Westside Lifestyle
New Retail Center Provides Gateway to Peoria

By Scott Blair

A new $250 million, mixed-use project in Peoria will offer residential, office, retail and entertainment on one site.

 

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The new stadium for the Arizona Cardinals, Glendale Arena and Westgate City Center have spurred a dramatic upswing in development along the east side of the Loop 101 Corridor in the West Valley of Phoenix.

One exit north and just west of the freeway, another empty field is being groomed for the $250 million Parke West development. Site work is just about complete and foundations will be poured beginning in January.

Dubbed an "outdoor lifestyle and entertainment center" by developers, the project will feature high-end retail shops, office space, multifamily residential units, restaurants and a Harkins Theatre.

"There's definitely a need for this type of development based on the economics and population of the area," said David Glimcher, president of Glimcher Ventures Southwest, developer of the project. The firm relocated to Scottsdale four years ago from Columbus, Ohio, to take advantage of the rapid growth in the Southwest.

Glimcher said his development company likes to fast-track everything, "so we joined forces with a strong team and wanted to design and value-engineer as we went along." He added that the goal was to "make this project happen in 12 months as opposed to the 36 months it would normally take."

There will be a total of 19 buildings on the site, most being one or two-stories high and arranged in a "main street" design style.

"We wanted to create the sense of a neighborhood, a kind of urban downtown with a pedestrian-friendly center," Glimcher said. "There are walkways from the offices to the shops, fountains, a plaza and a kids area."

The structures will provide a total of 375,000 sq. ft. of retail space, 150,000 sq. ft. of office space and 215 residential units. Each will have concrete spread-footing foundations, concrete floor slabs, masonry walls and steel roof systems.

"The exterior façade will be masonry, plaster and steel architectural components," said Adam Mays, president of A.R. Mays Construction of Scottsdale, Ariz. and general contractor on the project in a partnership with Beck Group of Phoenix. Archicon of Phoenix served as the project architect.

Most of the time savings came in the preconstruction phase of the project. The city of Peoria had a mutual interest to get the job done quickly, and that gave speed to the permitting and approval phase.

"The project's area is the gateway to the southern portion of the city, so it's important that we have a high-quality project at that location," said Steve Prokopek, Peoria's economic development director. "It's long overdue for the entire West Valley to have a project of this caliber going into the community."

Adding to the complexity of the project are various governmental and private organizations that also have a stake in the property.

"We are improving property owned by Salt River Project (one of Arizona's largest utilities), there are city streets that will be undergoing improvements and widening and we have an off-ramp on the east side of the project that we are working with the Arizona Department of Transportation to improve," Mays said.

Plans were still being developed as the contractors began sitework.

"One of the challenges was the volatility in the material markets such as steel, concrete and masonry," Mays said. That meant decisions had to be made on details and quantities before plans were finalized.

"We secured the structural components and the big site components right away, since we have a good sense of what materials will be required to erect these buildings," Mays added.

Key Players
Developer: Glimcher Ventures Southwest
General Contractor: Mays/Beck
Architect: Archicon, Inc.
Structural Engineer: TLCP Structural, Inc.
Civil Engineer: Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.
MEP Engineer: Intech Engineering Group
Concrete: Riggs Contracting
Earthwork: D & O Contractors Inc.

 
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