PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Mentoring, education, and philanthropy are the hallmarks of the BOMA Greater Phoenix Young Professionals Group as it prepares for its next event on July 12.

The YPG committee is a group of 32 young professionals dedicated to bringing mentorship, education, and philanthropic opportunities to real estate professionals in Metro Phoenix. This is achieved through various events held throughout the year to impact the community.

The committee is led by Chairman Daniel Mazzon of Allied Universal Janitorial Services and Co-chair Jessica Allen of Lincoln Property Company. The pair created the “3M Program – Monthly Mentor Meetings.” Its goal is to give young professionals the opportunity to meet with seasoned commercial industry professionals to impact their careers in a positive manner.

BOMA Greater Phoenix is an industry group that advances the commercial real estate industry through advocacy, influence, and knowledge.

“When starting out in the commercial real estate industry, it is essential to become connected in the community to which you cater,” Mazzon said. “By creating the BOMA 3M Program, it gives young professionals the opportunity to become connected and educated in the early stages of their career.”

The next event is July 12 and will feature John Orsak, Director of Real Estate for Lincoln Property Company. His topic will be “How to bring value to your property.”

Besides the mentoring program, the group has had a busy 2018 with education programs, philanthropic events, and networking. They include:

• Guest speaker Tawnya Pierce of CBRE spoke about goalsetting in the workplace. Following the discussion, YPG members took a tour of Lincoln Property Company’s new Class A office complex The Grand.
• Guest speaker Marty Brook, Vice President of Metro Commercial Properties, discussed BOMA’s annual awards event, the TOBYs. Brook shared information on gathering information to prepare for the 2018 awards.
• Led by Kate Bryce of Wentworth Property Company, the YPG committee helped fill more than 20 boxes for Operation Gratitude, a charity that supplies socks, cards, electronics, chewing gum, batteries, and personal care products for U.S. servicemen and women. 

“What gives these troops the courage and strength when they’re in harm’s way is the belief that somebody cares about them and wants them to come home,” Allen said. “I think it’s crucial that every person serving our country overseas knows that somebody at home cares about them. “It’s an honor for YPG to be able to give back to these amazing troops. The boxes BOMA collected sent a very strong message that are numerous individuals in the various sectors of our industry that appreciate what these men and women do,” Allen said.

YPG’s next networking event is the 2018 BOMA Night Golf – The Haunted Carnival – on Friday, Sept. 21.

Phoenix, AZ – USAA Real Estate Company of San Antonio, Texas, in association with Tempe, Arizona-based Metro Commercial Properties, has broken ground on a speculative office development in the I-17 / Deer Valley submarket in Phoenix. The development, named Norterra West, will include two (2), three-story Class-A office buildings approaching 300,000 square feet, and will capitalize on the pent-up demand for large blocks of quality, contiguous space from users looking to enter or expand into the economically attractive Phoenix labor market.

Norterra West — the first speculative office development to break ground within the City of Phoenix in the last five years — is situated on a 23.3-acre land site prominently situated along the northbound I-17 Freeway in north Phoenix, at 25700 and 25800 North Norterra Parkway.

Construction began in July 2015 on the first of the two planned office buildings at Norterra West. The site master plan and the architectural design of the first building were led by Tempe, Arizona-based design firm Davis; Wespac Construction is the general contractor. That first building is a three-story, 144,350 square foot, Class A office building that will be ready for tenant occupancy in June 2016. The building is LEED^® targeted and will have a surface parking ratio of six (6) spaces per 1,000 square feet, with the ability to serve a parking ratio as high as 8 per 1000 with the construction of garage structures.

“Norterra West is one of the only large master-planned corporate office parks in Phoenix that combines excellent accessibility, new and efficient office product, walk-able retail amenities, and affordable residential opportunities into a cohesive park environment,” stated Ryan Foley, Principal and Chief Operating Officer of Metro Commercial Properties. “Norterra’s master plan governance includes very strong development standards designed to preserve the safe, secure and quality office environment required by corporate users to aggressively recruit and retain an educated and affordable labor base.”

A second phase office building has been entitled through the City of Phoenix Planning department, to be located immediately north of the Phase One Building, which when completed, will accommodate employment growth at the Norterra West master planned corporate office park, to a total of more than 1,800 employees at the 2-building campus.

“Adding new high-quality speculative corporate office space is a good sign for the Phoenix economy,” said Mayor Greg Stanton. “Norterra West will help the City of Phoenix match prospective local, national and global employers with immediate and competitive office space while tapping into our educated and affordable labor base.”

