Retail analysts say there is a big enough market for Mesa Riverview and Tempe Marketplace to survive.
Tribune
East Valley retail centers compete for shoppers
By Lynn Ducey, Tribune
July 22, 2006
Land movers and construction crews abound just south of Loop 202 along the borders of Mesa and Tempe. And while it’s only the 16-screen Cinemark movie theater at Mesa Riverview that’s now open, Riverview and Tempe Marketplace should be swinging at this time next year, creating a shopping destination expected to attract thousands of shoppers from across the Valley.
COMPETITION
Marty DeRito is chief executive officer of DeRito Partners, the company developing Mesa Riverview along with Kimco Developers.
DeRito bristles at the suggestion that the two projects are in competition with each other and balks at comparisons.
“We are both regional sites but we are a completely different project. We are twice the size and we are truly a mixed-use project,” DeRito said.
“We have offices, hotels and car dealerships. At the end of the day, we’ll probably be among the East Valley’s largest employers. We’ll have between 5,000 and 6,000 employees at the property,” DeRito said.
David Malin, project manager for Vestar that is developing Tempe Marketplace, agrees that the two projects are different and aren’t after the same tenants.
“We will have specialty shops that are normally found in a mall, like Pac Sun, American Eagle and Guess. These are top-tier lifestyle specialty tenants. Riverview does not have that. Riverview has a theater and a Wal-Mart and a couple destination big-box retailers,” Malin said.
MESA RIVERVIEW
The project sits on 250 acres at the intersection of Dobson Road and Loop 202 and will create 1.4 million square feet of retail. In addition, there will be several auto dealerships on the west side of Dobson Road as well as an office park and two hotels on the property. Voters approved an $84 million incentive package during a special election May 17, 2005. The project is being developed by DeRito Partners and Kimco Developers.
TEMPE MARKETPLACE
The 117-acre center is at the intersection of loops 101 and 202 and also sits at the northwest corner of McClintock and Rio Salado drives.
Crews broke ground on Jan. 31 of this year and will create 1.3 million square feet of retail space. Developed by Valley-based Vestar, opening is expected in the summer of 2007.
A former Superfund site, the city and developers received grants and loans to clean up the underlying property. The city also gave developers a sales tax rebate that will total $26.7 million over the next 15 years and a property tax abatement.
Vestar officials say a portion of the rebate will help offset costs for cleanup and infrastructure.
TENANTS
Mesa Riverview will be anchored by Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, a Springfield, Mo.-based sports and recreation retailer. The center also has a 16-screen Cinemark theater, Claim Jumper, a Bed Bath and Beyond, Wal-Mart Supercenter and Home Depot, among others. Mirrored after Desert Ridge Marketplace in the north Valley, Tempe Marketplace will have an 18-screen Harkins Theatre, Barnes and Noble, Dave and Busters and Target, among others.
TRENDS
Jay Butler, a professor and director of the Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State Polytechnic in east Mesa, says that creation of the two nearby centers reflect larger trends. “The basic idea is that shopping centers are getting bigger.
People — for whatever reasons, gas, convenience, time — don’t want to drive all over the place,” Butler said. Butler points to the Gilbert Gateway Towne Center at the intersection of Power and Ray roads in Gilbert as another example of retail’s blurring lines. “You’ve got Target and Wal-Mart across the street from each other and it’s technically the same center. But again, it’s a very intensive shopping experience,” Butler said.
OCCUPANCY
Occupancy for both Mesa Riverview and Tempe Marketplace is high, officials say. “Overall on the retail portion of it, we are about 75 percent leased. We have activity for about another 10 to 15 percent where we are negotiating letters of intent or leases,” said Marty DeRito, CEO of DeRito Partners.
“The build-out of the project was originally seven to 10 years. But because of the success we’ve had, it’s going to be over a three to four year period, which is amazing when you think about it.” Vestar’s project manager David Malin says Tempe Marketplace is booming.
“The leasing’s off the charts and across the board. We are 95 percent leased right now,” Malin said. For a project that’s still a year away from opening, a 75 percent lease rate is more typical, Malin said.
OTHER TENANTS
Both centers aim to create an entertainment district with theaters and shops centered in a pedestrianfriendly design. Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World and Cinemark will anchor Riverview’s entertainment area while the Harkins Theatre will contribute to Marketplace’s entertainment venue. That also will have outdoor laser light features.
Tempe Marketplace
A 117-acre lifestyle center modeled after Desert Ridge Marketplace, Tempe Marketplace is scheduled to open next summer.
