Liberty Property Trust has announced that it will break ground on its first industrial development project in Liberty Center at Rio Salado in Tempe, Arizona to meet tenant demand. Development will commence immediately at 2040 W. Rio Salado Parkway, with expected delivery by the end of 2015.

Liberty has previously completed two LEED Gold speculative office buildings at Liberty Center at Rio Salado. The first building of 155,000 square feet, 1850 W. Rio Salado Parkway, was completed in October 2014 and is 100% leased. The second building of the same size, 1910 W. Rio Salado Parkway, was completed earlier this year and is 75% leased. The third office building in the center, a build-to-suit LEED Gold office building of 96,000 square feet for DriveTime is currently under construction and is scheduled to come on-line in October.

“There continues to be outstanding demand for office and industrial space across our entire portfolio. We have had tremendous success at Liberty Center at Rio Salado, and we’re continuing that momentum,” said John DiVall, senior vice president at Liberty Property Trust. “Our local industrial portfolio has reached 100% and the time is right to pull the trigger on new industrial product. This site, located on the west side of the project, adjacent to SR-143 is the ideal location for a Class A industrial building.”

The new 215,000 square foot industrial building will be designed and constructed to meet the LEED® Silver level of certification for new construction. The new state-of-the-art facility will feature 30’ clear height, 250’ building depth, concrete tilt construction, and a 185’ expandable full concrete truck court, with visibility on Arizona Route 143 and Red Mountain Loop 202 Freeway.

The architect for the development project is Deutsch Architecture Group, the civil engineer is Wood Patel and the general contractor is Wespac Construction. Megan Creecy Herman is directing Liberty’s leasing efforts.

The new industrial development comes on the heels of Liberty signing more than 1.1 million square feet of leases year-to-date in the market.