Diversified Partners, a Scottsdale-based real estate brokerage and development company, recently announced a massive $100 million investment in a portfolio of commercial real estate projects in Glendale.
For Walt Brown Jr., founder and CEO of Diversified Partners, the interest in the city has always been there. His company has been working in Glendale for more than 10 years, and for good reason.
“Glendale has been so proactive for so many years,” Brown said. “They have always been a community that’s trying to get business done and trying to grow the city properly, and really has been a forward thinker. … We’ve all been through some recession times, they’ve always been forward thinking, and they’ve been great to us as a company.”
The projects, which include the En Fuego retail development, the Cambria Hotel, the N. 91st Avenue and Cardinals Way retail development, and the N. 75th Avenue and West Bethany Home Road commercial space, will bring 500 new job opportunities and economic growth to the city.
“When you have the excitement that is happening in the city of Glendale, the users, the credit tenants, the national publicly traded tenants, they have an interest in it, and they want to be there when you have that synergy that Glendale has,” Brown said. “A lot of cities don’t have that synergy or that X-factor that Glendale has.
“If you’re a company that’s excited about being in Glendale, they’re excited about getting you there. They make deals happen versus trying to figure out a way to run you off.”
The new developments total over 25 acres of commercial property and are quickly filling up with new businesses to serve the area, some of which include a hotel, various restaurants and shopping centers. All four projects are also in close proximity to the Westgate Entertainment District, Desert Diamond Casino, State Farm Stadium, the Entertainment District and the Loop 101.
Brown said he expects the projects to be finished by the end of 2024 and, in a worst-case scenario, by the second quarter of 2025.
“Our team is having to work super hard to make a project make business sense, and we’ve been OK doing it so far,” Brown said. “But some things have taken more time only because of that. Financing has changed drastically, and that’s affecting home sales, that’s affecting interest financing for apartment projects and complexes. So, all of that has changed a little bit.
“With financing, it really has slowed everything down. Our projects in Glendale have really passed all of those tests, and it worked out fantastically.”
With an estimated population of more than 374,000 in a five-mile radius, sporting an estimated average income of $70,000, there is more than enough cash flow for the new developments to succeed.
For Brown, this boils down to the effort the city has made toward developing the area, thus making this commercial development a prime situation for Diversified Partners to step into and help the city grow even further.
“I think Glendale has been great at balancing and really trying to do development properly and then combine it with the other users that are there,” he said. “But just as well, they’ve put residential in there and they filled those spots that needed to be filled and they’ve got the density. So, it’s a good balance.”
Through everything Brown has seen and invested in the city of Glendale, this latest project included, he and Diversified Partners will not come close to shying away from future opportunities within the city in the future.
“I think from a business standpoint, Diversified Partners would do every opportunity they could in Glendale,” Brown said. “If there are more projects that the city has some long-term and midterm visions on, we would be honored to do more business and, just as importantly, out in the community. We love Glendale. We’re not stopping at anything to be able to do more projects in Glendale.”
