After decades of talking about building a city center in Litchfield Park, the city is set to break ground on the 400,000-square-foot mixed-used development later this month.

The $52 million project, dubbed Litchfield Square, could include 13 buildings ranging in size from 8,000 to 120,000 square feet of office, residential or retail space and three parking garages, according to the city.

It will be built on about 30 acres owned by the city near Litchfield Road and Wigwam Boulevard in Litchfield Park, a fast-growing small suburb in the West Valley that's just south of Luke Air Force Base.

The site will be developed in five phases, include a 2.5-acre park and be home to potential restaurants, stores, professional offices or luxury condominiums.

Once complete, the site will have a total of 2,000 parking spaces between the ground and parking garages. The garages won’t be built until the entire project is about 40% built out, according to the city.

Infrastructure will cost about $26 million, while the parking garages will also cost about $26 million, according to Litchfield City Manager Matthew Williams, who said the city expects to collect about $2 million annually in sales tax from the completed project.

'Huge project for the city'

Williams said he expects to see buildings go up by the end of 2022 and the entire project to be finished in about five years. It took “a while” for the city to buy of all the properties, but the city said the project has come together in the past few years.

“It’s been a long time coming. This is a huge project for the city, to bring in new office space, residential space, retail space,” Williams said. “It’s just been lining all the pieces up.”

Litchfield Park purchased 16 acres from Dragon and Crane Corporation for $2.8 million in 2015 and another 6 acres of the site in 2017 for $2.1 million from Torino Holdings LLC, according to real estate database Vizzda.

The new center comes as another nearby city broke ground on its own civic center in April. Called Goodyear Civic Square at Estrella Falls, the city of Goodyear and Globe Corp. started construction this year on the project that will bring a new city hall, library, public park and long-awaited speculative office space to the city.

The proposed office spaces in Litchfield Park could also add to the low inventory of office space in the West Valley. In the second quarter this year, JLL said the West Valley had 13.8 million square feet of total office inventory compared to 96.3 million across the Phoenix metro.

Out of 2.1 million square feet of office under development in Phoenix metro, the West Valley had about 228,628 square feet under development in Q2, according to JLL.

Developers can bid on parcels

Williams said the city started work on rough grading and infrastructure in June. The official groundbreaking for the development will take place on Sept. 15 at 9 a.m. behind City Hall at 214 W. Wigwam Blvd.

According to the city, the $26 million in infrastructure will be paid through a $15 million bond and about $10 million in city funds. Eventually, Williams said the city will establish a Community Facilities District on the property, so people who buy or lease in Litchfield Square will pay the facilities district tax.