Original Article via Phoenix Business Journal
Ask Greg Vogel and Kevin Calihan — two real estate industry veterans and experts — where they are expecting to see growth and gains in jobs, development and the housing market in 2017.
And both Vogel — the CEO of Scottsdale-based Land Advisors Organization — and Calihan, a senior vice president with CBRE (NYSE: CBG, both look mostly to the east.
Calihan says the East Valley — especially Tempe, Chandler and Gilbert — along with Scottsdale — are where most of the big technology tenants and most of the other larger office activity has occurred.
The region had 3.1 million square feet of net office leases (absorption) in 2016, according JLL (NYSE: JLL). Fifty-nine percent of that, almost 1.9 million, happened in Tempe and the East Valley.
And that doesn’t include Scottsdale, which accounted for 24 percent of the leasing.
Combined that’s 83 percent of the office leases regionally, according to JLL.
Calihan said employers — including technology companies coming into Arizona from Silicon Valley and other out-of-state markets — like the East Valley for its cheaper costs than their home markets and ample workforce. They like Tempe and Scottsdale for their walkable downtowns, restaurants and bars.
Vogel still sees some opportunities for infill redevelopments including in downtown Mesa.
But the commercial real estate veteran is also expecting gains in Pinal County areas such as Casa Grande and Maricopa as well as further reaches of the Southeast Valley and Buckeye to the west.
“There’s still a lot of land in those areas,” said Vogel, a prominent real estate deal maker.
