Showroom/retail is designed for the smaller businesses
by RaeAnne Marsh

NORTH PHOENIX – This month will see a new project begin in the hop‑scotch of commercial development in north Phoenix. Cave Creek Plaza breaks ground before month‑end at the northwest corner of Cave Creek Road and Quail Avenue a few blocks north of Loop 101. When completed– by early December–it will offer 16,830 square feet of what developer Brent Payne of Cave Creek Property Investors calls a cross between retail and showroom.

The single building is designed with distinct suites that range in size from 2,385 square feet to approximately 3,200 square feet. However, although structural columns dictate that individual suites are of predetermined size, leasing is flexible in that  businesses may lease multiple suites.

“There is an emerging need for destination showroom/retail space,” said Payne, explaining his interest in the project. With similar properties all over the Valley, he approached commercial broker Jim Ryder, of Capital Realty Advisors, looking for a suitable site in this area. The Quail Avenue parcel, Payne pointed out, “is characterized by very nice visibility on good arterial streets.”

Said Ryder, “With the Cosco (recently completed just south of the freeway) and all the

residential growth, that marketplace along Cave Creek Road is an emerging market.”

“Emerging” from its rural identity, the Quail Avenue parcel needed rezoning from S‑1 (ranchland) to C‑2 (commercial) before the project could begin. Cave Creek Property Investors worked with LGE Corporation and Sherm Cawley of Phoenix‑based Cawley Architects in the design of the plaza, which is targeted to home‑improvement businesses–such as paint, flooring, granite and tile, and patio furniture–and recreation businesses, including home gym equipment. Cave Creek Plaza has also attracted interest from a dental group, according to Ryder. “More people are looking for smaller space than large,” he noted.

The building makes the most of its Cave Creek frontage, lining up parallel with the busy arterial to give every suite exposure to passing traffic. Amenities of the project will include a monument sign on Cave Creek Road. Lessees of the shell space will be provided a tenant improvement allowance.

Clear height is 16 feet, which can afford tenants a showroom with a high ceiling or racking space for storage. Each suite features a roll‑up door in the rear of the building. Observed Payne, “The roll‑up doors provide ease of movement in and out, in a retail environment.” In fact, the rear of the building is designed for loading only, and will not include parking spaces.

Most of the parking will be located in front of the building, double loaded, with a few spaces also on the north border of the project, single loaded against the curb. “Cave Creek Plaza needs a fair amount of parking,” noted Ryder. “We could have built more on the site,” he added, underscoring the value of parking. Parking space to square footage ratio is 3.4 spaces to 1,000 square feet. 

Navigation through the site is a full 360 degrees around the building. Three driveways enter the site, with one on Cave Creek Road near the northern end of the property. The other two are on Quail, one affording direct access to the loading area in the rear of the building and the other to the parking across the front of the building.

The building will be of masonry block, and will combine split‑faced block with smooth surfaces for textural variety and visual appeal. The color palette chosen affords the contrast of light and dark within the neutral shades, with one of the deeper tones employed in a band of split‑faced block around the base of the walls.

Entrances will be defined on the building façade by massed architectural elements that add variety of height as well as move the eye forward on what would otherwise be a monotonous straight line. The building’s strong horizontal flow of design will be broken with vertical details that include pillars flanking the entrances.

The same split‑faced block that bands the base of the building will also be used for the low wall that will partially shield the parking lot from the street, affording visual integrity to the project as a whole.

For information on leasing space in Cave Creek Plaza, contact Jim Ryder of Capital Realty Advisors at (480) 563‑1000.