LGE Design Build recently broke ground on Utility Trailer’s 60,000-square-foot Arizona headquarters at the Rados Tolleson Center.
Utility Trailer and its 50 employees have outgrown their current facility in Phoenix, near 22nd Avenue and McDowell Road, where the family-owned business has been located since 1953. The company’s new Arizona headquarters, located on 14 acres at 83rd Avenue and I-10 in Tolleson, will double its facility size and be closer to the distribution corridor in the Southwest Valley. Target completion is first quarter 2016. Utility Trailer expects to hire more technicians and sales associates.
“Our new headquarters will accelerate capacity, increase our access to the trucking industry and enable us to serve customers better,” said George Cravens, president of Utility Trailer AZ. “With a commitment to Arizona, we are looking forward to helping the trucking industry continue to grow here.”
Three generations of Cravens’ family have owned and operated Utility Trailer in the Valley.
Utility Trailer is an authorized dealer of Utility Trailer Manufacturing, based in City of Industry, Calif. It is also a sales and warranty service center for non-competing semi-trailer brands that support the construction, moving, agriculture and heavy-haul markets. The Arizona headquarters offers a one-stop shop for trailer parts and repair service for the trucking industry.
“LGE Design Build is proud to construct a new headquarters for a long-standing Arizona business and enable it to grow for decades to come,” said Dave Sellers, LGE Design Build’s president.
The two-story new building will feature a prominent lobby and entrance, include 46,000 square feet of service and warehouse space and accommodate the industry’s modern standard of 53-foot semi-trailers. The property’s 24-foot clear height ceilings will allow for shop efficiencies with cranes and a full-racked warehouse to supply the largest trailer parts inventory in the area. In addition, technicians will be able to service about twice as many trailers at one time. Utility Trailer’s signage will be visible from I-10.
“The design of Utility Trailer’s new industrial building will reinforce their product line to customers and the public,” said Sherm Cawley, principal of Cawley Architects.
Other industry-related businesses are expected to locate at the Rados Tolleson Center. Along I-10, the business park is on the trucking route to Los Angeles and also near Loop 101.
“Utility Trailer’s family-owned environment is kindred to the City of Tolleson’s culture in which family is emphasized above all else. Tolleson is honored to add such a progressive organization to its community. We look forward to a prosperous relationship for generations to come,” said Tolleson Mayor Adolfo Gamez.
