Corporate park is part of job corridor effort

Developers are finished with the first part of a corporate park near Crossroads Towne Center and several tenants are planned, including the Arizona Department of Revenue, the latest step in Gilbert's effort to create a major job corridor along Loop 202.

Total Renal Care, Liberty Dialysis and Bank of America also leased space for corporate offices at the Reserve at San Tan, on Gilbert Road south of the Santan Freeway stretch of Loop 202.

The developer, Phoenix-based Orsett Properties, recently completed the first phase on the 50-acre site. There are 35 undeveloped acres remaining.

Mike Garlick, a broker at Lee & Associates, said the developer is doing better in attracting tenants than its competitors in the area given the site's proximity to freeway and Crossroads Towne Center, which lies directly northeast of the Reserve at San Tan.

"I think that area is going to be a major employment center for the (town) of Gilbert," he said. "There's going to be some significant development taking place on either side of the freeway from ... Gilbert Road (east) all the way down to Val Vista (Drive)."

Some of those developments include the Gilbert 202 Commerce Center, a planned 50-acre office and light industrial project at the northeast corner of Germann and Gilbert Roads, and the 202 Business Park, a new 27-acre office and light industrial plaza open at the northwest corner of Germann and Lindsay Roads.

Town manager George Pettit said the Reserve at San Tan and its neighboring projects are just a small slice of what the town hopes will become a major employment corridor along the freeway that will stretch from the town's borders at Gilbert Road through Williams Field Road.

He said the Department of Revenue was a good score.

"I think any tenant (leasing) 20,000 square feet is a feather in the cap," he said.

Kathy Langdon, Gilbert Chamber of Commerce president, said development along Loop 202 has slowed due to economic forces. The town planned to reach build-out along the freeway in 2025.

"That's (the economy) probably put us a couple years behind on that," she said. "But we definitely have what it takes to attract those types of businesses between the (Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport) right there (and) the land available that we've reserved for employment centers and industrial type businesses."

"I think what makes us attractive there also is that we've already got the (SanTan Village) mall in," she added.

She said development is occurring faster along the western portion of the freeway near Crossroads Towne Center because the area is more mature.

The Arizona Department of Revenue will move inMonday. Officials said they got a better price at the Reserve than they currently pay for a development at the northeast corner of Elliot Road and Arizona Avenue in Chandler.

The department doesn't plan any new hires and is simply relocating its teams of auditors, accountants and administrators. The department's phone numbers will remain the same.