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✰
The Hometown Newspaper
from
Future, page A-1
the city-commissioned Retail Leakage Analysis and
available on the city Web
site: www.ajcity.net/index.
asp?NID=402.
The city of Apache Junction
commissioned The Retail
Coach (TRC), a nationally
known and highly respected
retail trade consultant, to conduct the retail trade analysis.
The results provided the city
with a treasure trove of new
data to help existing retail/
commercial businesses identify opportunities and understand the market area customer profile. Likewise, the U.S.
Highway 60 information will
be used to attract additional
quality retail and restaurant
“end-users” to Apache Junction.
While the Leakage Analysis
Report is important, Filipowicz said the most significant
event of fiscal year 20072008 was securing the deal
with Diversified Partners for
Apache Junction Gateway,
which will be located at the
southeast corner of U.S.
Highway 60 and Idaho Road.
It is slated to be the city’s first
retail power center. The deal
calls for two national chain
anchors to build facilities of
100,000 square feet or larger.
No commitments have been
made yet, Filipowicz said.
“It’s going to be a $150 million, private investment when
it occurs,” Filipowicz said.
“There are timelines in the
agreement for this to have
the first facility open. In fairness to them, with the current
national, state and regional
economy, we may have to re-
look those timelines. We may
have to give them a little more
time. It only makes sense to
move forward on those kinds
of projects when you can get
your national retail anchors.”
Filipowicz said Diversified
Partners has not come forward and said they need more
time.
“I’m simply trying to be realistic. We have an opportunity for a good deal here for
everyone— a win-win situation,” Filipowicz said.
Grand Hotel
Despite a failed attempt to
develop the former site of
the Grand Hotel, the city and
Downtown LLC, which owns
the land, mended fences.
“People need to understand
that we’ve both done some
reaching out and some fence
mending,” Filipowicz said.
“We are working together
with the LLC property ownership group to try and showcase their property for future
uses, to work with code enforcement issues.
He said Michael Rakow and
his Phoenix-based Downtown
LLC group were instrumental
in encouraging the Economic
Development Department to
work with the City Council
to establish the Downtown
Toolkit. It puts the city on
record as saying if they have
an institutional investor or a
vertical developer that wants
to initiate a project of major
significance, the City Council
is willing to draw into public
financing tools.
“They will say we’ll work
with you on infrastructure. We’ll work with you
on where it makes win-win
sense. We’re not going to
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throw money at something,
but (we will help) where we
can on reducing development
costs and that the city will get
a bit of capital investment, job
growth and increased sales tax
revenue.”
Rakow said the toolkit is
something he has looked forward to for quite awhile.
“It’s a marvelous achievement,” Rakow said.
Since the toolkit has been
made public, Rakow explained
he has had interest from a hospital, hospitality companies
and other major tenants.
“There has not been a lot of
momentum going on because
of impaired credit facilities
and it’s very difficult to borrow money,” he said. However, the opportunity offered by
the City Council will entice
clients.
Rakow’s vision for downtown
Apache Junction is ambitious.
He sees a place where people
can walk to work and tourists
can walk around and enjoy the
views. He also envisions hotels and restaurants peppering
the Trail.
“I personally believe downtown Apache Junction is one
of the most beautiful views
in Arizona. You’ve got mountains on two sides – the Superstition Mountains and Usery
Mountain – plus the Sonoran
desert. It’s beautiful. I’m sure
✰
that with these new incentives,
the city will be able to capitalize on its great assets.”
Action Plan
Another item of real significance was the City Council’s
adoption in December of the
Economic Development Action Plan which lays out a
strategy for the community
and the area, Filipowicz said.
“OK, we can’t just survive
on rooftops and retail. We are
looking to diversify the economy to include a manufacturing component, to include a
tourism and resort component,” Filipowicz said. “All of
those things will take time but
they certainly have a place in
this area.”
The team that created the
100 pages of findings and recommendations took a look at
the community’s demographics, strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats –
otherwise known as a SWOT
analysis – and built on that.
“And then they said, ‘OK.
What do we want to be when
we grow up,’” Filipowicz
said. “We know we want to be
more than a retirement destination. We know that with the
opening of Lost Dutchman
Heights and the long-term
future of Superstition Vistas,
we can be more than we are
now.”
State Sticks PD
With $123,000 Bill
By Christina FuocoKarasinski
The News
The Apache Junction Police
Department, like others in the
state, are expected to pay fees
to use the state crime labs due
to an $8 million slash in the
state’s budget, according to
officials.
“This was dropped on all
the law enforcement agencies
without any prior warning.
It’s pro-rated by our use from
last year. They’re guessing it’s
going to cost $123,000, which
obviously wasn’t planned for
in the budget,” said Capt. Tom
Kelly of the AJPD.
The agency did not learn of
the cuts and eventual crime
lab fees until after it had prepared its budget.
“Cities’ and towns’ budgets
are as bad as everyone else’s,”
Kelly added. “The chief (Jerald Monahan) called a meeting with Pinal County law enforcement agencies last week
trying to come up with some
reasonable ideas on what we
can try to do to convince the
government or legislators—
if it’s not too late— that this
is a very bad idea.”
It is estimated that it will cost
all law enforcement agencies in Pinal County about
$600,000 annually.
The fee requirement was included in the state budget that
took effect July 1. The legislature at the same time cut
$7.8 million from the Arizona
Department of Public Safety
budget.
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Vice Mayor R.E. Eck has
been hospitalized in Mesa
with a blood clot in his lung
and shoulder, a condition that
doctors say could be tied to a
July 10 assault.
“That’s what the ER doctor
said last night,” Eck said from
his hospital bed on Thursday,
July 31. “Specialists will be
able to determine what exactly caused it so they can get it
dissolved.”
He was scheduled for surgery
on the afternoon of Friday,
Aug. 1, at Banner Baywood
Medical Center in Mesa.
Vincent Carlos Sanchez, 37,
of Mesa, was arrested for assaulting Eck at the city official’s home. The attack left
Eck with a broken rib as well
as a bruised abdomen.
Sanchez was arraigned July
11 on two felony charges of
aggravated assault and one
Vice Mayor R.E. Eck
count of burglary. Police say
the attack was unrelated to
an ongoing recall effort of
Eck and four other members
of the Apache Junction City
Council.
After the attack, Eck was
taken to Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa where he
was treated and released.
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