Walls are up for first Ten Mile Road office building

The five-year wait for development at the Ten Mile Road interchange at Interstate 84 ended in September as Brighton Corp. and Gardner Co. started construction on their joint venture, Ten Mile Crossing. The project will bring office buildings, retail and housing to the western edge of Meridian.

The four tilt-up walls are up at the interchange’s northeast quadrant for the two-story, 70,000-square-foot new home of benefits administrator AmeriBen. Brighton Corp. CEO David Turnbull anticipates completing the building in May, with AmeriBen moving in during June.

Turnbull expects to start construction in March on a second office building measuring four stories and 64,000 square feet. He will relocate his Brighton offices to this building, which will also house Horrocks Engineering.

“We are doing site plans on three to five more multiple-story, four-story-plus office buildings,” Turnbull said. “(Office demand for Ten Mile Road) has changed pretty dramatically over the last six months. Activity breeds activity.”

Except for the tilt-up AmeriBen structures, the other office buildings will be steel and glass. Babcock Design Group is the project architect and ESI Construction is the general contractor.

Back in summer, a third office building was discussed but a construction date was unknown. Now Turnbull has “substantive pre-leasing” in place and expects to start building the five-story, 127,000-square-foot third structure in May.

Ten Mile Crossing and Brighton’s Ten Mile Creek, a combined 130 acres, are the first projects for the 800 undeveloped acres surrounding the I-84/Ten Mile Road interchange, considered the largest, prime, undeveloped freeway interchange between Portland and Salt Lake City.

Ten Mile Creek will be a retail complex of an expected five buildings at Ten Mile and Franklin roads. The first announced tenant there is a 6,300-square-foot Primary Health Medical Group clinic that Rocky Mountain Companies will develop some time in 2017.

Turnbull is negotiating with two tenants for a second 10,000-square-foot retail building at Ten Mile Creek, and is negotiating with three tenants for additional retail buildings.

“We’re also exploring multi-family housing,” Turnbull said. “We’re working pretty aggressively right now. Hopefully, some time next year (some apartments will be built).”