Evergreen Development celebrated the Marketplace at Tres Rios’ construction progress, while closing the acquisition of a Mesa development in 90 days.
Marketplace at Tres Rios is its latest Fry’s Marketplace shopping center, located at the southwest corner of Avondale Boulevard and Lower Buckeye Road in Avondale. Evergreen Development celebrated it on Tuesday, March 3.
Designed to serve the rapid growth in southern Avondale, including the Alamar master-planned community, Marketplace at Tres Rios will provide a high-quality mix of grocery, dining, and neighborhood-serving retail stores.
Fry’s Marketplace will anchor the project, joined by three multi-tenant buildings and seven retail pads for restaurants, services and a financial institution.
“Marketplace at Tres Rios represents the type of thoughtfully planned and designed developments Evergreen works hard to consistently deliver,” said Laura Ortiz, Evergreen president.
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Ortiz said the organization has had a “fantastic experience” partnering with the Vanderwey family, the entire Fry’s team and the city of Avondale to bring the project to fruition at a pace, thanks to the stakeholders’ commitment. The Vanderweys previously owned the property.
“We went from site approval by Fry’s to pulling permits and starting construction in under 12 months, which is practically unheard of for developments of this type in recent years,” Ortiz added.
“I am exceptionally proud of the discipline and relentless drive demonstrated by the Evergreen team to bring this project to life, and grateful for the trusted partnerships with Fry’s and the City that helped move the project forward so efficiently.”
Ken DeLuca, president of Fry’s Food Stores, added, “Our commitment to this community is unwavering, and this expanded space allows us to offer even greater access to fresh, affordable food and essential services.
“Fry’s Marketplace is proud to anchor Marketplace at Tres Rios and support the continued growth of the Avondale community. We look forward to serving families and businesses with a convenient, high‑quality shopping experience for years to come.”
Marketplace at Tres Rios is strategically located along Avondale Boulevard, 3 miles north of Phoenix Raceway, which provided the inspiration for the groundbreaking celebration.
The project benefits from strong drive-by traffic, direct access to I-10 to the north, future connectivity to SR-30 to the south, and proximity to the rapidly expanding Alamar master-planned community.
In lieu of a traditional “shovel ceremony,” Evergreen marked the occasion with a Race to the Finish, during which project team members and collaborators tested their racing prowess with an RC Racecar Micro-Track Racing event. Nick Vanderwey won the kick-off race.
In addition to Ortiz and DeLuca, Avondale Mayor Mike Pineda spoke at the celebration. DeLuca and Pineda, along with the Vanderwey family, were presented by Evergreen with project-branded RC Racecars to commemorate the occasion.
This project was made possible through the joint venture partnership between Evergreen Development and the Vanderwey family.
Project partners also include Phoenix Commercial Advisors, Butler Design Group, Hubbard Engineering, Laskin & Associates, Kraemer Consulting Engineers, Carusso Turley Scott, Energy Systems Design, Alexander Building Company (site general contractor), and Campbell Development (Fry’s store general contractor) and Great Southern Bank (construction lender).
Black Rock Coffee, Barro’s Pizza, Chipotle, Mountain America Credit Union, Jersey Mike’s, GoodVets, DIP Nail Boutique, Cobblestone and other shops and restaurants are planned for the project.
Evergreen Development also acquired The CORE, a fully entitled and permitted planned luxury multifamily community consisting of 260 units to be located immediately west of Banner Gateway Medical Center at the U.S. 60 and Higley Road.
Hunting for well-located apartment sites in strong Metro Phoenix submarkets, Evergreen pounced on the opportunity to work with Oakdale Communities to purchase the property, according to a press release.
Evergreen negotiated and executed the purchase and sale agreement in less than one week, followed 90 days later with a fully completed acquisition that included assuming the city-approved entitlement and architectural plans.
In a development market where due diligence, underwriting, and capital funding frequently extends six months or more, Evergreen’s speed reflects its highly efficient and deliberately engineered capital execution platform, according to a press release.
“Acquiring a property midstream in the development process is one of the most difficult things to do well,” said Jim Bulsiewicz, vice president-Arizona Multifamily at Evergreen.
“There is a natural temptation to redesign, refine and rework what came before. After careful consideration, we made a disciplined decision to respect the existing plans, move decisively, and focus on execution. That discipline allowed us to preserve time — and in development, time is often the most expensive input.”
Transitions between developers often stall projects for months as new teams revisit design, budgets and scope. At the same time, raising equity, securing debt financing, and negotiating a GMP contract with a general contractor typically require parallel workstreams that introduce complexity and delay.
Evergreen’s ability to align capital partners, lenders, and contractors in record time reflects a repeatable internal system for underwriting, capital raising and execution. By running financing, construction pricing, and legal documentation concurrently — rather than sequentially — the company compressed a traditionally extended process into a single quarter.
Ortiz complimented the team.
“Led by Jim, our development and capital teams hit the mark with their proactive approach and commitment to succeed where others fail. Speed, and not luck, is the result of preparation meeting opportunity.”
Ortiz also noted that Evergreen is actively pursuing similar opportunities for well-located sites.
Mitchell Stravitz & Mark McFate with CBRE brokered the transaction.
