Sale to Residential Developer Highlights more Growth in Downtown Gilbert

By: Sarah Gortarez & Daniel Alpers | Vizzda

On Monday the Dr. Paul R Brown Family, with local sons Colin Brown at Transwestern and Patrick Brown at Pulte Del Webb, purchased a 7.545 acre piece of land in the quickly developing Downtown Gilbert. The sales price was $1.55m, reflecting $205,434 per acre or ±4.72 per square foot. The property (located at 134 W Cullumber Ave) is zoned for medium-density multifamily residential in the Heritage District overlay zone.

A preliminary design review case is underway with the city to establish entitlement for a ±162 door luxury residential rental project. This would establish a density of ±21.47 dwelling units per acre, bringing more density to the district that is known as a cultural nodal point in the southeast valley. No formal application has been submitted to the city, so information is still limited on this proposal.

The seller of the property was International Risk Group of Colorado who specializes in repositioning environmentally-impaired properties. They purchased the property September 4^th 2013 for $550k, reflecting $73,784 per acre or $1.67 per square foot of land.

The site has historically had two warehouses upon it, one being 4,730 square feet built 1951 and the other is 4,800 square feet built 1985. Currently the property receives $13,476 of rental income from a Sprint PCS cell phone tower that has a lease with 5-year options that runs until August 2041.

Gilbert to Partner with Saint Xavier University to Construct a Four-Year Liberal Arts Campus in Heritage District

VIZZDA--November 7th, 2013 -- The city of ­­­Gilbert has recently partnered with Chicago-based Saint Xavier University to develop a four year liberal arts university within the city’s downtown Heritage District. The new campus is to be constructed on city-owned property just west of Gilbert Road on the north side of Vaughn Avenue, and will feature a built-to-suit 87,000 square foot, four-story building. At a minimum, the new university will offer degree programs in nursing, business and education; it will eventually expand with other academic programs. 

View the Development Agreement here

Gilbert will finance the design and construction of improvements at the site through the issuance of revenue bonds, and will later enter into lease agreements for both the property and improvements with Saint Xavier University to recover any costs of the new development.  Once the lease term expires between the two parties, Gilbert will be the sole owner of the building.

While the announcement of this development was first made in August by various sources, the official development agreement was only recently adopted at Gilbert’s formal Town Council meeting on November 7^th, 2013. By entering this agreement, Gilbert and Saint Xavier University are now both obliged to meet certain requirements set forth in the agreement, including a project timeline which states that the university campus will be opened on or before January 2^nd, 2015, and that all project designs are completed and approved by June 30^th, 2014.

Details of a final project budget are yet to be finalized by both parties. In addition to the development agreement, the city of Gilbert has been taking other steps to successfully implement the project, including a citizen review meeting for a text amendment to the zoning code which, would allow public and private colleges as a permitted land-use within the Heritage Village Center (HVC) and the Gateway Village Center (GVC) zoning districts. 

In an article published earlier this year on Greater Phoenix Economic Council’s website, Dan Henderson, Gilbert’s economic-development director, said, “A community that has a high level of education attainment is vital to building a workforce that can go to work and keep jobs in the community and also in the region.” This will be increasingly important in the not too distant future, as 2010 U.S. Census figures on Gilbert’s website indicate that there are nearly 55,000 persons between ages 5 and 19 (nearly ¼ of the population) that will someday need to enter the workforce.

By:

Cody Weisel

Planning and Zoning Analyst

Vizzda.com