Don and I skipped out of our duplicate bridge night and headed down to the Outlet Mall to hear a presentation about the coming Phoenix Mart project. This project is HUGE and will make a great impact on Casa Grande.
Jeremy Schoenfelder who is a Vice President of General Administration with AZSourcing answered questions and gave an overview of the project.
Construction will be just east of Overfield Road. (Take Florence Blvd east a couple miles past the mall.) About 585 acres of land has been purchased. Actual ground breaking for phase one should begin around March with projected completion of phase one estimated to be March of 2013. They propose a soft opening in spring with the Grand Opening in fall after winter visitors return. The purpose of the Mart is a place where wholesale buyers can come and meet with manufacturers who sell various goods. The site is geared toward wholesale buyers but we as individual shoppers can buy ones or twos also. There were original rumors that there would be a bunch of restaurants out there but right now there are only plans for a food court which will just service employees and shoppers. There will also be a convention center and probably hotel or resident accommodations. One third of the 1.5 million square foot facility will be for Chinese manufacturers, one third for US companies, and one third for other countries to represent their goods. Phase One is anticipated to bring well over 1,000 jobs to Casa Grande.
Here are some artist renditions of the proposed building and surrounding area.
I will put some links here to past articles about the project in case you aren’t up to date on local news.
Phoenix Mart Initial Announcement
The investors with the Phoenix Mart project bought the outlet mall, which is off Jimmie Kerr Boulevard and are using it as their current headquarters. Some of the empty retail space will be used as a site for initial vendors to get trained into the Mart idea. Present vendors already located there will remain.
