Along the west side of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in Arizona, US, lies Loop 303, 35 miles of highway that serve as a crucial transport route. Since its completion in the past decade, the adjacent communities, known collectively as the West Valley, have seen rapid growth and expansion.
Hundreds of thousands of new residents have arrived. The region has transformed into a hotbed of industrial and manufacturing activity, attracting businesses and investments from across the nation.
Today, tens of millions of square feet of manufacturing facilities are under construction. It marks out the Phoenix West Valley as one of the most prominent emerging trade hubs in North America.
More than just a highway
One of the primary factors contributing to Loop 303’s growth as an industrial and manufacturing corridor is its strategic location. Only a six-hour drive from the Port of Los Angeles and the Inland Empire of California, it is close enough that goods can be offloaded from ships and arrive at warehouses in the West Valley on the same day.
Additionally, Phoenix’s central location in the south-west means facilities there can serve customers in the entire area, rather than just southern California.
Perhaps one of the biggest determining factors that is leading corporations to choose the West Valley over long-preferred Californian locations is cost. As of May, the average rate of a lease in Phoenix, signed over the past 12 months, was roughly half the cost of a similar space in California.
Average rental rates over a 12-month period – June 2022 to May 2023:
US: $9.50
Los Angeles: $19.28
Orange County: $18.41
Inland Empire: $16.71
Phoenix: $9.47
Source (https://www.commercialedge.com/blog/national-industrial-report/)
High-tech attractions
While the entire stretch of the Loop 303 is bristling with development, one of the most significant is the establishment of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) new chip-building factory. As a global leader in its field, TSMC’s decision to build a facility in Arizona underscores the region’s attractiveness for high-tech industries.
The mega-factory represents a $40bn investment in the region and plans suggest it may have more than ten million square feet of fabrication space after full build-out. The project is generating thousands of jobs and stimulating economic growth in the surrounding areas.
This is just one of dozens of projects topping one million square feet in development along Loop 303 today. While many of these are manufacturing and warehouses, a new influx of commercial developments across a wide range of sectors highlight the area’s wider potential.
All eyes on Surprise
Right in the heart of the highway lies the City of Surprise, home to the newest and largest power centre to be built in the Western US over the past decade – the Village at Prasada. With more than 700,000ft² of retail, restaurant and entertainment space, the Village will eventually serve as a regional hub for the tens of thousands of workers who take Loop 303 daily.
Today, the Village is roughly three-quarters complete. It has already been so successful that another 300,000ft² of retail space is about to break ground across the street in the North Prasada development.
The City of Surprise also has another three million square feet of manufacturing space under construction in its two-square-mile industrial district. It made the news recently, with BNSF Railway’s purchase of 4,000 acres of land last year in the city’s northern boundary to create a massive intermodal and industrial hub. This regional rail hub is certain to spark another manufacturing corridor boom in the coming years in the Phoenix area.
With all the development happening along Loop 303, Surprise and the surrounding region is set to become one of the most important manufacturing hubs in the US, with dozens of major commercial companies moving here.
Another vital consideration is the wealth of human capital in the region. More than 1.8 million people call the Phoenix West Valley their home, and this number is projected to rise to 2.1 million by the end of this decade, accounting for 40% of all growth in the metropolitan area.
As this booming, vibrant population expands further, companies landing along Loop 303 can feel confident that their workforce needs are secure today, and in the future.
Few regions in the US, or around the globe, can boast Surprise’s leading logistical edge. Businesses already based here are seeing the benefits and yours could too.
Download the whitepaper to discover how your organisation could benefit from locating to the City of Surprise.
