The undertaking will bring the first retail to a fairly dense residential area, which is about a mile from the nearest grocery store or any other retail for that matter. "This is a quality in-fill site," says Ron Ault, one of the CB Richard Ellis brokers who has been involved with the project for more than a year. "The center is filling a hole."

The CBRE team of Ault, Dave Newquist and Bob Pearlstein have secured leases for 65% of the inline space. Add in Albertsons and the occupancy rises to 80%. Ault, though, is confident that the project will be fully leased before the third quarter grand opening. To date, the team has signed Pick Up Stix, Super Cuts, Post Net, Starbucks, Washington Mutual, Smoothie King, Nails of the World and Magic Touch Cleaners.

Andrews Design of Tempe, AZ is the architect. Scottsdale, AZ-based MT Builders is the general contractor.

Last year, Phoenix-based Denro Development paid a little more than $1 million for the 17-acre tract at the northwest corner of Ray Road and McClintock Drive. Ault and Newquist brokered the land sale from Albertsons Inc. of Tolleson, AZ.

Chandler, which lies to the southeast of Phoenix, is one of the fastest-growing suburbs in the Valley. It has some of the only vast tracts of available land for residential development and is expected to continue to gain rapidly in population over the next decade.