Update, May 25, 2018: The Boyer Company has been selected to design, develop and finance 20 acres of the UA Tech Park at The Bridges. The firm is headquartered in Salt Lake City with an office in Phoenix.
“The Tech Park at The Bridges presents a unique opportunity for our company to work closely with the UA and the Tucson community,” said Matt Jensen, a partner with The Boyer Company. “The Bridges provides growing and expanding companies with an easily accessible location, access to existing infrastructure and a location that offers a growing list of amenities.”
University of Arizona has moved to develop its Tech Park at The Bridges, increasing the market for leasing Tucson industrial space, office space and retail space.
I’m excited to see movement on commercial property development in what is Tucson’s biggest infill project, The Bridges.
The 350-acre site on the south side of the city is a masterplanned development of residential, retail, office, industrial and recreational uses. I’ve long anticipated that businesses will see the worth of leasing Tucson industrial space and Tucson office space as the project fills in.
Tucson Retail & Tucson Office Space
The retail portion—Tucson Marketplace at the Bridges—is going strong. Since Costco was built in 2011, it’s been joined by Cinemark Theaters, Walmart, Dave & Busters and several smaller eateries and services. It’s close to 50 percent build-out and could be fully developed in two to three years.
Now office development has received a big boost.
Insurance giant GEICO decided to stay in Tucson and build a larger regional corporate office. The 20-acre site, expected to be completed by the middle of 2019, will house its current 2,100 work force in a 200,000-square-foot building that will provide room for 700 more employees.
“They were weighing the decision to potentially leave Tucson,” said Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild. “Ultimately, we were able to persuade GEICO that The Bridges site would be an excellent location for them.”
UA Tech Park & Tucson Industrial Space
The University of Arizona will soon announce a developer for the first section of its 65-acre UA Tech Park at the Bridges. That section will feature a hotel, conference center and training center to complement 120,000 square feet of office space and 180,000 square feet of laboratory space.
The winning development company is expected to be announced in the spring.
Build-out of all four sections over the next several years will allow businesses to lease Tucson industrial space, including manufacturing and warehousing, as well as office, lab, educational and research and development spaces totaling nearly 2.3 million square feet.
“The Bridges will serve companies that want their facilities in an urban environment,” says the UA Tech Parks website, “with proximity to the main campus of the University of Arizona, downtown Tucson, the Arizona Health Sciences Center, the VA Regional Hospital and Banner UMC South Hospital.”
Growing Opportunities
Tucson’s recent successes in attracting employee-packed businesses to locate here is fueling the drive to develop land for owning or leasing Tucson industrial space and office space. They include Caterpillar’s Surface Mining & Technology regional headquarters, World View Enterprises headquarters and spaceport, Comcast regional call center, Home Goods and Fed Ex distribution centers and Raytheon expansion.
The Bridges isn’t the only place that has plenty of space for commercial high-tech development. Pima County’s Sonoran Corridor is ideally located for logistics and transportation. SAMTEC in Sahuarita, UA Tech Park at Rita Road in southeast Tucson and Innovation Park in Oro Valley have flexible and, in several cases, build-ready sites for defense, aerospace, biotechnology, mining, optics and green power, among other industries.
I foresee a healthy commercial real estate market for years to come as these properties come on line and catch the attention of national commercial property site selectors and regional entrepreneurs.
Interested in one of these sites? Contact me, michael@cretucson.com or 520-299-3400.
Share your experiences on working with Commercial Real Estate Group of Tucson.