Phoenix Metro Area Trade an Icon in Valley
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INDUSTRY UPDATE Biweekly Period Ending June 1, 2002 Phoenix Metro Area 20-screen Harkins Theater, plus as-yet-to- be-named sporting-goods, electronics, and Trade furniture stores. An icon in Valley and Arizona mall devel- RMB Enterprises plans to open about a opment was sold for nearly $1.5 billion in dozen Seattle’s Best Coffee locations in the late May. Macerich Co. of Santa Monica, Valley within the next year-and-a-half. A bit- Calif., purchased Westcor Realty, developer ter (not taste wise) rival of Starbucks, also and owner of eight malls throughout the state based in Seattle, the chain already has one (including recently opened Gateway Mall in store at the Chandler Fashion Center in Chan- Prescott and Chandler Fashion Center) and dler and will shortly open stores in Ahwa- dozens of Phoenix-area shopping centers. tukee, Mesa, and Gilbert. If coffee isn’t Westcor was formed more than three decades your cup of tea, the stores will also feature a ago by three local real estate developers who wide variety of pastries. have been able to create unique and highly Another hot, rather “cold” franchise, is Scotts- profitable properties that enjoy average-sales- per-square-foot rates much higher than the dale-based Cold Stone Creamery, which is national average. Macerich is one of the 10 eating its way into the hearts of customers largest owners of malls in the country. across the country. Now 250 franchise stores strong and projected to grow to 1,000 In related news, Westcor-owned Superstition stores by 2004, the 14-year-old chain’s 65 Springs Mall in east Mesa will undergo a administrative employees are currently $2.7 million make over and other searching for larger quarters than their changes, while Home Depot will open its current home at Scottsdale Airpark. Two first Expo Design Center in Arizona at new east Valley stores were expected to Westcor’s planned Scottsdale 101 shopping open in June — one at Gainey Village in center in northeast Phoenix. In addition to Scottsdale and another at Arizona State Uni- the make over — which includes giving the versity in Tempe. 12-year-old mall a more upscale look — the Services shopping center will add 50,000 square feet of space, allowing it to add about 10 stores To provide more flexibility in its workforce to its current total of 130. Also, the Supersti- during periods of strong and slack demand, a tion Springs’ Disney Store, one of five in the Bloomington, Minn.-based software company Valley, is among 150 locations nationwide said it will lay off about 150 software devel- closing because of subpar performance. opers at its Mesa operation over the next Renovations at the mall are expected to be several months. NCS Pearson, which em- completed by November. … The 100,000- ploys about 6,000 worldwide and 400 locally square-foot Expo store, which sells a variety (prior to the layoffs), said it will farm out the of home furnishings (excluding furniture), software-development jobs to an India sub- will anchor 600,000 square feet of retail contractor, which in turn will hire workers space on 70 acres at Scottsdale Road and on a temporary and contract basis. Partly Loop 101. Scottsdale 101 will also feature a offsetting the job loss, NCS Pearson — which develops software for educational, Work began in mid-May on a 72,000-square- government, and data-management tasks — foot addition to the University of Arizona said it is hiring 30 new software engineers Science and Technology Park (Interstate 10 in Mesa for a different project. Some of and Rita Road), home to 32 high-tech compa- those being laid off will likely be hired for nies employing 6,200 people. An $8.2 mil- those positions. lion office building, expected to open in About 40 former employees of Arthur summer of 2003, will be the first of a three- Andersen’s Valley operations have been part expansion to the 1,345-acre research hired by “Big 5” accounting competitor park. The second and third phases will Deloitte & Touche. Andersen has lost most include a 250- to 300-room hotel and labo- of its major corporate accounts in Arizona — ratory building. and laid off an unspecified number of its 500 A neighbor of the research park, Slim-Fast Phoenix-area employees — since its involve- Foods, expects to open a 550,000-square-foot ment with the Enron financial scandal became plant in early July with a staff of 70 work- known earlier this year (see May 4, 2002, In- ers. The diet-food maker, which chose Tuc- dustry Update). Deloitte & Touche now em- son over several other western cities for its ploys