INDUSTRY UPDATE Biweekly Period Ending June 2, 2001 Phoenix Metro Area the fast-growing discount department store Manufacturing are: Desert Ridge Marketplace, northeast Phoenix; Agua Fria Towne Center, Glendale; If you see a funny-looking yellow object cir- Gilbert Gateway Towne Center; and Loop 202 cling the Valley sky in the near future, don’t and Power Road, Mesa. Developer Vestar call the UFO hotline. It’s probably a test will build all of these centers. … With four flight of a gyroplane, whose manufacturer months until opening, Chandler Fashion intends to open a 200,000-square-foot Center, Loop 101 and Chandler Boulevard, is manufacturing facility in Glendale by 90 percent leased. About 3,500 jobs will spring 2002. Salt Lake City-based Groen be created by the 1.3 million-square-foot Brothers, which builds the odd-looking com- mall. … Scottsdale Fashion Square bination (Scottsdale and Camelback roads) is expected plane and to land either Bloomingdale’s or Macy’s to helicopter (it replace the 235,000-square site formerly used has a propel- by Sears, which exited the mall earlier this ler on the top year. It would be the Valley’s first Blooming- and middle), dale’s or sixth Macy’s. … Westcor Cos., intends to which owns the Chandler and Scottsdale move its Fashion Centers, has two power centers in manufactur- the development stage and is expand- UFO? No, this is newest ver- ing operation ing/renovating several others. Westcor is sion of the gyroplane Hawk 4. to the Glen- pre-leasing a planned 1 million-square-foot dale Airport, th Gilbert Crossroads center, Williams Field 107 and Glendale avenues. Currently em- and Greenfield roads, and the 620,000-square- ploying about 30 people at a Buckeye test foot Scottsdale 101, Scottsdale Road and facility, Groen expects to initially hire 300 Mayo Boulevard. And the Phoenix-based workers for the production facility. The shopping center developer plans to renovate company, which is awaiting Federal Aviation four other properties — Arrowhead Towne Administration approval for its latest version Center, Glendale; Superstition Springs Center, of the gyroplane, the Hawk 4, has 140 orders Mesa; Desert Sky Mall, west Phoenix; and totaling $105 million. Potential customers are Paradise Valley Mall, north Phoenix. Planned law enforcement, utilities, and tour operators. at Arrowhead and Desert Sky, new anchor Retail Trade stores; at Desert Sky and Paradise Valley, ex- panded movie complexes; and at Superstition A number of news stories relating to the Val- and Desert Sky, outdoor “village” retail shops. ley surfaced out of the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas Government in late May. Among the biggest news was The Federal Reserve is nearing completion that Wisconsin-based Kohl’s is planning to of its new cash operations center in Phoe- open at least 10 stores in the Phoenix-area nix, while the U.S. Postal Service an- over the next several years. Likely sites for nounced it will open several new branches over the next couple of months and build a Services $14 million airmail center near Sky Harbor An Illinois-based teleservices company will International Airport. The 66,000-square-foot open a 63,000-square-foot call center to Federal Reserve facility, which will employ handle clients of a high-speed Internet pro- about 50 people, will open in early Sep- vider. APAC Customer Services Inc., tember. The windowless, high-security which expects to hire 450 full- and part- building at 47th Avenue and McDowell Road time workers, will service incoming sales will house excess cash for banks, savings & calls. Entry-level workers will make around loans, and credit unions in the state. Some- $8 an hour, plus bonuses. APAC is moving what less imposing will be the three new post into a facility at 1650 S. Research Loop for- office branches: opening in July, Crimson merly occupied by First Data Corp., which Road and Southern Ave., Mesa; Bell Road and closed its operation and laid off 1,100 work- Parkview Place, Surprise; and in September, ers last year when a contract ended with MCI 2550 E. Rose Garden Lane, north Phoenix. WorldCom. For more information, call The 145,000-square-foot airmail center at 1-800-776-2722 or go to APAC’s Internet site: 24th Street and Buckeye Road, expected to http://www.apaccustomerservices.com/ open in February 2003, will be six times careers. larger than the post office’s current Sky Har- bor facility. Government To help pay for a nearly $4,000 per-employee Tucson Metro Area raise and offset a $10 million budget deficit, Mining the Tucson Unified School District will eliminate more than 100 (filled and unfilled) Although 80 workers were laid off at a positions. Workers who lose their jobs will Tyrone, N.M., mining and leaching operation, be given