Phoenix Gearing up Retail and Office Markets with Major Deal in Scottsdale and Amazon’s planned expansion

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

The largest commercial transaction in recent memory was perfected in Scottsdale when the Promenade traded hands from its unnamed seller to Excel Trust Inc. The seller was represented by Lucescu Realty, with the announcement of the move also being made by the California-based real estate company. Excel, a real estate investment trust from San Diego, bought the 51-acre property that sits at the corner of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Scottsdale Road for a fee of $110 million, the Phoenix Business Journal reports.

The sale however, did not include The Great Indoors and Lowe’s Home Improvement, that same article mentions. Excel got its hand on 433,533 square feet of mixed-use space that currently houses names such as PetSmart, Old Navy, Office Max, Trader Joe’s along with several restaurants and Class A office space. After mediating this deal, Lucescu Realty announced that it has also opened a Phoenix office.

Good news hit the city of Phoenix this past week with the announcement made by Amazon that it is seriously considering opening a fourth facility in the area. Fresh from gathering to celebrate a year after the opening of its third space in Phoenix, the Seattle-based giant manifested its intent on further expansion in the Valley, the Phoenix Business Journal reports. Amazon.com currently operates three facilities in the area, employs 3,000 and has 4 million square feet of space. A fourth complex would require an additional 1.2 million SF and would create hundreds of new jobs.

The facility Amazon opened last year offers 1.3 million square feet at 5050 W. Mohave Street, and according to Robert Aris, the senior site manager quoted by PBJ, a 700,000 SF expansion is already planned. The other two sites also have expansion in the works with a 400,000 addition to 6835 W. Buckeye Road, and a 800,000 square-foot increase at their site at 16920 W. Commerce Drive.