CT Realty Eyes 2.6 MSF Phoenix Development

Plans for Winners Circle Business Park call for eight industrial and two data center buildings, as well as additional unspecified “future commercial” space. Image via public filing with the City of Phoenix

The historic 213-acre Turf Paradise horse racetrack property in north Phoenix could be transformed into a 2.6 million-square-foot industrial and data center campus called Winner’s Circle Business Park under a plan being proposed by Newport Beach, Calif.-based developer CT Realty.

According to plans filed with the city, the commerce park would be on roughly 155 acres and would include eight industrial shell buildings totaling approximately 1.8 million square feet and two data center buildings totaling almost 800,000 square feet. The proposed data centers would be 600,000 square feet and 196,000 square feet, while plans call for industrial buildings ranging between 159,000 and 376,000 square feet. Vehicular access would be from Turf Paradise Road, 19th Avenue and Tierra Buena Lane.

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There are also several parcels marked “future commercial” on the proposed site plan but no further details were provided in the filing. Butler Design Group is listed as the architect for the project on the documents and images.

CT Investors and James Watson, a CT Realty managing partner, are listed as applicants on the documents filed with the city. While CT Realty does not yet own the property, several media reports indicate the company is under contract to purchase the racetrack from current owner Jerry Simms. Most of the property’s zoning would allow for development of the business park, but the company is seeking to rezone nearly 30 acres from ranch or farm residential and intermediate commercial to a commerce park district and general commerce park. The Deer Valley Village Planning Committee is scheduled to vote on the proposal this Thursday and the city’s Planning Commission will take up the application on Sept. 7.

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If approvals are granted, Watson told the Phoenix Business Journal he expects CT Realty to close the deal later this year and begin the first phase of construction in the second or third quarter of 2024. While Simms, who has owned the track for 23 years, is not conducting races this season, Watson told Axios Phoenix that CT Realty might consider a shorter racing season in January. He also told both media outlets his company would like the Arizona State Legislature to legalize historic horse racing machines, similar to slots, but so far there’s been no movement on that proposal.

CT Realty is keeping busy

Founded in 1994, CT Realty focuses on the acquisition and development of Class A industrial properties throughout the U.S. The company has completed more than 300 transactions and has more than $5 billion in its current development pipeline. Since 2020, CT Realty has acquired 2,400 acres of industrial land that will support 32 million square feet of buildings. The company has active developments in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Texas, Ohio, Georgia and Indiana. Markets include Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.

In May 2022, CT Realty and PGIM Real Estate acquired a 282-acre project site in Pennsville, N.J., from D2 Organization to develop Garden State Logistics Park, a two-building campus totaling 1.7 million square feet. Last month, the joint venture partners announced the project is set to deliver this quarter. The property, located minutes from Interstate 95, will have two distribution buildings totaling 1.2 million square feet and 512,442 square feet.

CT Realty recently delivered two buildings totaling more than 1 million square feet in Mt. Comfort, Ind., and has 2 million square feet under development in a 5.5 million-square-foot logistics park in Columbus and 1 million square feet under development in Atlanta. The company expects to complete three buildings totaling 1.7 million square feet in Jacksonville, Fla., later this year.