USAA Real Estate Company has selected CBRE as its exclusive agent to market and pre-lease Norterra West. The team of Ashley Brooks, Jr., Jim Bayless and Jenny Aust Turner was selected given their extensive focus on the North and Northwest Valley submarkets, their long-standing relationships with many of the large corporate back-office users in the Deer Valley / I-17 submarket, and their proven experience working with Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC) leadership, and the office of Phoenix Economic Development.

“Office vacancy rates in the Deer Valley office submarket remain above stabilized levels, but there is a shortage of large blocks of Class-A office that can provide the high-density parking ratios, power infrastructure, and large efficient open office environments that Fortune 500 companies want,” said CBRE’s Ashley Brooks. “With our partners at USAA Real Estate Company and Metro Commercial Properties, we hope to raise the bar and provide new office product that will be unmatched in the North Phoenix submarket.”

“USAA is catalyzing growth with innovative development in north Phoenix,” said Phoenix City Councilwoman Thelda Williams, in whose district Norterra West will be built.  “Breaking ground on a Class A office development is a win for Phoenix because it attracts growth in other businesses and retail, and brings much needed office space to our market.”

From L to R: Mike Edwards, Davis; Dirk Mosis, USAA Real Estate Co.; Rob Schaffer, USAA; Mayor Greg Stanton, City of Phoenix; Council Woman Thelda Williams, City of Phoenix; Pat Althoff, Metro Commercial Properties; Bruce Pedersen, USAA Real Estate Co.; Brad Smidt, GPEC

Tempe, AZ – Metro East Valley Holdings, LLC, a joint venture between Tempe based Metro Commercial Properties, Inc., and a private REIT managed by Principal Real Estate Investors, Des Moines, IA, completed the purchase of 21.5 acres of land fronting the US 60 Superstition Freeway in Mesa, Arizona, for a planned four building light industrial development.

The seller in the transaction was PuppyFeathers, LLLP, an entity controlled by Craig Berge, also president of Berge Ford, Inc. The site located at 614 – 720 East Auto Center Drive, is immediately east of the Berge Ford dealership with frontage on the south side of the U.S. 60 at Mesa Drive. The $6.5 million ($302,325 per acre / $6.94 PSF) land sale was brokered by Kurt Saulnier, Ken McQueen and Chris McClurg of Lee and Associates Arizona.

The 21.5 acre site was formerly zoned for automotive dealership use. The team at Metro Commercial Properties, led by veteran zoning attorney Mike Withey of Withey Morris, completed a re-zone of the site on February 23, 2015, to allow industrial uses for the proposed multi-tenant light industrial project. Upon receipt of permits with the City of Mesa, construction is scheduled to commence in August 2015.

McCall & Associates Architects (Jeff McCall) of Scottsdale was engaged as the project architect and designed the four-building project to accommodate the anticipated small and medium sized user profile of the southeast valley industrial market in attractive rear load buildings. Each of the four buildings were designed to break down to accommodate a diverse size of users ranging from as small as 5,750 square feet to as large as 128,000 square feet. Building features include a 180 foot shared truck court, grade level and truckwell loading, clear heights of 24’ and 30’, ESFR sprinkler system, and parking for 640 cars (1.86/1000 SF).

Upon completion of the Mesa light industrial project in March, 2016, the development will add 349,049-square-feet of additional light industrial product to the inventory base of the Southeast Valley, a submarket with only 8.9% overall warehouse vacancy according to 2nd quarter industrial reports published by Lee & Associates Arizona.

“We were extremely fortunate to work with Craig Berge in the acquisition of this in-fill industrial site with over 1,300 feet of highly visible frontage along the US 60 Superstition Freeway.” stated Janet Herlyck, Vice President of Metro Commercial Properties. “The site has tremendous accessibility off of the US 60 between two full diamond interchanges at Mesa Drive and Stapley.” In addition to the controlled intersection at Mesa Drive and E. Auto Center, two additional controlled Baseline Road intersections at S. Hobson and Horne Drive provide very convenient truck access to the site.

“The site is literally the geographic center of the entire southeast valley industrial submarket,” added Tony C. Hepner, Principal of Metro Commercial Properties. “The infill location and freeway infrastructure of the Metro East Valley Commerce Center site allow industrial users to serve their customer base, northwest to Sky Harbor Airport and southeast to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway from a single central location with delivery times of less than 30 minutes.”

Nitti-Graycor Construction has been engaged as the project’s general contractor. Bank of America, N.A. provided construction financing to the Metro-Principal joint venture. The team of Saulnier, McClurg and McQueen of Lee & Associates has been retained by the developer to provide leasing services for the new project which is currently marketing space for the March 2016 delivery date.

For more information, visit the property website at www.mevcc.com or contact the leasing team: Saulnier at 602.954.3740, ksaulnier@leearizona.com, McQueen at 602.474.9564, kmqueen@leearizona.com and McClurg at 602.954.3766, cmclurg@leearizona.com.