Casa Grande Builds Housing, Industry After TSMC lands in Arizona

Article originally posted on AZ Central on September 11, 2023

Casa Grande quickly became one of the major landing spots for semiconductor industry companies after luring a major electric vehicle manufacturer. That fast-tracked economic growth is changing the shape of the Pinal County city and altering its mix of industries.

Lucid, a luxury electric vehicle manufacturer, announced its plans for a Casa Grande assembly facility in 2016. Lucid’s manufacturing site has grown to about 2,000 acres, and other major industrial users also have taken locations in Casa Grande.

Eight companies that either supply goods or provide services to the semiconductor industry have selected locations in Casa Grande in the past three years. Many of them work with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which is building a $40 billion plant in north Phoenix.

Across the Phoenix region, which includes the companies that have announced plans in Casa Grande, 27 semiconductor industry-related companies have announced plans, bought or leased since TSMC came to Phoenix.

Casa Grande Mayor Craig McFarland said the growth is the result of proactive planning years ago, and said the city is continuing to be forward-looking in growing the manufacturing industry in the city. It expanded the industrial corridor and has worked to fight the perception that Casa Grande is too far of a drive to get to Phoenix.

“I’m always selling the city,” McFarland said. “I feel like that’s my job, to be the face of the city and promote it. It’s a great place to live, and a great place to do business.”

Demand grows for new housing types

Growing industries have brought new job prospects to Casa Grande, and with it came population growth. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, Casa Grande was the seventh-fastest growing city in the country from 2020 to 2021.

That measure was taken even before the lion’s share of the semiconductor industry suppliers announced locations in the city.

The growing population, now sitting just above 60,000, has driven demand for housing, and different types of housing.

“We have about 900 to 1,000 apartment units that are going to be available in the next six months, with another 1,000 or so planned,” McFarland said. “Before this, we hadn’t built a new apartment complex in about 20 years.”

Before the economic development boom brought on by companies flocking to the area, Casa Grande’s rental housing inventory was nearly full, with between 90% and 100% occupancy, Casa Grande City Manager Larry Rains said.

Most of the new apartment units coming to the city are still under construction but are likely to serve some of the manufacturing employees who are relocating to the city, he said.

Developers have taken note of the growing population and dearth of available rental housing, and several projects of different sizes and types are in the pipeline.

At the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission meeting in July, the commission approved a site plan for a 209-unit single-family rental development planned on about 19 acres of land and recommended the council approve a zoning change for a proposed apartment and commercial development on about 17 acres of land.

Hundreds of apartments and single-family rentals have gone before the council in the past year, including another single-family rental community planned by Scottsdale developer Empire Group, which was approved in January.

Rains said Casa Grande has traditionally been a place where residents leave to go to Phoenix when they have disposable income and want to go shopping, visit an entertainment venue or attend an event. But the residential growth is also driving demand for services, restaurants and other things to do within the city.

In late 2022, the council gave approval for a large development located near the Promenade Mall, which makes way for a variety of new uses, including more apartments, retail, restaurants and commercial developments.

Developers bullish on industrial properties

Industrial development is also growing in the city, and for the first time, developers are beginning to build speculatively, meaning they will begin a project without a business signed on to use it, said Trey Davis, a real estate broker with Land Advisors who specializes in Pinal County.

One such project, a speculative industrial development proposed by the Opus Group, plans to bring two industrial buildings totaling 319,500 square feet near Hanna Road west of Sunland Gin Road. The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission will vote on a major site plan for the project at its September meeting.

Davis said Casa Grande first started seeing some interest from businesses and developers around 2017 or 2018, after Lucid had announced plans to come.

“When TSMC announced, that’s when the floodgates really opened,” he said.

1 large supplier started the trend

Davis worked on the deal that brought Chang Chun, one of the largest suppliers to land in Arizona, to Casa Grande. The company is building a $300 million facility on 84 acres in Casa Grande.

Chang Chun had been looking at locating in the Deer Valley area, closer to where TSMC is building its plant, Davis said. His colleague, Michele Pino, had been working with the company when it was suggested that it look at Casa Grande, where the land would be cheaper, Davis said.

Once Chang Chun, one of the largest suppliers, bought in, the snowball effect began, Davis said, and the other suppliers began buying land nearby.

“The international crowd realized it when Chang Chun came,” he said.

Casa Grande has its advantages for businesses, Davis said. Pinal County allows unlimited height for buildings that are used in the manufacturing process, like cooling towers, and land prices can be as little as half of what it might cost in Maricopa County for sites with comparable infrastructure.

The new businesses in Casa Grande have grown the manufacturing economy, and one of the area’s legacy industries, mining, continues to grow.

Ivanhoe Electric bought more than 6,200 acres of land in Casa Grande at its Santa Cruz Copper Project, the company announced in May. It will acquire all mineral rights to the site and plans to develop a copper mine. The total purchase price of the land was $120.5 million to be paid over four years.