We asked Boxer Property to look back on 2014, viewed by many as a watershed time for Phoenix. One type of tenant in particular has put a jolt back into business.

Boxer's Sean Ryle says the firm has seen a demand turnaround in its 280k SF Phoenix portfolio. He attributes "most of our success to finding small businesses who needed upgraded office space." Case in point: Sean just expanded SimplePay into 5,100 SF at Lakeside Center. Small potatoes to be sure. But the firm did expand from its previous 3,600 SF. And multiply those scenarios many times over for 2014.

Sean says Boxer has seen a lot of activity with its spec suite spaces as well. It built out 40k SF of plug-and-play space, then leased 15k SF of it at Lakeside Center (pictured). The best part, Sean says, is the small tenants are coming back 12 months later needing more space: “I think we're going to grow some of these smaller companies into the larger tenants.”