Evergreen Devco Inc., a prominent developer in the retail and industrial sectors, has purchased a 12.68-acre infill site in Tempe for a robust $13 million, as part of its strategic expansion within its industrial business line. The parcel, located at the southeast corner of 48th Street and Alameda Drive, was announced by the company to soon be transformed into a high-end industrial park dubbed Tempe 48, or 48th @ Alameda.
The initiative will mark the redevelopment of a currently vacant two-story office building and an auxiliary parking lot into two speculative industrial buildings and sizable outdoor storage space. Despite the challenges inherent in such projects, the company seeks to directly fulfill market demands, particularly for potential tenants desiring grade level rather than dock-high loading. "Oftentimes you see industrial developers will put up buildings without really carefully examining where the bulk of the demand is," Brian Dietz, Evergreen's vice president of industrial development, told ABC15.
The planned demolition of the existing building is already underway with construction expected to commence between late September and October this year. This new industrial campus, featuring 171,025 square feet of indoor and 65,578 square feet of outdoor storage space, promises to cater to the needs of small to medium-sized tenants. The strategic location in the Airport submarket of Phoenix bolsters the project's potential, highlighted by a low vacancy rate of just 3.9% compared to the valley-wide average of 10.1%, as reported by CBRE.
Evergreen Devco is not new to deftly navigating the industrial property market. They have initiated the industrial business line back in 2021 and have been to systematically expand its portfolio with developments like The Landing at Falcon Field in Mesa and a 9.4-acre site in Surprise. "We believe it to be small to medium-sized tenants that may need some outdoor storage component to store equipment, trailers or raw materials," said Dietz, emphasizing the targeted clientele for the project, as per a statement obtained by ABC15.
The company is not only banking on the structural aspects of the development but also on the location's high accessibility and neighboring amenities. These include proximity to the Los Angeles Angels spring training facility, class A office park, the Marriott Phoenix Resort Tempe at the Buttes, the I-10 freeway, and Sky Harbor International Airport. “48th @ Alameda is the perfect redevelopment conversion from an outdated, functionally obsolete office building to a first class, institutional quality, multi-tenant industrial project,” Jim Wilson of Cushman & Wakefield, who is listing the project for sale or lease, told AZ Big Media.
