Greystar Real Estate Partners, the nation’s largest privately owned apartment manager, is making good on its plan to join the fast-growing list of companies expanding into the in-demand industrial development business.
The Charleston, South Carolina-based global developer broke ground Tuesday on its first industrial project in Arizona, a three-building, 2 million-square-foot complex at the northeast corner of Sossaman and Pecos roads in Mesa, roughly three months after buying the 150-acre site.
Greystar expects the project, to be called Gateway Grand and include a 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse and two 537,429-square-foot buildings, will be finished by next May, according to a city of Mesa statement. The development is just south of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.
The company, which has historically owned, managed and developed multifamily complexes around the world, has recently started getting into the lucrative industrial development sector. Greystar was ranked the largest apartment manager in the United States last year, with more than three times the 210,000 units managed by the runner-up, Dallas-based Lincoln Property Co., according to the National Multifamily Housing Council, an industry research and lobbying group.
Greystar bought Dallas-based apartment and industrial investor Thackeray Partners last year and has acquired sites in Arizona, Texas, Florida and Massachusetts, and in April started its first speculative industrial project in Texas near McKinney National Airport north of Dallas.
Other real estate firms, including Thor Equities, Hanover Co., Hines and Related Midwest, have shifted from other types of property into industrial to tap the added demand for buildings needed for distributing goods that consumers order online. Industrial developers are responding to booming demand for warehouse and logistics space from Amazon, Walmart, Target and nearly every other retailer looking to expand its e-commerce capabilities in the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport area.
About 6 million square feet of industrial space is under construction near the airport, an area that has grown into one of Phoenix’s main logistics hubs, according to a CoStar Market Analytics report. Union Pacific Railroad plans a $100 million project to build 6 miles of rail to support the industrial development in southeast Mesa.
“The immediate access to intermodal transportation, an educated workforce and high population growth has created the ideal ecosystem for advanced manufacturing and logistics companies expanding their operations,” Greystar Managing Director Billy Cundiff said in the statement.
For the Record
Derek Builders is the general contractor. CBRE’s Jackie Orcutt, Kevin Cosca, Pete Wentis and Jonathan Teeter are handling leasing.