2003 Chamber Business Luncheon Address

Mayor Elaine Scruggs

February 6, 2003

For four years now, the Chamber of Commerce has provided me the privilege to speak at this very important function. As I look into the audience, I recognize many faces and to you I say welcome back and thanks for your continued support. But I also see many faces that are new and to you I say welcome – welcome to a city that is committed to the creation of economic vitality through effective public/private partnerships – and welcome to maybe the best opportunity for success that you have seen in a long time – if not forever. Welcome to all of you to Glendale, Arizona – the Right Place, the Right Time.

The theme of this speech has always been about two things: First, sharing with you my strongly held belief that Glendale is a great place to do business, and second, an invitation to partner with us as we go about the business of creating jobs, opportunities and an ever-increasing quality of life to the residents of the City of Glendale. During the last several years, I have shared with you my vision for the future and have backed it up with statistics and facts. When you looked at the factors that impact the site selection decision, Glendale scored very well. I concluded every meeting with a call to partnership. I know Jim Colson and his staff have been actively seeking ways to get you to look at opportunities afforded by a Glendale location.

And - I am very glad to recognize that many of you have heard these words and have responded as we were confident you would – by stepping forward as committed partners – seeking ways to forge working relationships ensuring that we meet our mutual objectives. The results to date have simply been stunning. By all accounts, Glendale has become an economic development success story.

Now any body who knows me knows that I am never really totally satisfied. The fact is I am happy with what we have achieved to date – but I know that this is merely the tip of the iceberg and a whole lot more attention needs to be paid to our development efforts to ensure that we continue to achieve our goals.

But today, I want to take a bit of a different tack. I want to share with you the results of our combined public and private efforts. Today, I want to celebrate with you some of our successes. I am confident that you will agree with me that we have a come a long way – and more importantly – that what we have achieved to date provides a springboard for continually increasing opportunity.

To understand Glendale, you need to understand our history and our challenges. To really understand Glendale, you have to understand our response to our history and challenges.

As a community, Glendale has enjoyed a strong sense of community and demonstrated an independent spirit. It has been negatively impacted by a pervasive west valley bias that is only now beginning to dissipate. It has worked hard to prepare itself to take advantage of an economic future that only it believed was possible.

The city has faced numerous challenges – some internal and some external. Two of the most impactful were, first, the fact that historically, the city has been disrespected by the region’s business and development community – based on the wide spread belief that the west valley could not economically support quality residential, retail and mixed-use projects and, second, that the city often burdened the development community with internal processes and procedures that were cumbersome and unpredictable.

The city responded to these challenges in many ways. Some of the most noticeable changes were the wholesale commitment on the part of the city to improve operations. City Manager Ed Beasley implemented an effective decision-making model that has drastically improved internal processes and procedures. The level of communication with the development community has improved significantly and Glendale is gaining a positive reputation for processing development plans and permits.

The city has also continually improved its economic development program to aggressively seek opportunities with the developers, real estate brokers and corporations. The City has aggressively used performance-based incentives to stimulate private investment. It has also worked hard to understand the specific needs of the development community and have taken the appropriate actions to meet those needs.

The overall goal of the city’s economic development strategy was to improve the quality of life of our residents by attracting quality jobs; increasing the tax base; providing increased opportunities for dining, entertainment and shopping; and, economically and aesthetically improve underperforming real estate properties through-out the city. One of the key elements of the strategy was to create a “destination place” in the western area – an area that had been identified as our greatest opportunity to create an economically vibrant employment center.

We now come to the fun part – the part where I get to tell you how we are doing. Well, let me cut to the chase – we are doing pretty well. Over the next few minutes, I am to show focus on some of the activities taking place in the city. I am confident that after viewing them you will become aware of at least two things. First, there is a lot of activity in Glendale, and second, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity.

As you look at the screen, you will notice a base map that shows Glendale’s western area. The map depicts the existing development in the area up to the last year. You notice some residential development, Glendale Airport and the businesses located at Glendale Airpark. The great majority of the land was active agricultural. This is the blank canvass that I have always talked about. Glendale’s western area offers an opportunity to create an economically viable, high-quality destination development, which will enhance the quality of life for Glendale residents and the entire west valley. This canvass can become the new home for an employment center; outstanding entertainment, dining and retail opportunities, and home to many new people.

