USA, Arizona: The Arizona's largest distributor of Budweiser and Michelob beers plans to close its Tempe warehouse and move it to Chandler. Hensley & Co. has purchased for $5.2 million about 35 acres in the Westech Corporate Center northeast of Arizona Avenue and Warner Road, The Arizona Republic commented on March 4.

The company plans to keep its two other distribution centers in Phoenix and Prescott Valley. Plans call for closing the 100,000-square-foot center in Tempe and building a new one up to 200,000 square feet at the Chandler site, said Andy McCain, the company's chief financial officer. "It's not that it (Tempe center) is that old, but it's landlocked, and we can't expand," he said. "Space has become a concern."

The Chandler site is near another parcel of land, just north of Warner Road and east of Arizona Avenue, where Wal-Mart had proposed building one of its Supercenters. Wal-Mart has withdrawn its application for a General Plan amendment at that site at Arizona Avenue and Palomino Drive, according to Hank Pluster, Chandler planning manager.

McCain said groundbreaking on the Hensley & Co. plant probably wouldn't start until the middle of 2006 because planning for the building has just begun. "We felt it was important to secure the land because there weren't that many options that met our needs," he said. Hensley & Co., which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, is the sole distributor of Anheuser-Busch products in the Phoenix area and is also the third largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in the country, and ninth largest distributor of any kind of beer in the country, McCain said.

The company has 630 employees, and McCain said it's too early to say whether the expanded distribution center will enable it to hire more. McCain is the son of Sen. John McCain. Sen. McCain's wife, Cindy, is chairwoman of the distributor. It was founded by her father, Jim Hensley. Mike Haenel, Andy Markham and Marc Truite, with Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial LLC's Industrial Services Group, represented the seller, SunAmerica Life Insurance Co. And Tom Johnston, with Cushman and Wakefield Arizona, represented Hensley & Co.