EMDR Therapy in Buckeye, AZ

JLL announced today that Parklane Development Group and Miramar Industrial Partners have completed Southern Industrial Center, an award-winning, 1.2 million-square-foot, speculative Class A industrial project located at the southeast corner of Southern Avenue and Apache Road in Buckeye, Arizona.

Marc Hertzberg, John Lydon and Kelly Royle from the Phoenix Office of JLL are the project’s exclusive leasing brokers. Graycor Construction Company served as the project’s design-build partner and Ware Malcomb is the project architect. Development partners include DWS and Westpine Partners (along with original co-developer, Contour). Bank OZK is the construction lender for the project.

“Southern Industrial Center is a reflection of our highly collaborative development, construction and leasing teams,” said Parklane Development Group Chief Executive Officer Ted Fentin. “This project aligns well with market and industry trends. It also sits within a strong labor market, with well-positioned access to regional and interstate highways. It will make the right tenant a very successful home.”

Totalling 1.2 million square feet in a single warehouse and logistics facility, Southern Industrial Center features 40-foot clear height, 202 sectional overhead dock doors, four drive-through dock doors, reinforced speed bays and parking for 914 autos and 250 trailers.

“Southern Industrial Center was designed uniquely for e-commerce, warehouse and logistics tenants seeking space in one of the fastest growing cities – and industrial markets – in the U.S.,” said Royle. “Now completed, it gives interested tenants a tremendous speed-to-occupancy advantage in a metro market that year-to-date has recorded 13 million square feet of leasing activity.”

Winner of the WESTMARC 2023 Best of the West award, Southern Industrial Center is located near the geographic center of Buckeye, which is consistently ranked by the U.S. Census Bureau as one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. The project offers direct accessibility to Arizona State Route 85 and Interstate 10, placing it within a day’s drive to Southern California’s ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

To reduce the overall carbon footprint, Graycor fabricated the project’s precast panels on site from locally sourced concrete suppliers, incorporated highly reflective TPO roof systems and installed desert landscaping with intelligent irrigation controls. Clerestory windows maximize interior natural light and reduce energy consumption, and shade canopies help to reduce heat gain in the interior environment.

In Phoenix, JLL is a market leader employing more than 527 of the region’s most recognized industry experts offering office, industrial, retail, healthcare and data center brokerage, tenant representation, facility and investment management, capital markets, multifamily investments and development services, and related services within the real estate leasing, investment and management process. In 2022, the Phoenix team completed almost 115 million square feet in lease and sale transactions, with a total transaction volume of more than $11.4 million, and directed $180 million in project management.

PHOENIX — A fire at a recycling plant in downtown Phoenix near 7th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road is now under control and crews are beginning to clear the scene, Phoenix fire officials said. Dark clouds of smoke were visible in the sky throughout the Valley.

Crews with the Phoenix Fire Department were called to the fire in the three-story building around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. 50 fire vehicles and 70 firefighters battled the fire, officials said.

The Phoenix Fire Department said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

The fire was a three-alarm fire, Phoenix fire officials said. A third alarm fire refers to the classification of the size of the fire and the resources required to fight it.

Multiple roads were closed while crews battled the blaze.

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The Buckeye City Council is talking about a potential new City Hall.

The topic was discussed during the workshop ahead of the regular City Council meeting on Tuesday evening. It's a discussion that is only kicking off and will likely continue in the coming years, said Deputy City Manager Dave Roderique. That's because the city's two primary office locations — City Hall and Sundance Crossings — are almost completely full are almost completely full and will need to make room for more staff.

The city's staff nearly doubled in the past 10 years from about 420 to 800. Early next year, 130 employees will be moved into a new building with room for 220 people on Verrado Way and Roosevelt Street.

But that will only temporarily alleviate the problem for the next 5 to 7 years, and the city's workforce is expected to continue to grow, Roderique said. That means the city needs to address whether it wants to construct a new City Hall and whether it wants a single facility or multiple locations.

Several options are currently being considered to permanently alleviate the issue. While building a new City Hall is one of them, the city could redesign its current facilities to maximize the existing space. But that tends to be expensive and is estimated to cost about $4.5 million for the current building, Roderique said.

Other options include leasing additional spaces or building specialized facilities, such as a separate building for public safety. The city could also switch to more remote work schedules or potentially expand the current City Hall building, which would likely be very expensive.

"Those all appear to be short-term, kind of Band-Aid solutions. The long-term solution, we believe, would be to build a new City Hall complex," Roderique said.

Councilmember Jeanine Guy said she is in favor of leaving the downtown area but questioned how much residents may want to prioritize a new City Hall when the city has other infrastructure concerns. Councilmember Patrick HagEstad said he would like to see a new City Hall that is more centrally located and easier for all residents to get to.

Councilmember Clay Goodman said the fact that the City Hall will be the first impression for interested developers should be factored into the decision. The City Hall should also be located outside of the downtown area for convenience, Goodman said.

Learn more about AZ cities and Buckeye:Phoenix-area mayors share their city secrets. Check out these 5 hidden gems

Vice Mayor Michelle Hess said she likes the idea of a sort of hybrid, where there would be one centralized location for the City Council and smaller satellite locations for basic services such as paying bills. Mayor Eric Orsborn said that, in terms of a location, he thinks the main one should be somewhere along the Interstate 10 corridor because it would offer visibility and offer similar transportation to residents who are far north and far south. Some of the council members suggested a spot between Miller Road and Sun Valley Parkway.

When asked whether the city should start the process now or consider other short-term solutions, Councilmember Craig Heustis said the process probably should have been started five years ago. The project is only in its beginning stages, meaning it could take another five years to complete, Heustis said.

