microsoft expanding its planned campus presence in arizona

The Microsoft Corporation has announced that it has purchased for $37 million nearly 150 currently vacant acres of land in Goodyear, Arizona
That land will be used for the full build-out of the computer giant’s planned five-building technology center.
Late last summer the Redmond, Washington-based company, founded by Bill Gates, purchased nearly 260 acres of land near the Phoenix Goodyear Airport for $48 million.
In February, members of the Goodyear City Council gave their unanimous backing to a development agreement allowing the computer giant to begin construction on the first phase of the project as soon as possible.
Speculation regarding the project has been rampant: “The question is, what is Microsoft planning?” Forbes magazine asked last fall.
“No renderings or other details have been made publicly available,” the Phoenix Business Journal noted in late December.
In a statement Microsoft spokesman Tom Harlin has only said, “Our plans are still in development and we look forward to sharing more in the future.”
That first phase, which could begin this summer, would see the building of two structures, located towards the southern end of the site between Broadway Road and Buckeye Road.
The Goodyear City Council has also given a green light to a re-zoning proposal allowing Microsoft to increase the density of its planned buildings at the site.
Those buildings, by council agreement, could be as high as 60 feet in height.

By Garry Boulard

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