Scottsdale-based LKY Development has filed for industrial zoning on 5,157 acres near Tonopah, roughly 30 miles west of central Phoenix. The parcel sits on land that Maricopa County supervisors reclassified as Heavy Industrial in December 2024, when a comprehensive-plan amendment flipped the property’s prior designation away from the predominantly residential Belmont Development Master Plan. LKY’s current zoning request is the next regulatory step: converting the county’s policy direction into enforceable zoning that would enable actual construction on one of the largest privately assembled land positions in the Phoenix metro.

The Residential Dream That Became an Industrial Blueprint

The parcel spans the area between 347th and 371st avenues, north of Indian School Road, on land that was for years earmarked as part of a large master-planned community. The Belmont plan envisioned residential neighborhoods, retail, and employment centers that would absorb Phoenix metro growth pressing westward. The county’s December 2024 amendment was a formal acknowledgment that this particular ground is better suited to something else.

County planning documents flag warehousing, distribution, and energy production as the intended use categories for the rezoned land. Those are not compromise uses. They are the categories that drive the largest lease transactions in the Phoenix market, and assembling 5,000 contiguous acres to serve them is something that has not been possible in the established West Valley industrial belt for years.

The pivot from residential to Heavy Industrial at this address reflects a straightforward market calculation. Large-scale residential development at Tonopah requires schools, hospitals, retail anchors, and a population base that does not yet exist at scale 30 miles from the urban core. Industrial development requires acreage, freight access, and utility capacity. On those metrics, the western fringe of Maricopa County is increasingly competitive, and LKY’s filing is the largest single bet yet that the competition is real.

Why 347th Avenue Is Now on Arizona’s Industrial Map

Land at scale: There is almost nowhere remaining in the established West Valley industrial corridor where a developer can assemble 5,000 contiguous acres. The Loop 303 belt across Goodyear, Buckeye, and Avondale has been absorbing industrial development at extraordinary volume: the Phoenix metro has delivered over 100 million square feet of new industrial space since 2020, and 2025 ranked as one of the strongest net-absorption years in Phoenix history. That absorption has pushed tenant and investor interest outward. The Tonopah area is the next ring, and LKY’s proposal is the largest single land position yet filed there.

The I-11 factor: The site sits near the preferred alignment for Interstate 11, the proposed highway connecting Phoenix to Las Vegas that would form part of a continental corridor from Mexico to Canada. I-11 is still moving through planning and funding phases, but its alignment decisions have already begun redirecting industrial interest in western Maricopa County. County planning documents specifically note the Tonopah parcel’s proximity to both the preferred I-11 corridor alignment and a proposed I-10 connection. Tenants evaluating regional distribution rather than Phoenix-only warehouse space understand why that access matters at this scale.

Energy and power: The inclusion of energy production in the county’s use categories is not incidental. The West Valley’s combination of available land, solar resource, and distance from dense residential areas makes it a natural candidate for large power installations and the energy infrastructure that accompanies data center and advanced manufacturing development. Adjacent proposals in the broader Tonopah area have pointed in the same direction. Industrial clusters that co-locate with power generation have structural cost advantages as energy availability becomes a primary site-selection variable for large tenants.

What This Means If You Are Evaluating West Valley Industrial Opportunities Right Now

LKY’s zoning filing is a step in a process, not a ribbon cutting. The December 2024 plan amendment gave the project its county-level policy foundation, but individual developments on the parcel will still require their own entitlement reviews and infrastructure commitments before any space delivers. Investors, tenants, and partners evaluating opportunities tied to this site should price entitlement timeline alongside the site’s strategic position.

That distinction matters because the West Valley is not a single market. The Avondale corridor leases differently from Goodyear, which prices differently from Buckeye, and Tonopah at this point occupies its own category: county-approved land-use vision, a developer committed to a 5,000-acre position, and no delivered product yet. The advisors who can accurately underwrite a site like this are those who work regularly in West Valley emerging submarkets, not those applying metro-wide averages to an address that is still forming its own comparables.

For corporate tenants evaluating large-format distribution, logistics, or energy infrastructure in the Phoenix region, the takeaway is that the western frontier is no longer speculative in the way it was five years ago. A county has backed it in writing. A developer has made a capital commitment. The infrastructure rationale is documented in planning files. The question is no longer whether Tonopah’s industrial future arrives, but which tenants and advisors are positioned early enough to shape it on their own terms rather than the market’s.