By Brent Ruffner
A new master-planned residential development is in the works near the BNSF Railway intermodal freight and logistics center site in Surprise.
The development — called SunHaven — is expected to feature 6,000 to 7,000 homes that will eventually be built at the southeast corner of Lone Mountain Road and Pat Tillman Boulevard — southeast of U.S. 60 and Dove Valley Road, according to Nate Nathan of Nathan and Associates Inc.
About 969 acres within the planned development was recently purchased by Scott Seldin — a real estate broker and a minority owner of the Phoenix Suns, Nathan said.
The land comes with a 52-acre parcel previously owned by Lennar Homes that is expected to be used as a water treatment plant on the property’s south boundary. That treatment plant has yet to be built. Paying for the water treatment center will be a collaborative effort, he said.
Nathan and Associates Inc. represented Seldin in the land deal, he said.
Home construction on the Surprise site isn’t expected to start for about two years, according to Nathan.
The real estate broker said the land is attractive because of the intermodal freight and logistics center site, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. location in nearby north Phoenix and the Amkor Technology center being built in north Peoria.
“You’ve got this tremendous growth up here,” Nathan said.
Among other services, Amkor will package and test chips for Cuppertino, California-based Apple Inc. that nearby Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will manufacture at its north Phoenix fab, assuring a bulk of the process will happen close to the manufacturing point.
Officials say Amkor eventually will be Peoria’s largest private employer, and the 500,000-square-foot facility will be the country’s largest outsourced advanced microchip packaging facility.
Zoning and assured water supply have already been approved for this project, according to Nathan. “I compare this to Chandler/Gilbert 20 years ago,” Nathan said. “It’s going to explode. I’m excited about this one.”
A call to the city of Surprise is pending.
Editor Philip Haldiman contributed to this story.
