Leading design-build general contractor Graycor Construction Company has started construction on a new Class A hangar building at SkyBridge – a major master-planned development at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona that is slated to become the nation’s first-ever joint U.S. and Mexico inland port and customs processing hub. The aviation hangar marks the first runway-adjacent facility to begin at the project.
When complete, the new hangar building will total 82,500 square feet on the 5-acre SkyBridge Lot 107. It will include 2,500 square feet of administrative and conference space and four bays, each totaling approximately 18,000 square feet with the ability to accommodate aircraft as large as a G650 business jet. A formal groundbreaking event for the building is being scheduled for mid-March.
“SkyBridge is committed to delivering quality manufacturing and aviation facilities to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Area,” said Ariel Picker, President of SkyBridge Arizona. “We are excited by the pre-leasing activity, and look forward to delivering the first on-airside spec hangar development at the airport in more than two decades.”
“The intent of SkyBridge is to create a seamless and secure new logistics link between the U.S. and Mexico, one of our country’s largest trade partners,” said Todd Ostransky, Graycor Construction Company Vice President of the Southwest Division. “That makes the start of this first building – and its direct link to the Gateway runway – an exciting milestone.”
Located along the southwest portion of the runway at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, SkyBridge is slated to become a first-of-its kind Unified Cargo Processing (UCP) facility, allowing users to complete on-site cargo inspection and processing so that shipments between the U.S. and Mexico can be expedited directly to their destinations in Mexico.
At build-out, SkyBridge is slated to include 2 million square feet of warehouse space, 200,000 square feet of office space, 1.7 million square feet of light industrial, flex and cargo operations and 100,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. The development is targeting a range of tenants including air cargo, e-commerce, manufacturing and aviation and defense specialists.
Just south of Lot 107, Graycor is also nearing completion on Lot 106, SkyBridge Arizona’s fully speculative flex industrial building that broke ground in September 2019. Scheduled to complete in April 2020, the 52,000-square-foot building will support light industrial and warehouse use by one or two occupants. It will feature 24-foot clear height, up to four docks and storefront entries with administrative offices, conference space and break areas.
“The demand for industrial product near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is very robust, with absorption for 2019 totaling nearly 820,000 square feet and a current vacancy rate of 4.10 percent – more than 200 basis points below the greater Phoenix average,” said CBRE Senior Vice President Jackie Orcutt. “Heading into the end of Q1, we are poised to pre-lease both of our speculative buildings and are looking forward to the next phase of construction commencing at SkyBridge later this year.”
Architectural firm ADM Group and engineering firm HilgartWilson serve as Graycor’s design-build partners for SkyBridge. Jackie Orcutt and Pete Wentis of CBRE are the project’s exclusive leasing brokers.
