AirPark is poised for development

Goodyear AirPark is a 267acre blank slate ready for development that eventually could add 4,000 jobs to the region, according to an expert working with the owner to develop the site.

The AirPark property was bought about 20 years ago by Phoenix-based Carefree Partners Investments LLC, an investment and real-estate-development company.

When Carefree Partners bought the land, Goodyear was a small city with not much development.

Carefree Partners waited until now to develop the property because of market conditions and because other major employers, such as Amazon, Sub-Zero and Dick’s, have come to Goodyear.

The unoccupied site has the potential to add 4 million square feet of office, industrial, flex and research space to Goodyear, said Anthony Lydon, national director of Industrial Supply Chain and Logistics Solutions, Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc.

The Phoenix office of Jones Lang LaSalle, an industrial specialist, is helping the airpark’s owners develop the

site.

Goodyear City Manager Brian Dalke said the project will help spur other development opportunities in the area.

The property is near the southwestern corner of Litchfield Road and Maricopa 85, across the highway from the Phoenix Goodyear Airport.

“This development will bring quality jobs into the city and help complement the next wave of industrial growth in Goodyear,” Dalke said.

The airport, which is roughly 2 miles south of Interstate 10 on Litchfield Road, is designated by the Federal Aviation Ad- ministration to relieve congestion at Phoenix Sky Harbor International and provide access for private planes. In 2012, the airport had more than 144,000 takeoffs and landings.

Goodyear AirPark offers corporations opportunities to design and construct buildings as large as 50,000 to 1.2 million square feet. Or a company may lease a building, Lydon said.

Carefree Partners Investments has partnered with Lincoln Property Co., the design/ build developer of the site, and with the Phoenix office of Jones Lang LaSalle.

“A corporate employer that needs a specialized or larger type of facility is our target market,” Lydon said.

For example, a number of food and beverage companies are moving to the Phoenix market. Those companies typically have a lot of specialized equipment and need to design facilities to house them, Lydon said.

To attract companies to the Goodyear AirPark, the partners are working with the Arizona Commerce Authority, the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, the Goodyear Economic Development Division and with the site-selection industry, Lydon said.

Goodyear AirPark is in a great location because of its proximity to Maricopa 85, Interstate 10, rail and the Phoenix Goodyear Airport, Lydon said.

Goodyear AirPark is also within a Foreign Trade Zone, which means companies there could be eligible for a 75 per- cent reduction in property tax and equipment tax as well as other benefits.

The location is especially marketable to companies that want to serve California using trucks to deliver their goods.

“We are very much ready for opportunities in the marketplace,” Lydon said. “In fact, we’re pursuing a number of potential candidates right now.”

Future companies will bring jobs when they move to Goodyear AirPark and they will create jobs when they construct buildings there.

Each future large building on the site can employ anywhere from 50 to 250 tradesmen for construction, and that number can climb depending on the complexity of the project, Lydon said.