Phoenix Mart - Casa Grande (Tempe, Florence: sales, 2013, apartments) - Arizona (AZ) - City-Data Forum

sh9730 · 08-04-2011, 02:54 PM

The City of Casa Grande officially anounced yesterday that "Phoenix Mart" will soon be a reality:

City of Casa Grande - City of Casa Grande News

From the press conference yesterday - "Phoenix Mart is expected to create in excess of 3,000 direct jobs in Casa Grande, Arizona with an initial investment of approximately $150 million in building and infrastructure. Most of the investment for the construction of the project will come from foreign sources under the Federal Immigration EB5 Program. The EB5 Program requires the creation of 10 permanent new jobs for each $500,000 investment. "

From the ABC link below - "3000 DIRECT jobs in Casa Grande with an additional 4000 indirect statewide".

The initial phase will be a remade "welcome and information center" to be housed in the aging Outlet Mall along I 10 near I 8. Then the actual development will be built along Florence Blvd east of I 10. The actual site will be just east of the recently built mall (Kohls/JC Penny/Best Buy etc..) at I 10 and Florence Blvd that you see when driving through town.

The artist rendering of this place in the SantanValley news link below is pretty cool looking!

This entire concept is based upon similar projects in Dubai and China.

GREAT NEWS!! Maybe this is part of reason so many houses getting snatched up by investors here lately?

More from the Santan Valley article:

"Phoenix Mart will be the biggest international commerce and distribution center in the region, occupying an area of 660,000 square meters - architectural area of 150,000 square meters. Phoenix Mart will be subdivided into 6 commercial "streets" or industry areas, a convention center and a distribution center. The entire center will be occupy 2,200,000 square meters, including a distribution center, hotels, apartments, business complexes, education and medical facilities and so on. The Phoenix Mart complex will essentially be a new town inside the City of Casa Grande."

http://www.santanvalleypublications....n-pinal-county

Phoenix Mart could bring thousands of jobs to Arizona

OH, this is not some "pie in the sky - someday" thing. Construction to be completed by end of 2012 or early 2013.

Ms Joan 2010 · 08-04-2011, 03:04 PM

With what just happened today in the Dow Jones dipping 500 points, I pray that this project still happens. It would be a shame if it didn't. But the info you relayed is encouraging and insightful.

sh9730 · 08-04-2011, 09:03 PM

Just a quick add on - I finally watched the entire press conference video. Turns out the old outlet mall is not only going to be an information center on this entire project, BUT will also be remodeled and become a major showroom etc for the yaKool company, a supplier of furnishings to 4 and 5 star hotels and resorts. This part of the project is scheduled to create about 300 jobs and be completed by early 2012.

slowesthand · 08-05-2011, 07:32 AM

why is it called Phoenix Mart if it's in Casa Grande?

sh9730 · 08-05-2011, 08:18 AM

They talked about this at the press conference.....its the whole "rising from the ashes" theme etc...plus its complimentary to the "dragon" in the Chinese culture and one of the other similar centers in the world is called "Dragon Mart".

But Im sure much of it has to do with noone outside of this area has ever heard of Casa Grande, but has heard of Phoenix. Even the logo for the new center is almost identical to the City of Phoenix logo.

I dont really care what they call it....we ll just take the 3000 jobs here!

sh9730 · 08-05-2011, 10:23 AM

Just one more link. A quick Q n A in our local paper this morning.

TriValley Central > Front > Casa Grande braces for potential economic windfall (http://www.trivalleycentral.com/articles/2011/08/05/front/doc4e3c0e9b759ef429794287.txt - broken link)

Nothing really new except that this will be mostly wholesale/manufacturing sales etc...with a small retail component. So there wont be a lot of annual sales tax revenue for the city. But there will be a couple of new (my guess is higher end than we have now) hotels built which will provide occupant taxes, some property taxes, and of course the ancillary purchasing the visitors do in CG.

AZ bound · 08-05-2011, 01:27 PM

Soooo, this is a service that promotes businesses to a world market?
I'm not getting how that gets 3000 jobs, or if it's anything more than office space, but if it helps, more power to them.

sh9730 · 08-05-2011, 01:54 PM

Well...it is sort of a display room. The idea is that these people who buy for these various markets will be able to visit the showrooms of MANY MANY suppliers in their industry in a single place. So, one of the categories is "hotel" - if you are a buyer for a hotel chain you can visit this place and see hundreds of hotel supply companies in a single place without having to travel to their showrooms all over the country as well as make the actual deals at this site.

They plan on respresenting over 2000 suppliers here....some of the business will likely represent multiple companies so there wont be 2000 actual "stores" here....but at least several hundred I would think (for example the "Dragon Mart" in Dubai has 849 stores). Even at a few employees per "store" that is a lot of people.

This will sort of be like an ongoing trade show - although part of the complex will be a convention center where they will actually have trade shows as well....not sure if these shows will allow other vendors that come from outside "Phoenix Mart" or not? But the theory is these industry buyers will come into town and spend several days here at the various hotels, eat at the restaraunts, etc. In addition, they plan to be able to ship product ordered at these shops within 30 days, given that many of the suppliers will be coming from China, this will require storage and transportation nearby, hence the Casa Grande Choice...with easy access to Pacific ports by I 8/I 10 and rail.

So, when you take into account the actual employees at the storefronts (1000 seems minimum), then the complex maintenance people, marketers of the center, then staff for the hotels involved etc...the numbers add up pretty quickly and these are just the DIRECT people. You also have to factor in the additional staff that is required in town for new residents, visitors, etc...

But even if it turns out to be just 1000 jobs....still good!

Eusense · 08-05-2011, 02:08 PM

What Phoenix need is projects bringing in new revenue and people to the city and suburbs. Research and development and manufacturing are better entities than retail services. There is a limited clientele for retail businesses and jobs pay lower.

sh9730 · 08-05-2011, 02:16 PM

Eusense,

Although this project is not directly manufacturing, it is not retail either. This is almost exclusively going to be a business to business operation where buyers for various industries come in and make large quantity purchases.

There apparently will be some retail allowed, for example there will be a kids clothes "section", but the vendors here will be trying to sell to department stores in general, but if someone walks in off the street and wants to buy something, apparently that will be allowed, from what I read so far. But that is not the main focus of this enterprise at all.

For example, one of the "stores" that will be here is a Tempe based company "Arizona Valve". They make industrial valves for places like Intel etc...not too many retail sales of items like that.

The initial backers of this entire thing are from China mostly, so yes, there will be a major Chinese influence, but the hope is that many USA manufacturers and suppliers will also garner a presence here.