Construction on a distribution center for Red Bull North America (RBNA) is tentatively scheduled to begin by the end of the second quarter. The 700,000-plus sq-ft facility will be located on nearly 61 acres at Reems Road between Olive and Peoria avenues in the booming New Frontier District in Glendale, Ariz.

Slated to be operational in 2021, the one-level shipping hub for Red Bull products is expected to generate 100-plus construction jobs at peak. A general contractor has not yet been named. Developed by the Merit Partners Inc., the building is being designed by the Butler Design Group. Both firms are based in Phoenix.

Just north of the RBNA parcel is a 722,000-sq-ft can-filling facility for Red Bull, Raüch Fruit Juices & Ball Corp. (RRB), located on 125 acres. Also developed by Merit Partners, the RRB building is being completed by Scottsdale-based Renaissance Cos. Started in 2019, the $140-million design-build project is expected to be complete by June 2020. Butler Design Group is the architect.

Adjacent to that project is a 530,000-sq-ft manufacturing plant for the Ball Corp., Broomfield, Colo., to be completed by the Phoenix office of Layton Construction. Expected to start by the end of 2020, the $100-plus-million design-build project should finish up in 2021. Merit Partners is the developer and Butler Design Group is the architect. An additional beverage supply-chain building will eventually be built adjacent to it.

A fourth building, just south of the RBNA center on 94.1 acres, is the design-build delivery of 916,000-sq-ft Mark Anthony Brewing (White Claw) brewery and BrewPure facility, begun by Layton Construction earlier this year and scheduled for completion in June. Merit Cos. and Butler Design Group are also the developer and architect for the $250-million project.

In addition to providing construction jobs, more than 200 full-time jobs are expected, says Brian Friedman, economic development director for the city of Glendale. Construction is continuing, with COVID-19 protocols in place. “At this time projects aren’t slowing down and construction crews are working as they were,” Friedman says.

The four buildings are part of the 1,300-acre Woolf Logistics Industrial Campus, which the city annexed in 2017.

The cluster of projects has generated the need for improved infrastructure on the former farm land. As a result, the state’s largest electricity provider, Phoenix-based APS, is building a 2.25-mile underground power line and substation just south of the White Claw Building, to be completed in June and December, respectively.

Also expected by the end of this year is a 6.5-mile sewer main installed by EPCOR, Edmonton, Canada.

The projects are included in 5.4-plus million sq ft of development in the New Frontier District, which encompasses the Loop 303 corridor, an area west of Luke Air Force Base between Peoria and Camelback roads and extending to Cotton Lane on the west. Among the companies that have chosen to build in the area are UPS, Barclay, REI and Hines.

“When global companies . . .  make a commitment to an area, others take notice,” Friedman says. “That’s what’s taking place in our New Frontier, where just over a year ago there was absolutely no activity, and now there are over 10 projects in motion.”