What's Missing at Wood's Latest Project?
Wood Partners aims to beat its hat trick with its latest multifamily development in Chandler, following the success of Pietra, Alta Phoenix Lofts, and Alta Ravenwood. Its selling point: a new, Class-A apartment building that will still rent for less than the $2/SF luxury price. But that means it's missing one big item.
Wood Partners announced plans to transform a one-time steel plant into Alta Steelyard Lofts, a 301-unit luxury apartment community at 353 S Washington St. Wood's Todd Taylor (here with his family) tells us one way to make those rents work in today's environment is surface parking. While the apartment will be vertical with elevators—a rarity in Chandler—it'll save "meaningful dollars" by not building a parking deck, Todd says. “That way you're taking pressure off the rents.”
Rents are a sensitive issue, considering the prime customer for Alta Steelyard are Millennials working for such nearby employment juggernauts as Motorola, Orbital Sciences, eBay, and Intel. And despite an overall pipeline of nearly 6,000 new apartment units—many in Chandler, according to Colliers—Todd says there's still room for more Wood projects here. “I've got 10 deals behind this one in various stages.”