Some restaurants/ retailers Cost Plus World Market California Pizza Kitchen Famous Footwear Linens N Things Shoe Pavilion King’s Fish House Old Navy Michaels Lane Bryant Dressbarn Pier 1 Imports Office Max Sport Chalet PetSmart Ulta Ross Tilly’s Guess Gap
Mesa Riverview
Cinemark Movie Theaters has already opened as construction progresses on the rest of the center. Bass Pro Shops broke ground in May, and is scheduled to open in April.
Retailers Bed, Bath and Beyond Jo-Ann Fabrics Petco, Shepler’s Danny’s Car Wash Great Clips Sally Beauty Party City
Restaurants Cracker Barrel Logan’s Steak House Ruby Tuesday’s McDonald’s Panda Express Arby’s, Chili’s Claim Jumper El Pollo Loco Famous Dave’s BBQ Golden Corral Restaurant San Francisco Oven Taco Bell Extreme Pita Subway
SOURCE: Flatt and Associates Public Relations
Contact Lynn Ducey by email, or phone (480) 898-6542
Gilbert home resale prices up slightly
Betty Beard The Arizona Republic Jul. 13, 2006 12:00 AM
The June bump didn't happen as sluggish sales of existing homes in Gilbert, and throughout the Valley, have many homeowners reminiscing about the seller's market of 2005.
But despite a deadening of the market, prices paid for Gilbert used houses rose.
The number of sales of existing single-family homes normally increases in June as families begin relocating in time to get kids in school.
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Instead the number of sales was the weakest that it's been in six years, said Jay Butler, director of the Arizona Real Estate Center at Arizona State University.
That was readily apparent in Gilbert where 330 houses sold in June, down from 795 in the same month a year ago.
However, the median sales price rose slightly from $327,450 in May to $330,000 in June, keeping the town in second place in the Southeast Valley, behind Ahwatukee Foothills.
"We spent all day rechecking the numbers," Butler said Wednesday. "It should be better than it was. That was a big surprise."
He attributed the slowdown in sales to higher interest rates, the glut of houses put on the market by investors and competition from new home builders who are dropping prices.
"We will have to see if this is the beginning of a trend or an aberration," Butler said.
Median prices remained higher in June than they were a year earlier but have been falling in recent months, he said. Compared to May prices, June median sales prices fell in Ahwatukee Foothills, Chandler and Mesa and rose in Gilbert and Tempe.
The Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service reported 16,400 homes on the market in May in the Southeast Valley alone.
Unrecorded quitclaim deed most likely still legal
Christopher Combs Special for The Arizona Republic May. 21, 2005 12:00 AM
QUESTION: My sister recently passed away. She lived with her roommate for the past 12 years in a home that my sister owned in Apache Junction. Her roommate has given me a quitclaim deed from my sister to her, signed three years ago by my sister but never recorded. Is this deed legal?
ANSWER: Probably. The delivery of a quitclaim deed by your sister to her roommate transferred the home to the roommate even if the quitclaim deed was not recorded. Therefore, the roommate is probably the owner of the home.
A conveyance of property does not require recording of the deed. The purpose of recording a deed is to furnish constructive knowledge to other potential buyers of the transfer of the property. If a deed is not recorded, a buyer without notice of this deed who thereafter purchases the property and then records his deed is protected. For example, if the owner transfers the property to Buyer A but the deed is not recorded, a subsequent deed to the property from the owner to Buyer B, which is recorded, would be superior to the deed to Buyer A, unless Buyer B had actual knowledge of the prior deed from the owner to Buyer A.
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Q: In 2002, we purchased a new home on a desert lot in north Scottsdale. During the heavy rains over the winter, our lot literally turned into a small lake, submerging our driveway to a depth of at least 12 inches, for a week.
During this time, we had to haul our trash receptacles to the street in a pickup truck, we had to drive our dog to the street for his daily walk, and we had to cancel a dinner party because our guests could not walk from the street to our home.
The problem is that the home builder for the subdivision built our neighbor's home directly in the path of the natural flow of the water, thereby creating a dam that causes the water to back up.
Our home builder has refused to return our telephone calls. Although I know that the heavy rains were unusual, I also know, after living in Arizona for more than 20 years, that this flooding will happen again. Does our home builder have any obligation to correct this flooding problem?
A: If your home builder improperly built the home on your neighbor's lot, which now causes flooding on your lot, the builder has an obligation to correct the problem. If your home builder will not correct the problem, you should pay for the cost for repairs and then sue your home builder in civil court (or use arbitration if the purchase contract requires that).
Christopher Combs is a real-estate attorney with Combs Law Group, P.C. Send questions to AzRep@combslawgroup.com, with the subject line Real Estate Q&A. Due to the number of questions, Combs can't respond to each question. Consult a legal or tax adviser before making decisions.
