Phoenix—Progress in the West Valley continues as EJM Development Co. has broken ground on $5 million worth of infrastructure development at Goodyear Gateway South in Goodyear. Goodyear Gateway South is a 221 acre industrial zoned park located just north of the Phoenix Goodyear Airport that has recently been subdivided with lots ranging in size from 9.6 acres to 50 acres.

Fred Stiles, regional director with EJM, tells GlobeSt.com that construction on streets and utilities is underway, which will lay the framework for the master-planned industrial park to attract major users to the area. The street improvements will be complete in the 4^th quarter of 2014 and include full width 143^rd Avenue from Van Buren Street to Yuma Road and improvements to Yuma Road as well as a traffic signal at 143^rd and Van Buren.

“The West Valley has emerged as the next epicenter of major commercial development in metropolitan Phoenix,” says Stiles. “As major employers look to locate and expand in the Valley, it's important that we are able to offer high quality industrial zoned shovel-ready sites. The development of infrastructure, streets and utilities at Goodyear Gateway South is major step towards being ready for incoming users.”

In addition to offering shovel-ready sites, Stiles points to the park's designation as a foreign trade zone as another boon to future users.

“The U.S. Foreign Trade Zones program expedites and encourages foreign commerce making Goodyear Gateway South an attractive location for any industrial, manufacturing, distribution or warehouse user doing business internationally,” said Stiles. “And in the state of Arizona there is an additional tax benefit for properties in foreign trade zones that allows for significant reductions in both real and personal property taxes. The deals that we're seeing are almost all falling into FTZ requirements.”

According to the Greater Maricopa Foreign Trade Zone website: There is a tax benefit tied to the real estate and property taxes that all real property, machinery and equipment pays in Arizona.  The FTZ “re-classification” under Arizona State Law allows for any property in a Zone that is both approved and activated, to be re-classified down from 20% valuation to 5% valuation (this is a 75% reduction in taxable value).  Therefore, Zone users, tenants, owners, and Zone Operators who locate inside an approved FTZ site, and activate the site, receive a discount on their taxes of 75% annually.

The master-planned industrial park also benefits from proximity to the Phoenix Goodyear Airport and Interstate-10 and its location within one of the Southwest's fastest growing markets, which offers unparalleled accessibility to both metro Phoenix and other major markets in the Western United States.

“Goodyear Gateway South is ideally situated on a number of fronts,” said Pat Feeney, senior vice president with CBRE's Phoenix office, who heads up the marketing and leasing team for the property. “Users that transport goods intra- and inter-state will be well positioned to conduct business efficiently. What's more, a talented, deep and productive workforce lives in the immediate area, while freeways put Goodyear within an hour of all 3.8 million workers in greater Phoenix.”

The 221-acre, foreign trade zone-approved Goodyear Gateway South is part of the larger 350 Airport Gateway at Goodyear master-planned community. At build-out Airport Gateway will feature approximately 3 million square feet of planned industrial/work space at Goodyear Gateway South and an additional 2.5 million square feet of upscale regional retail, hotel, office and medical office uses at Goodyear Gateway North.