Sunbelt Investment Breaks Ground on Phoenix-Area Shopping Center

March 26, 2024

Costco will anchor the 410,000-square-foot property.

Sunbelt Investment Holdings Inc. has broken ground on Buckeye Commons, a 410,000-square-foot retail center in Buckeye, Ariz.

Buckeye Commons will feature 18 buildings of various sizes across 64 acres. Butler Design Group serves as main architect, along with CHASSE Building Team as general contractor.

A 160,938-square-foot Costco store will anchor the retail center upon its completion. Costco Wholesale Corp. paid 5.7 million for the 22-acre site in November 2022, according to Maricopa County records, and the store opened last July.

The developer, alongside a Phoenix Commercial Advisors team, has already executed leases with Starbucks, Jimmy John’s, Over Easy, The Joint Chiropractic, State Farm and DIP Nail Bar. Negotiations are currently underway for an additional eight leases, which, when combined with existing agreements, encompass approximately 60 percent of the shopping center’s first phase, including shops and pads. The first store is expected to open in mid-2025.

The development of the Buckeye Commons project also includes an agreement with the City of Buckeye, according to AZBEX. Around $8 million will be reimbursed by the city for public infrastructure improvements in the area, such as installing a permanent four-lane street with various components.

An area booming with residential growth

Located at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Verrado Way, in the Western Maricopa County submarket, Buckeye Commons is in a rapidly developing area where the daily traffic count reaches approximately 200,000 vehicles per day, according to the developer. The center will rise adjacent to Buckeye Commons West, another one of Sunbelt’s planned retail centers.

Phoenix continues to be one of the fastest-growing cities within the U.S., with the number of households increasing by 2.0 percent year-over-year to 1.9 million, a Cushman & Wakefield report shows. Approximately 475,000 square feet of new retail space were under construction in the metro at the end of 2023, while the vacancy rate clocked in at 4.9 percent.