Phoenix led by California developers who planting their flags in Arizona.

Six months later, the influx of industrial development in the high-demand Phoenix market is coming from all directions.

Suburban Land Research, the real estate arm of the Mormon church in Salt Lake City, received approval this week from the Glendale, AZ City Council to build a 4.4M SF, $600M industrial park on a 273-acre site on Parkway 303 East.

The project, which envisions four warehouses each spanning 1.1M SF, is the latest massive industrial project to get the green light in Loop 303 corridor this year, an area that is emerging into one of the most active distribution hubs in the US.

The new development, in proximity to Luke Air Force base and several rail lines, is down the road from the 772K SF Woolf Logistics Center and a 916K SF distribution center anchored by Mark Anthony Brewery.

According to reports, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the nation’s top private landholders, with an estimated $16B in US properties, including nearly 16,000 parcels encompassing 1.7M acres.

Mormon real estate affiliates including Property Reserve, Suburban Land Reserve and Farmland Reserve have tracts of developable land across the country, including an estimate 2% of the landmass of Florida encompassing pasturelands around Orlando in an area known as Deseret Ranches, as well as hundreds of thousands of forested acres in the state’s Panhandle.

The church’s real estate portfolio includes office towers, shopping centers and residential skyscrapers as well as business and industrial parks, HJ News reports.

California real estate firms planting their flag in Arizona have included Overton Moore Properties, based in Torrance, CA. Overton has made a string of acquisitions in Buckeye and Glendale, including 303 Logistics, a speculative industrial building in Glendale.

Costa Mesa, CA-based Contour ramped up its portfolio expansion in Arizona with three industrial projects in the Valley totaling 3.6M SF. Contour acquired for $80M a 54-acre site in Buckeye, AZ for a 900K SF warehouse and received zoning approval from the City Council in Mesa, AZ for a 1.5M SF multi-building development on 112 acres that will be known as the Sossaman 202 Industrial Park.

In January, Contour announced it would build a second warehouse in Buckeye, a 1.5M SF facility that will be located on Apache Road.

Stos Partners, based in San Jose, planted its flag in the Phoenix market last year. Stos has made three industrial acquisitions in Greater Phoenix, including an all-cash deal for a 28,520 SF property.