Scottsdale Arizona Real Estate Blog

Peter Corbett
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 30, 2007 03:46 PM  

SCOTTSDALE – Developers of a recently acquired state land parcel southeast of 100th Street and Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard have unveiled plans for their $40 million neighborhood shopping center. Saxa, formerly Shea Commercial, has submitted a preliminary application with Scottsdale to build about 100,000 square feet of space on 11 acres, split between offices and retail. That will include one- and two-story buildings of up to 26 feet, said Pete Meyer, a Saxa principal.

Restaurants, with outdoor dining, and several shops will be built facing the intersection just east of Circle K.  We want to have a fountain and a garden setting for the restaurant patios, with trellises and stacked stone walls,” Meyer said.Saxa won state land at auction Saxa, which paid $10 million for the state trust land at a June auction, hopes to start building in the second quarter of next year and complete the unnamed project by the end of the 2008. The land, surrounded on two sides by homes, is one of the last large parcels along Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard.Parking will be on the interior of the project with the buildings stretching along Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and the southern edge of the property.

Bank locating on acre at center Saxa plans to sell one acre of the site for bank. About eight to 10 retail spaces, including up to four restaurants are likely as Saxa begins trying to sign tenants, Meyer said. Saxa is not yet sure whether it will lease or sell the office condominiums, he said.

The company has been a leader in building office condos in the Valley and nine other states.

Saxa’s previous projects include Ironwood Square at 96th Street and Shea Boulevard, the Pima Commerce Center at Loop 101 and Raintree Drive, and Desert Fairways at Bell Road and Loop 101.

Mark Ortega, president of the nearby Aviara community homeowners association, said Saxa has presented a good plan for the site.

“They going to do a good job to visually punctuate the corner of 100th Street and Frank Lloyd Wright,” said Ortega, adding that the buildings and the project will compliment the neighborhood.

Area activist asks for medians Ortega has been active on neighborhood development issues. He has tried to convince the city to add landscaped medians along more than a mile of 100th Street, between Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard past Thompson Peak Parkway, and for nearly a mile along 92nd Street, between Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Raintree Drive. Ortega has a point.

As a neighborhood resident, I have noticed how these five-lane roads were designed for heavier traffic. The wide expanse of un-shaded asphalt is overkill and merely adds to the urban area’s heat-island effect.

Apartment rents are climbing Valley developers are expected to add 7,000 apartment units this year, increasing the inventory by 3 percent, according to Marcus & Millichap’s second quarter apartment market report. The second-quarter vacancy rate is estimated at 5.4 percent.

In southern Scottsdale, the vacancy rate was 6.4 percent, while average rents were up 2.2 percent to $872 per month.

Rent Valleywide increased 4.1 percent to $768 per month.

In the past two years, about 20,000 apartment units were converted to condominiums, but sales have slowed. That has stalled conversions in Scottsdale and throughout the Valley.

Marcus & Millichap also reports that apartment complex sales were down 12 percent year-over-year, but the median sales price increased 12 percent to $66,700 per unit. 

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