During a March 8 meeting, the Glendale City Council unanimously approved the 139-acre development site’s inclusion in a Foreign-Trade Zone, which are designated areas exempt from U.S. Customs rules and regulations. The inclusion will mean a 71 percent annual tax reduction for the property, with the assessment ratio downscaling from 17.5 to 5 percent.

An upgraded project

Nestle initially filed plans for a 625,000-square-foot facility to take shape within the 1,340-acre Woolf Logistics Center, on the site they acquired in December 2021. According to an economic analysis that was prepared by Phoenix-based Applied Economics in January, Nestle’s total investment would have added up to $400 million. With an estimated four-year completion date, the plant would have created 200 jobs with an average wage of $60,000. The factory’s economic impact on Glendale was estimated at $2.1 billion over the next 10 years.

However, during the City Council meeting, City Economic Development Officer Randy Huggins brought forth new information on the Nestle project. The multinational corporation expressed its intention to build a larger, 630,000-square-foot plant, and to invest up to $675 million, which would result in even larger revenues for the City of Glendale, as well as 350 new jobs.

In good company

The Glendale plant will be Nestle’s 15th food and beverage production facility in the United States. The factory will rise between Northern Avenue and Northern Parkway, east of Reems Road and north of Luke Air Force Base. The development site neighbors another 139-acre parcel where Lovett Industrial will build a 1.7 million-square-foot industrial campus.

Woolf Logistics Center is also home to several other food and beverage manufacturers, including the 722,000-square-foot canning facility of RRB Beverage Operations Inc., a joint venture between Rauch Fruit Juices, Red Bull and Ball Corp, and the nearby 916,000-square-foot Mark Anthony Brewing facility.

Greater Phoenix remains one of the nation’s top markets in terms of industrial development. According to a recent CommercialEdge report, the metro had more than 35 million square feet of space underway as of January, ranking second after Dallas-Fort Worth. However, when adding planned projects to the pipeline, The Valley accounts for an unparalleled 31.4 percent of stock.

CommercialEdge data also shows Glendale had some 1.2 million square feet of industrial space under construction at the end of February. The submarket’s pipeline grew even bigger a few days ago, when LPC Desert West broke ground on Park303’s Phase 2, which will encompass some 2.5 million square feet at full buildout.