Dircks Moving & Logistics has signed a lease for 337,897 square feet of industrial space at 7210 W. Van Buren Street in Phoenix, a deal that pushes the company's total footprint in the city past 1 million square feet. The transaction was finalized in October and is set to begin operations in the first quarter of 2027.
The Arizona-based moving, storage and logistics company turned to Keyser, a national tenant-only commercial real estate advisory firm, to negotiate the lease. Keyser describes itself as one of the largest independent commercial real estate advisory firms of its kind in the United States, and its Exis global platform includes more than 600 advisors providing local-market expertise across major global markets, according to the same release. Dircks serves residential, commercial and corporate clients, supporting local, national and international moves.
Matt Dircks, president and CEO of Dircks Moving & Logistics, credited the brokerage team with smoothing the process. “Ryan and the team at Keyser were fantastic to work with,” he said, adding that they “did an outstanding job helping us throughout the entire process,” per the release announcing the deal.
Who Negotiated the Deal
Three Keyser representatives worked the transaction on Dircks' behalf: Managing Partner Jonathan Keyser, Partner and Industrial Practice Group Leader Ryan Steele, and Industrial Commercial Real Estate Advocate Dimitri Anagnostopoulos. Steele, who leads the firm's industrial practice, said current supply conditions in the market are creating openings for tenants and that elevated inventory has given renters more leverage in lease negotiations. He added that he believes the market offers companies a window to reassess their real estate strategies, framing the moment as a buyer's advantage even as the broader Southwest Valley works through a wave of new construction and available space. Keyser's release also characterizes Arizona's long-term economic fundamentals as strong.
A Crowded Submarket
The Van Buren Street deal lands in a Southwest Valley industrial market that has drawn a string of large tenants this year. Real Estate Daily News reported that Atkinson Industries leased 392,000 square feet at 17450 W. Minnezona Avenue and Southland Industries leased 317,000 square feet at 9602 W. Indian School Road, both in the same submarket, while Real Estate Daily News also noted Magna Steyr USA's 405,000-square-foot renewal and expansion at 7035 E. Pecos Road in the Southeast Valley. The outlet put Southwest Valley leasing activity at roughly 4.8 million square feet in the third quarter, or about half the metro-wide total, even as the submarket posted negative net absorption of approximately 135,000 square feet — its first negative quarter in more than a decade, by that outlet's account.
Conflicting Readings on Vacancy and Construction
Just how tight or loose the broader Phoenix industrial market is depends on who is measuring it. YourValley put the metro's third-quarter vacancy rate at 11.5%, down 180 basis points year over year, while Cushman & Wakefield reported a 10.3% vacancy rate, a 300 basis point annual decline. CBRE's figures showed vacancy at 9.7%, up 10 basis points for the quarter but down 150 basis points from a year earlier, and Real Estate Daily News cited two separate figures of its own — 9.7% in one report and 9.5% in another, the latter compared against 13.2% a year prior.
Leasing volume estimates diverge just as widely. YourValley recorded 7.6 million square feet of leasing activity for the quarter, Cushman & Wakefield counted 8.3 million square feet, and Real Estate Daily News put the figure at 9.6 million square feet. Net absorption estimates ranged from CBRE's 1.59 million square feet to Real Estate Daily News' JLL-sourced 3.2 million square feet, YourValley's 2.9 million square feet and Cushman & Wakefield's 4.0 million square feet. On construction, Cushman & Wakefield reported 20.5 million square feet underway at quarter's end, while Real Estate Daily News put the pipeline at 21.1 million square feet, up 12.5% from the prior quarter and 85% from a year earlier. CBRE reported that average asking rents climbed 9.0% year over year.
Those competing snapshots underscore the uncertainty Keyser's own team pointed to when discussing tenant leverage, even as individual deals like the one Dircks just signed keep moving forward. For Dircks, the math is simpler: another 337,897 square feet in Phoenix, and a footprint that now tops 1 million square feet citywide, with the new space scheduled to come online in early 2027.
