Leading retail brokerage firm Western Retail Advisors (WRA) has completed the lease for a new Starbucks in Avondale, Arizona, featuring the Valley’s first-ever Starbucks double drive through with two order points.
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The lease relocates the Starbucks in Avondale from an adjacent, undersized store into a larger, 3,070-square-foot location at 10655 W. Indian School Rd, fronting Indian School Road just east of 107th Avenue and west of the Loop 101 freeway. The building was previously occupied by a KFC but had been vacant for over four years. The new lease renovates and repositions the building for its new use by Starbucks.
Western Retail Advisors Senior Vice Presidents Bryan Babits and Bryan Ledbetter represented the landlord, Atlas BL Avondale, LLC, owned by Laguna Hills-based property management firm Atlas Properties. Lance Umble with Phoenix Commercial Advisors represented Starbucks.
“This new location gave Starbucks the store size it required but could only stack three or four vehicles in its single drive through lane – far below what was needed to manage the anticipated traffic at this site,” said Babits. “Creating a double drive through is a great example of Starbucks creativity, overcoming an operational challenge and already contributing to a 26 percent jump in sales at this new address.”
A leading U.S. retail market, Phoenix at the start of Q2 2023 had absorbed 4.1 million square feet of retail space year-over-year – the strongest absorption since the start of the Great Recession, according to CoStar. The market currently sits at an overall retail vacancy rate of just 5 percent.
“Phoenix’s retail demand is happening not only in traditional stores but also in the Quick Serve Restaurant category, making us one of the nation’s hottest locations for new and expanding concepts,” said Ledbetter. “Those trends are reflected clearly at this Starbucks store.”
Starbucks anticipates it will reach 45,000 stores by the end of 2025 with a mix of potential models. One of those models could include drive-through-only, underscoring the importance of drive-through activity to the chain’s overall success.
