The city of Maricopa is about to take a big step forward in its efforts to get its first business park up and running.
The city council will discuss and could vote Tuesday to approve a master planning and marketing agreement with The Boyer Company for the master planning, design and marketing of the Estrella Gin Business Park.
The city envisions the park to include leasable space for light industrial, flex and office space.
“It’s our first business park – this is a huge milestone for the city,” said Micah Miranda, Maricopa’s economic development director.
The Estrella Gin Business Park site is 52 acres of mostly undeveloped land and the site of a former cotton gin. It is located north of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and west of the Acacia Crossings neighborhood.
In order to be competitive in attracting new business to the area, the city needs an inventory of leasable office space to show site selectors, Miranda said.
“The city’s ability to win projects is predicated on its ability to present real estate options to site selectors,” he said.
The Boyer Company, based in Salt Lake City, is one of the largest full-service real estate development firms in the Western United States, according to its website. The firm has developed more than 250 properties in 20 states and has 30 projects totaling $500 million of development in progress.
“I do think Maricopa can be marketed,” said Matt Jensen, senior project manager, The Boyer Company. “It’s an interesting location …with infrastructure and water readily available.”
Jensen said the two components that make up the economic feasibility of such a project are the cost of the land and the cost to build buildings.
“The cost to construct a building is the same in Maricopa as it is in Chandler,” he said, noting then it becomes the cost of land that is key.
“The land cost in Maricopa is attractive,” he said.
The Boyer Company would pay the cost of construction of the buildings and provide the design and master planning, Miranda said. The city owns the land and would sell the land to the developer after it leased 60 percent of the first building.
The city purchased the land in 2011 as a site for its public works fleet maintenance yard, he said.
The city is interested in the project because it hopes the businesses at the park will generate jobs for Maricopa residents so they don’t have to commute into metro Phoenix.
Job creation is a core component of a performing economy,” Miranda said.
“The first year we might build one 40,000-square-foot building and the next another,” Jensen said. “The project will start to grow on itself and generate its own momentum.”
