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By Chase Kamp Southeast Valley Ledger
AZ Sourcing, the developer for the Phoenix Mart international wholesale marketplace coming to Casa Grande, will likely be breaking ground in December, according to Casa Grande officials, with an estimated opening date of October 2013.
John Wagner, Director of Community Relations for Phoenix Mart, said he was recently in Washington meeting with the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Association of Wholesalers, which represent 36,000 businesses in the manufacturing and wholesale trade. “We’ve been talking to them about this project and educating them about it,” he said.
About 60 percent of Phoenix Mart’s commercial space has been committed to overseas firms, Wagner said. “We want to really get American firms and get the commitments from American manufacturers and wholesalers,” he said.
Wagner said Phoenix Mart is aiming for a tenant mix being one-third U.S.-based entities, one-third China-based and one-third from the rest of the world. “We would think that would be an ideal mix of international tenants that would promote cross-trade for U.S. manufacturers,” he said.
The project has made some serious strides, Wagner said, as offers are coming in and letters of intent are being signed as Phoenix Mart gets commitments from companies both here in the U.S. and overseas.
District 1 Supervisor David Snider said the Phoenix Mart concept is a bit like IKEA crossed with a farmer’s market, where buyers are examining price points, product quality and a fruitful relationship with a vendor. “When you put that on steroids, it’s Phoenix Mart,” he said. “It’s designed to showcase manufactured products for a number of different wholesale vendors.”
Phoenix Mart will be the third of its kind in the world with two other similar wholesale marketplaces in China and Dubai. Snider said the name Phoenix Mart was chosen, even though it will reside in Pinal County, because of the significance of the mythological phoenix in Chinese culture.
The first phase of the mammoth commercial center will be 1.5 million square feet of building all under one roof. “By way of reference, the Promenade Mall in Casa Grande, with all of the parking lots, is a million square feet,” Snider said.
In regard to the economic impact Phoenix Mart will have, Snider said it will “dramatically change Pinal County.” The project is anticipated to create 3,000 full-time jobs upon its initial phase, with further opportunities for growth in the future.
About 60 percent of the vendor space will be dedicated to domestic vendors, with the rest going to international manufacturing firms that have already begun bidding for leases. “It will be as impactful as you want it to be,” Snider said.
The project is utilizing a funding mechanism tied to an immigration measure called EB-5, a Congressional act passed in 1990 design to incentivize foreign investment in areas of high unemployment in the U.S.
For making the investment, the investor receives access to permanent green cards for their immediate family under the provision. In exchange, the investor must create 10 permanent full-time U.S. jobs for every investor.
The EB-5 district created for the project covers areas of Casa Grande and Eloy, which have more than 1.5 times the unemployment than the national average.
Wagner said many people wonder why such a massive project is being built in Casa Grande. “We have the distribution with I-10 and I-8 highways, plus the railway,” he explained.
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