El Mirage is looking to expand opportunities and attract more businesses to a massive logistics park in the West Valley known as LogistiCenter at Copperwing, which is being developed by Nevada-based Dermody Properties.

In July, the city gave its support to designate half of the park, or nearly 700 acres, as a Foreign Trade Zone magnet site, a government-designated site that significantly reduces property taxes.

A foreign trade zone allows domestic and foreign material to be stored, distributed, processed and used without being subject to customs duty and other costs. It's used by many Valley cities to compete for projects and provides qualifying companies federal tariff and tax relief for land, buildings and personal property.

The LogistiCenter at Copperwing has seen significantly increased activity in the past year. The city said in a recent report that seven new speculative buildings are currently planned for the park.

"These buildings need tenants and will be competing with several other vacant buildings in the area," city documents said in July.

The city will write a letter of support for the foreign trade zone status on the property, while the designation is ultimately approved by the federal government.

The overall industrial park, which totals 1,400 acres, is located along El Mirage Road between Northern Parkway and Peoria Avenue northeast of Luke Air Force Base.

Last year, Dermody Properties purchased 1,000 acres in the park and said it could build about 10 million square feet of...

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By Audrey Jensen - Reporter for Phoenix Business Journal, July 22, 2022.