By Richard Smith | Your Valley
It was something Surprise Economic Development Director Jeanine Jerkovic did not originally anticipate announcing until around 2030.
But by the beginning of April she could announce that the Southwest Railplex — the city’s two-mile industrial zone stretching from Waddell Road south to Peoria Avenue and from Dysart Road west to Litchfield Road — has sold all of its large parcels, defines as 20 acres or more.
After slow growth in the 2010s, punctuated by Japanese plastics firm IRIS opening its 450,000-square-foot North American headquarters in the railplex in 2016, the convergence of several factors inside and outside of the city caused Surprise’s commercial growth timeline to accelerate by at least five years.