priority in filling vacant positions. for the time being, Phelps Dodge plans no layoffs at its Sierrita copper and molybde- num mine in Green Valley, about 50 miles Balance of State south of Tucson. In January, Phelps Dodge Construction notified 2,500 workers at several mines in Ari- zona and New Mexico of the possibility of A number of building projects in various layoffs due to escalating energy costs. As re- th stages of development were recently in the ported in the May 5 Industry Update, in an news. The Camp Verde Town Council ap- unrelated move, 500 administrative work- proved plans for three parcels of land near ers at the company’s headquarters in Phoenix Interstate 17 and Arizona 260. Work on and other locations throughout the world the project, which is expected to include res- were laid off. taurants, hotels, and convenience stores, Trade could be under way within a year. … Lake Havasu City investors are attempting to Family Dollar, a national discount retailer, line up stores for a 240-acre regional recently opened its fourth and fifth loca- mall/“power center” where Home Depot is tions in Tucson, with plans for five more currently building a 140,000-square- foot store stores this year. The Charlotte, N.C.-based (State Route 95 near the municipal airport). chain, which has 4,000 stores in 39 states, An announcement about the project’s status is has 33 locations throughout Arizona. Family expected by the end of July. … Phoe- Dollar, with sales of $3.1 billion, plans to nix-based Westcor Cos. has reduced by open 500 stores throughout the country in three-fourths the size of its planned 90-acre 2001. expansion of Flagstaff Mall. Lack of city Industry Update (Cont.) Biweekly Period Ending June 2, 2001 funding for infrastructure — through a sales tax — has led to the elimination of a 50-acre Statewide business park and half of a 40-acre retail Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate shopping village (including a 10-screen movie complex). Still planned is a Wal-Mart Two of the state’s largest health mainte- “supercenter.” … Yavapai County supervi- nance organizations (HMOs) suffered sors gave preliminary approval to a 700- losses in the first quarter of 2001, continuing acre project in Paulden (southeast of a negative trend from the year before. Prescott), called Rancho Cielo, that will fea- United HealthCare of Arizona lost $1.8 mil- ture more than 1,250 single-family resi- lion, and Health Net of Arizona, $6.4 mil- dences built in nine phases. Formerly lion, in the first quarter. United HealthCare known as Headwaters Ranch (because of its has 255,000 members and Health Net has closeness to the Verde River headwaters), 320,000 clients. In 2000, half of the state’s Rancho Cielo will also include a golf course 10 largest HMOs lost money after taxes, and commercial area. Work on the golf with United ($35 million) and Health Net ($25 course will begin within a year. million) bleeding the largest amount of red ink. Rising health care costs — prescriptions, Government expanded treatments, hospital bills — are blamed for the tough times in the industry. Despite a 4.2 percent drop in its yearly bud- While some layoffs in the industry have been get — due to fewer capital-spending projects reported, for the most part HMOs in Arizona — Coconino County will increase its continue to expand their operations, primarily full-time staff by more than 30 during fis- because of the state’s rapid population cal year 2001-2002. The county will employ growth. more than 1,050 full-time workers if all of the new positions are filled. Information on the type of jobs being added was not avail- able. Services The hiring of a full-time nursing professor at UPDATE the Northern Arizona University-Yuma cam- INDUSTRY pus is expected to lead to the training and employment of additional nursing per- I is produced biweekly as a stand-alone sonnel for Yuma Regional Medical Center ndustry Update publication and quarterly as Arizona Economic (YRMC). The medical center, which desper- part of Trends by the Arizona Department of Economic Security, ately needs nurses for its intensive care Research Administration. Industry Update is a compilation unit and operating room, will pay the sal- of public announcements and articles from newspapers and ary of the professor. The full-time teaching periodicals about business events significant to Arizona la- position is expected to allow the school to bor markets. Due to space limitations, however, an exhaus- enroll more students in its bachelor’s degree tive list of industry news is not feasible. In addition, DES, program. Another source of nurses is Ari- Research Administration is not responsible for incorrect in- zona Western College (in Yuma), which formation reported by these sources.