Construction crews have broken ground on a two-building, 233,479-square-foot speculative industrial project at 1401 South 52nd Street in Tempe, on a 13-acre site. Developed for a private institutional real estate client, the project is called the Buttes Commerce Center, and its builders are betting on strong demand from companies needing modern warehouse space close to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The City of Chandler identified Voya Financial's Tempe location as being at the Tech Center and said in a February 2019 announcement that the firm would cease operating there when its permanent operations center in Chandler opened, per the City of Chandler.
Now that aging flex park is giving way to Class-A industrial space, as reported by AZ Big Media. Ryan Companies US, Inc. was selected as general contractor on the project. Beau Brush, vice president of construction operations at Ryan Companies, said the project is building flexible industrial spaces prepared for tenant buildouts, adding that the buildings will be ready for incoming tenants to start buildouts without delay.
Built for Trucks, Power and Speed
The two buildings will offer more than 340 parking stalls, ESFR sprinkler systems, and premier HVAC systems, the AZ Big Media report notes. Clear heights will reach 32 feet, and each building will include more than 25 dock doors along with 3,000 amps of 277/480-volt electrical service. The project also features Portland cement concrete pavement truck courts engineered for high-volume trailer traffic and heavy axle loads.
Lee & Associates was selected by ownership to market and lease the project. Chris McClurg, principal at the firm, said Lee & Associates is excited to reposition the 13-acre site, and he said the Sky Harbor industrial market will welcome new buildings accommodating a variety of sizes. The site sits minutes from State Route 143, Interstate 10, U.S. Route 60 and Sky Harbor Airport, according to the same report.
A Tight Submarket Near the Airport
The timing lines up with a submarket that has little room to breathe. Industrial vacancy across the Tempe and Sky Harbor Airport submarket reached 7.5% at the end of the first quarter of 2026, according to Stevens-Leinweber. Asking rents for industrial space in the corridor ranged from $11.00 to $14.00 per square foot triple net in 2026, per Cubework, making it one of the pricier industrial submarkets in metro Phoenix. Investor appetite for specialized infill space has also been strong: a 20,401-square-foot building with an acre of dedicated yard near the airport sold for $6.1 million in a sale-leaseback, reflecting a submarket vacancy rate of 2.2% for those assets, according to Citywide Commercial Real Estate.
Metro-wide numbers tell a complementary story. Phoenix industrial vacancy compressed to 9.6% in the second quarter of 2026 as net absorption reached 4.7 million square feet and under-construction inventory climbed to 18.4 million square feet, Real Estate Daily News reported. At the same time, construction deliveries across the Valley are projected to fall nearly 50% year-over-year in 2026 to 9 million square feet, the lowest annual total since 2019, according to AZ Big Media. The Buttes Commerce Center is slated to deliver in 2027.
Part of a Wider Tempe Pattern
The Buttes Commerce Center is not the only aging Tempe office park being reimagined as industrial space. Panattoni Development Company submitted plans in February to demolish a 25-acre office campus at 2750 South Priest Drive to make way for 354,000 square feet of industrial and manufacturing space, Hoodline previously reported. Ryan Companies brings its own track record to the effort, having also developed the 186,000-square-foot 17 North Corporate Center in Phoenix's Deer Valley submarket.
Construction on the Buttes Commerce Center is now underway, with completion targeted for September 2027. Leasing inquiries can be directed to Chris McClurg, Ken McQueen, Blake Peters and Jack Sims at 602-956-7777.