And the longer the city waits, the less land is going to be available, making the short-term step of acquiring the site a very important next step, Roderique said.

There's also the option of developing the new City Hall as a part of a public-private partnership, similar to how Goodyear is developing its GSQ area downtown. Councilmember Tony Youngker said that, while he wants to make sure the area isn't only trendy for the moment and will be functional in the coming decades, it would be nice to have something else in the area, such as museums or parks.

Reach the reporter at ahardle@gannett.com or by phone at 480-259-8545. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @AlexandraHardle.

Opinion: Policy changes may have cut off a ton of homebuilding, but that doesn't mean the land will remain vacant — or use less groundwater.

Tartesso, a giant development taking shape in Buckeye, has nixed more than 6,000 housing units from its plans.

Its developers recently got the city’s green light to convert 1,280 acres from future residential to commercial uses.

As The Arizona Republic’s Alexandra Hardle reports, that could pave the way for “anything from offices to health care facilities to restaurants.”

It also could include light industrial uses, though heavy manufacturing would be forbidden.

Water rules are set up for housing

That might sound like great news.

Fewer people, less water use, right?

Not necessarily.

Arizona’s Assured Water Supply Program was created decades ago to ensure that new users have secured enough water for the long haul, before they build.

But it operates on the premise that housing — particularly that in subdivisions — is the primary driver of growth.

That’s changing.

With housing paused, growth is changing

Yes, metro Phoenix still has major pent-up demand for housing.

But it also is now a top market nationwide for industrial development, particularly now that TSMC is building a giant semiconductor plant in north Phoenix.

Companies that require big swaths of undeveloped land are being funneled to the outskirts, where there is still room to build.

Yet unlike metro Phoenix’s other more built-out cities, areas like Buckeye have not earned an assured water supply designation — meaning they have not proven that they have enough water to support existing and future users for the long haul.

Meanwhile, it’s gotten a lot harder to plan a subdivision in these undesignated areas, after a groundwater model earlier this year found unmet demand and the state said that they could no longer build on those non-renewable supplies.

Other uses could still build on groundwater

It’s no wonder that developers were eager to nix some of Tartesso’s future housing space and pursue other uses instead.

They need to make money. Plus, there’s a market for other uses.

And make no mistake: If Tartesso manages to trade 6,000 homes for jobs and services, elected leaders would be loudly touting that investment, not questioning its water use.

Think again:Most subdivisions are not growing on groundwater

But there is a tradeoff here.

Had those homes materialized under the old rules, they would have been required to prove they had enough water for the long haul.

They also would have likely joined a district that replenishes the groundwater they use, albeit not necessarily from where it’s pumped.

Because, again, those homes would have been built in subdivisions, and subdivisions are what drive the provisions in the Assured Water Supply Program.

It's time to level the playing field

If other uses take their place outside a subdivision in undesignated areas like Buckeye, they could still potentially build on groundwater, without having to prove the strength of their supplies or ever having to replenish what they withdraw.

And that could come back to bite us. Hard.

Growth may be changing but the rules have not, squeezing one part of the industry while others continue unchecked.

No policy change will completely halt construction, even if some readers wish it would. To paraphrase “Jurassic Park,” growth will find a way.

But it’s in our best interest to ensure all uses — be it a for-sale home in a subdivision or a data center on a single lot — prove they have enough water to sustain their presence over time.

Tartesso is just the latest case in point.

Reach Allhands at joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @joannaallhands.

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The couple put down $30,000 to secure what they thought was their dream home, but backed out due to concerns about the house's water supply.

BUCKEYE, Ariz. — Pete and Judy Dorazio thought they'd found their dream retirement home.

The couple lives in California, but with the area becoming more and more expensive, they wanted to move to a place where their money would stretch further.

The Dorazios thought they found it in Sun City Festival, on the North end of Buckeye, Arizona.

While visiting friends who lived there, the Dorazios came across a move-in ready home for sale on the golf course. It was almost perfect, they said.

They put down $30,000 to secure it.

But Pete Dorazio spoke with 12News from California, not from his new dream home in Arizona — because the Dorazios never bought their dream home.

“I started researching and doing more and more research and finding out more and more," Pete said. "There really is an issue out here."

Pete found a 12News story about groundwater in the West Valley. At the beginning of 2023, Governor Katie Hobbs released a report on the groundwater availability in a part of the West Valley. The state's analysis showed that all the available groundwater in that area had been spoken for.

In some urban parts of Arizona, new homes must prove that they have access to 100 years of water. But in most cases, that water is groundwater.

After the release of the state's new report, state officials stopped issuing those 100 year water certifications based on groundwater availability.

If builders want to develop on that land, they would have to find water from somewhere else other than the ground.

"That was the deal breaker," Pete said.

The Dorazios backed out of their deal, ultimately forfeiting their $30,000 deposit.

Even though the home was built and guaranteed to have a 100 year supply of water by the city of Buckeye and the builders, the Dorazios were not convinced.

The Dorazios are concerned about what happens after those 100 years and what happens if the measurements are wrong.

"We could be left with a piece of real estate that there's no water for," Pete said.

12News spoke with water experts who said some large cities have to prove a 100 year supply of water for their residents every 15 years, making it a rolling target. But in the Sun City Festival area, the developer only has to prove a 100 year supply of water one time.

After those 100 years are up, experts said they don't really know what happens. Experts said they assume other sources of water will be found, conservation will be done — but there's no guarantee.

And that was too much risk for the Dorazios.

"I can guarantee you 95% of the people that buy homes out there probably have no idea until they live there," Pete said.

For now, the Dorazios said they will stay in California to plan their next retirement move.

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