In October of 2001, the City entered into an historic agreement that mad Glendale home to the NHL Coyotes and surrounding mixed-use development. For the past two years, we have been working with our development partners to convert this agreement to reality.

The details of the development are impressive and will certainly have a tremendous economic impact on Glendale and the remainder of the region.

• 6 million square feet of development
• new home to the NHL Coyotes
• 1.6 million square feet of retail development
• 2 million square feet of class-A office
• At least 600,000 of entertainment and dining
• Major resort hotels
• A unique mix of residential options

The slide depicts the approved site plan for the Coyotes Mixed-Use Development. I don’t want to get into a lot of details, but it is obvious that this is an exciting project that will not only generate huge economic impact, but will also stimulate additional private investment.

Let me take you out to the site and let’s just observe what is happening. This footage was captured a few weeks ago. If you have not been to the site, you will be amazed at the amount of progress. The facility is on schedule for a December 14, 2003 opening. That is less than 12 months away.

On the screen is an artists rendering of what the front of the arena will look like. I am told that the arena will offer one of the best fan experiences in the country.

We are now looking at an artists rendering of what the urban core of the mixed-use development will look like. The development will offer something for everyone – and bring to Glendale a very unique urban core development.

Now, as you look at the base map you see the location of the Coyote Mixed-Use development – strategically located at the intersection of the Loop 101 Freeway and Glendale Avenue. You will notice to the north and east the establishment of high-quality Rovey Farms residential development. This development will provide a mixture of quality residential development in the western area fueling economic growth.

We had another success that you may have caught on the news – and that is obviously one near and dear to the heart of the gentleman sharing the podium with me today – Mr. Michael Bidwell. I won’t go into too much detail here, since he will be able to provide that – but I do want to stress how important that project is to our continuing growth and how much we have appreciated their commitment to the city’s economic growth. This project will not only be the home to the Arizona Cardinals – but will also stimulate activity and investment on their site, the Coyote site and the entire western area.

This stadium will be state of the art and offer fans an excellent all around game day experience. On the screen is a view of the retractable roof and slide out field.

This shows you the interior view of the stadium.

As you can see our canvass is becoming more defined – The co-location of the two sports projects and surrounding mixed-use development create a very impressive economic engine and will continue to stimulate further development.

I want to briefly touch on some other projects that are being developed in the western area – and represent a continuing completion of the canvass that we started creating a few years ago.

• Trammell Crow is currently in the initial stages of developing a 160-acre mixed-use development immediately north of the Coyote development. This highly recognized developer has aggressively partnered with the city to bring about the type of development which will add up to enhanced quality of life.
• The Londen Companies have recently purchased a 160-acre parcel of land immediately north of the Trammell Crow project. This project, which is being planned at this time, is projected to be a very impressive mixed-use development with a focus on the creation of quality jobs and supporting services.
• Vestar is currently developing a destination retail center at the corner of Camelback and the Loop 101. This development is strategically located on the border of Glendale and Phoenix and will provide valuable goods and services to the surrounding neighborhood and enhance the city’s retail sales tax base.

As you can see the canvass is taking the shape of a very strong economic engine and represents the vision of creating jobs, increasing sales tax and providing opportunities for Glendale and the West Valley.

I think that you would agree with me that things are progressing in Glendale. However, we are not so foolish as to think that we can take our eye off the ball. Our game plan for the future is very much focused on:

• Optimizing our return on investment – by ensuring that development occurs on schedule and within anticipated design standards. We are committed to working with our development partners to make sure that we each attain our goals.
• We want to make sure that development proceeds on a schedule that allows us to capture our fair share of the economic prizes. We want people to stay and shop in Glendale when they come to the NHL All- Star game, the Fiesta Bowl, Super Bowl and all other major events.
• We want to continue to stimulate private investment by being good partners.
• When this all started we said it was about creating quality of life. Our goal is to create at least 15,000 jobs that will benefit Glendale residents. Jobs that pay well and take advantage of the skill sets currently being exported each day to Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe and other cities throughout the region. We want to make sure that Glendale – and West Valley – residents have the option of dining, shopping and being entertained in Glendale as opposed to having to drive far into other cities recently mentioned.

We are confident that we are on the right track and we are still committed to offering our hand to any developer who wants to be part of our future. We believe that we have ably demonstrated that Glendale is the Right Place at the Right Time. We look forward to partnering with you in the future.