Both buildings will be three stories at the northeast corner of Price and Willis roads. They are expected to be completed in September 2021 and are being built speculatively.

Earlier phases of the Chandler development have landed some of the Valley’s biggest recent job announcements. In 2019, Voya Financial announced plans to hire more than 1,000 workers at its office in the development, where it leased 145,000 square feet of space. Allstate Insurance Co. also leased 150,000 square feet at Park Place, as well as another building nearby, where it aimed to create 2,500 jobs in total.

“The city of Chandler has been a great partner in bringing quality tenants to the area,” said David Allred, president of San Diego-based Douglas Allred, in a statement. “

The buildings were designed by Balmer Architectural Group. Willmeng Construction is the general contractor for the project and the accompanying 800-stall parking structure.

“The Douglas Allred Co. has proven that they can and will deliver in all market conditions,” said James Murphy, CEO of Willmeng, in a statement. We were excited to be a part of the team in the middle of the last recession delivering Infusionsoft (Keap), it was a tremendous accomplishment to deliver Northrop Grumman in one of the busiest markets that the state has ever experienced on a very aggressive build-to-suit schedule, and we’re thankful to kick off another speculative phase of Park Place as the world grapples with Covid-19.”

Micah Miranda, Chandler’s economic development director, told the Business Journal that economic development prospects and leads in the city have remained strong despite the Covid-19 pandemic, and he still expects companies to continue to locate business operations in the city.

Most of the office space needs of companies considering Chandler are 50,000 square feet and above, Miranda said, so adding 300,000 square feet of new spec space will help keep Chandler competitive for those businesses.

In the wake of the pandemic, Miranda said he expects companies might choose to have more private offices in their space rather than a denser, open floor plan, so even if companies shift more employees to working from home, there will still be demand for larger office footprints.

Miranda said most companies have about an 18-month lead time between when they consider a city and when they move in to their office, so companies considering Chandler now will likely be able to move in to the new phase of Park Place when it is completed. He expects to see a lot of pre-leasing activity in the new phase, despite the pandemic.

“Across all asset classes: office, industrial and even retail, we are seeing healthy numbers on the vacancy rate,” Miranda said, adding the city expects to see some redevelopment happen on older retail buildings around the city to keep things up to date and adjust with the market.