On the heels of building a 408-unit apartment community at Cooley Station in Gilbert, a California developer is working its way through planning and zoning for another $300 million project next door.
Frankel Family Trust, which developed Crossing at Cooley Station in 2022, now plans to build the 568-unit Trax at Cooley Station on a 20-acre parcel west of the southwest corner of Recker and Williams Field roads.
"We are officially going through the town process to get through planning and zoning for design review approval," said Michael Kron, chief operating officer of Santa Ana, California-based Frankel Family Trust.
Upon approvals, Kron expects to begin construction during the fourth quarter of this year, with leasing starting in the summer of 2027. The project will be a mix of four-story and five-story buildings. The tallest structures will rise along Williams Field Road, which is what the town wanted, Kron said.
"One of the buildings is going to be a five-story wrap project where you won't see the parking structure inside where tenants can park on their floor level and walk to their units," Kron said. "We build a lot of these in Texas, but not so much in Arizona."
The other buildings will offer surface parking, creating a hybrid of garden style apartments, he said.
Across the street is Verde at Cooley Station, a 23-acre mixed-use development at the southwest corner of Williams Field and Recker Roads. Anchored by the 38,000-square-foot Verde Medical Center, the mixed use development includes apartments, an outdoor amphitheater and several restaurants as well as wellness, fitness and beauty retailers.
Norman Brody, president of Scottsdale-based Brody Associates Inc., assembled a group in 2018 to begin development of the $60 million Verde at Cooley Station. Commoner & Co. closed its Tucson doors last summer with plans to move to Verde at Cooley Station later this year, Brody said, adding that a butcher shop also will be opening soon.
"We've obtained a beer and wine license for our performance venue called The Green," Brody said. "So now we can offer beer and wine for some of the events that we have. We've been holding 50+ events on an annual basis."
Verde at Cooley Station is a mixed-use project in Gilbert that now has a liquor license for events at The Green.
Before Brody embarked on development of Verde at Cooley Station, the land was farmed by the Cooley family. Also under development at the same time as his project was a Fry's-anchored retail center on the southeast corner of Recker and Williams Field roads and a couple of apartment deals.
That area is attractive to the Frankel Family Trust because of its proximity to Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus and Mesa Gateway Airport, Kron said.
"Everything is getting built out along the 202 through Chandler and Gilbert," Kron said. "It's just incredible growth and more planned on Power Road. There's just so much business coming into the southeast Valley. It makes it a really attractive environment for residents to live."
Over the years, Kron has gotten to know Jeff Cooley, developer of the 900-acre Cooley Station master plan development where the Cooley family had farmed cotton, alfalfa and grain since the early 1900s.
"Their vision for what the area should be has been very good," Kron said. "When we got the opportunity to buy a parcel across the street from Crossing we jumped at it."
Area around the development is growing rapidly
CoStar is tracking about 9,500 existing market-rate apartment units within a 3-mile radius of Williams Field and Wade Drive, where Trax at Cooley Station is planned, said Conner Devereux, director of market analytics for CoStar Group/Homes.com.
"About half of those deliveries have come since the start of 2020, highlighting the area's rapid growth," Devereux said. "Apartment inventory for the Valley as a whole rose about 30% during the same time frame."
Within a 1-mile radius of the proposed Trax at Cooley Station, Northmarq is tracking 1,978 units.
"All of the units have been delivered since 2019," said Peter O'Neil, national director of research for Northmarq.
Properties in that surrounding area seem to be performing well, with its 6.7% vacancy coming in lower than the metro Phoenix average, O'Neil said. Rents in that area are averaging $1,767 a month, which is about $250 a month higher than the metro Phoenix average, he said.
"You'd expect the healthy rents since the existing properties are all pretty new — developed in the last few years," O'Neil said.
Trax at Cooley Station to be flush with amenities
Kron said he's going big on amenities at Trax at Cooley Station, with a clubhouse boasting two indoor pickleball courts, a basketball half court, racquetball court, pilates/yoga room and tranquility lounge with sauna.
Exterior amenities will include two pool areas, tot lot, sand volleyball court, tennis court, two pickleball courts, two dog parks, corn hole area, bocci ball court and multiple ramadas.
BMA Architecture is the architect and the general contractor is Chasse Building Team, which has built all of Frankel Family Trust's projects in Arizona, Kron said.
Chasse is in the middle of building the 760-unit Tuscany at Gabriella Pointe near Warner and Higley in Gilbert.
With a total development cost of more than $300 million, that community has about 280 units available for lease, with 160 currently occupied, Kron said. Full construction completion is expected within a year.
Trax at Cooley Station will be Frankel Family Trust's fifth multifamily development in Arizona — all of them are in the southeast Valley.
"The school district in Gilbert is very highly rated," Kron said. "It's becoming a wonderful place for people to live. With what's happening here in California, a lot of them are going to Arizona. That makes me very bullish on Arizona."