CHANDLER, AZ-Another plastics manufacturer, Phoenix Packaging Operations LLC, has entered the greater Phoenix market, absorbing a 104,352-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility here. The five-year lease will bring 100 new manufacturing jobs to the city within the next six months.

The Florida-based company is the second plastics manufacturer to set up shop in suburban Phoenix this year: Schoeller Arca Systems signed a 10-year lease for 153,000 square feet of warehouse space in the former Rubbermaid facility at 17300 W. Broadway Rd. The Netherlands-based company, which manufactures sustainable plastic packaging systems, plans to invest $20 million in the new facility.

“I recall during the previous recession in 2001 that the first signs of an economic recovery were the plastic injection molding companies coming to the market and landing in Phoenix in 2002 and 2003,” says Mike Parker, a broker in Colliers International’s Phoenix office. “Now I am seeing the same thing after this recession – makes me think we’re truly recovering.”

Parker, along with Colliers’ Evan Koplan, represented the landlord, Cleveland, OH-based Primrose Properties Ltd., in lease negotiations. Phoenix Packaging Operations was represented internally.

Parker tells GlobeSt.com that Phoenix Packaging Operations initially thought to lease another building, but came back to the Primrose Properties facility because it is “absolutely perfect” for plastics manufacturing and injection molding.

Located at 464 East Chilton Dr., the building sits on approximately 8.5 acres just east of the northeast corner of Arizona Avenue and Elliot Road. It provides ample power, compressed air lines, 100% air conditioning throughout, 28-foot clear ceiling height, five truckwells and four grade level doors, a fenced truck court and 253 parking spaces. 

Built in 2000, the property is zoned I-1 light industrial/PAD and includes approximately 13,920 square feet of office space. It is located in the Chandler Enterprise Zone, which allows qualified businesses the ability to take advantage of state corporate income tax and property tax benefits.