about 200 people at its Phoenix office second U.S. manufacturing facility, plans to (Central Avenue and Thomas Road). eventually employ 170 people at the $100 million plant. Pay will range from $11.70 an The brother of actor James Earl Jones — hour for warehouse workers to $49 an hour who is famous for his voice as Darth Vader of for managers. Slim-Fast is a subsidiary of “Star Wars” fame — is bringing his Los An- Unilever, a Dutch/British consumer-goods geles production company and poten- conglomerate that also owns Ben & Jerry’s ice tially scores of jobs (e.g., actors, caterers, cream, Lipton tea, and Hellmann’s mayonnaise. movie crews) to Phoenix. Lured by good weather and cheaper production and labor Trade costs, Mathew Earl Jones said his Blacktop Work is progressing on a 55,000-square-foot Films LLC is involved with making televi- Safeway grocery store in Sahuarita (Duval sion shows and full-length feature movies. Mine Road and La Canada Drive), about 10 Jones plans to also hire a local staff. May miles south of Tucson, while Wal-Mart is ex- the force be with him. pected to expand its existing 71,000- square-foot store on the east side of Inter- Tucson Metro Area state 19 into a “supercenter.” The Safeway, which is expected to open in late August or Manufacturing early September, will be part of a 366,000- square-foot parcel that will also include a IBM’s Storage Systems Division in Tucson Safeway service station and other retail stores. will share in its parent company’s pain, ab- As of late May, it appeared Wal-Mart was go- sorbing about 70 of the 2,000 layoffs na- ing ahead with plans to build a 150,000- to tionally announced by the computer giant in 160,000-square-foot store. late May. With around 1,600 people, the Services Tucson unit will lose about 3 percent of its workforce. Some of those laid off will have Also in Sahuarita, owners of the three-year- an opportunity to apply for jobs created by a old Civano Nursery Garden Center hope a recently announced multi-year business alli- $3 million investment will “make money grow ance with Hitachi Ltd. of Japan to shorten the from trees” and in the process create 80 jobs time to build the next generation of storage for local residents. When the 70-acre Civano devices (see April 20, 2002, Industry Update). Nursery Sahuarita Farm is completed over Industry Update (Cont.) Biweekly Period Ending June 1, 2002 the next two years, the company expects to planned community in Chino Valley harvest 50,000 trees for local builders and (north of Prescott). Granite will ask local and homeowners who now obtain their landscap- national builders to participate in the project. ing from the Phoenix area. Using a drip-irri- No start date has been given for development gation water system that needs about one- of the community. third less water than normal to grow trees, Trade the tree farm will be located in two 190,800- square-foot, computer-controlled warehouses. A California developer involved with sev- eral other Yuma projects plans to buy and st To help its customers adapt to a 21 century double the size of Southgate Mall. Craig economy, Goodwill Industries of Southern Clark, who is currently developing the city’s Arizona has expanded its mission beyond municipal complex and expects to work on selling used clothing. The 100-year-old orga- Yuma’s riverfront project, wants to purchase nization now offers 120 hours of free train- the 275,000-square-foot mall from Melvin ing for the teleservices industry to Simon and Associates by Sept. 1. The individuals who are unemployed or under- 30-year-old mall, which underwent a $5 mil- employed. In most cases, graduates of the lion remodeling in 1993, would see a num- training will be offered a job with a local call ber of new stores, in addition to the center. To qualify for the program, partici- expansion of existing chain stores, such pants must also have a high school degree or as Dillard’s, J.C. Penney, and Sears. a GED and be able to r ead and write at an 8th-grade level. For more information about Services the program, call 520-623-5174 or visit the or- Work has begun on expansion of the Riv- ganization’s web site: www.aappd.com/ erside Resort Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, statesetaside/providers/goodwill_industries. Nev., which is across the Colorado River from htm. Bullhead City, Ariz. The project includes a Tucson’s largest midwife practice was ex- two-story, 20,000-square-foot addition to pected to lose its home due to the shut- the hotel’s casino and a 190,000-square- down of the Birth & Women’s Health foot covered parking garage. Work is ex- Center in early June.