GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Developer Advances 210,000-SF Plan

Desco Southwest-Phoenix principals Ann and Bruce Gillespie are closing in on the final plays to get construction moving on Stapley Corporate Center, a four-building development at the northwest corner of Stapley Drive and Baseline Road. The 17.5-acre tract has been under contract for several months; a closing is looming for November. Ground could break in December or January 2005.

Stapley Corporate Center is the first project that will come out of the ground for the Gillespies, who are positioned to buy Denali's last commercial asset in Arizona. "We just came at them at the opportune time," Ann Gillespie says.

Desco Southwest, a subsidiary of the St. Louis-based Desco Group, is proposing 180,000 sf of office space and 30,000 sf of retail on land abutting Denali's Stapley Center, a 272,000-sf, three-building campus with the University of Phoenix as the lead tenant. It's never a done deal until the last approval is secured, but city support is running high for the project, says Dave Seeger, a senior vice president with Trammell Crow Co.'s Phoenix office. The expectation is Stapley Corporate Center will be ready to occupy in late summer 2005. Jere Planc of Archicon in Phoenix designed the project; Beck will build it.

Seeger and Karsten Peterson, also a senior vice president, are running the preleasing campaign for the office space while Matt Milinovich, Michael Kumelski and Jason Fessinger are handling the retail push. Seeger tells GlobeSt.com that preliminary interest is strong, with several office proposals in the early negotiating stages. Milinovich says the retail team is putting the finishing touches to brochures to take the space to market. Office space is quoted at $22.50 per sf, full service, and retail will range from $25 per sf to $30 per sf.