David Malin appeared at last night's council meeting and provided an oral list of signed tenants for the Oro Valley Marketplace. Included are: Altel Wireless, Best buy, Bikes Direct, Chase Bank, Danny's Convenience, Dick's Sporting Goods, Famous Footwear, Olive Garden, Petco, Red Lobser, Verizon and, of course, Wal-Mart. All are supposed to open by the end of October, as is the 12 screen theater.
Absent are Old Navy, Michaels, and Staples. These as Council Person Garner noted, are tenants listed per the Vestar Web Site.
Malin noted that 50% of the large pads are leased and that 50% of the retail space has been leased. In other words, lots of unoccupied space.
When asked by Council Person Abbott if he would appear in six months of so to discuss Oro Valley Marketplace projected revenues, Malin said he was not the person to talk to on this.
Malin did say that Vestar has been unable to get "lifestyle retailers" interested in the marketplace. Examples of lifestyle retailers include Chico's, Ann Taylor LOFT, and JoS. A. Bank Clothiers.
The list of retailers is certainly not upscale and, well, just ordinary. Many are in direct competition to retailers already located in Oro Valley, like Sports Authority, Big Five Sports and Fry's
No upscale here!
13 comments:
Well now, I see that the word BRILLIANT has been dropped as an adjective to the word COLLECTION on the website home page for the Marketplace. So what we have are a few ordinary stores, a couple of ordinary chain restaurants, and a Wal-mart. What happened to The Keg; what happened to Ulta; what happened to World Market? What happened to the uniqueness that was promised to Oro Valley? When a contract, and in essense this venture was a contract with Oro Valley, goes unfulfilled, the defaulting party should be denied the benefits originally promised by the 'other side' for failing to perform in the expected manner and/or should be penalized for those ills that they have created. We the people of Oro Valley have had to put up with an unsightly mess, polluted air, noise, damage, etc. and now it has been conveyed that we have a center, after FIVE YEARS of planning, that is a collection of mediocraty; and we are supposed to pay this company Vestar, who claims on their home website that they are the [greatest, most advanced, award winning, retail developer in the universe]? I believe that legal steps should, if at all possible, be taken against this sorry ass company for the above described failure to deliver on the contract it made with our Community.
And for those who claimed that this venture was "a home run for Oro Valley", I say that either you were blind or ignorant as us CAVE
people have been professing you were since the inception of this fiasco. Does Vestar not know why they cannot get some lifestyle shops here? They planted a Wal-mart as an anchor and you can't expect to draw honey bees and butterflies with stinkweed dominating the garden.
We haven't seen the end of it yet; the traffic, the draw, and whatever goes along with it - crime, accidents, etc. And we, the people of Oro Valley are supposed to hold our heads up and point with pride to our Oro Valley 'appropriate' center?
As an aside, I wish to personally thank our Town Manager, David Andrews, and our NEW Council in their efforts to mitigate at least the 'physical ills' this company has created within our community. It appears that our previous governing mavens weren't very interested in enforcing these facets.
Zev,
The words "brilliant collection" still appear on the OVM website. It's on the store directory page. It says:
"Oro Valley Marketplace has amassed a brilliant collection of boutiques, national retail anchors, unique eateries and traditional restaurants. For a quick bite, a special occasion, a gallon of milk, or an afternoon of retail therapy, the marketplace delivers."
So far, these are the terms that Vestar has used to describe OVM and the stores we can expect to see:
unique
upscale
signature shops
destination tenants
brilliant collection
lifestyle centers
It wasn't until AFTER voters approved the $23 million that Vestar gave us THEIR definition of unique and upscale.
UNIQUE: a store not already located in Oro Valley.
UPSCALE: this refers to the architecture, not the stores.
I wonder how long it will take before Vestar tells us their definition of signature shops, destination tenants, brilliant collection, and lifestyle centers.
I'm sure their definitions of these terms will be as far-fetched as their previous definitions!
No life style for you!!
The Vestar presentation last night was lackluster. What a joke.
I hope we get a Bev Mo so I can drink myself to forget how down-scale this development is.
nombe w.
Also, last night, Malin DID mention The Keg Steakhouse, Ulta, and World Market as still being on the tenant list.
He said that BevMo, Old Navy, Michael's, and Staple's are no longer on the list, so they still have 3-4 large format box stores that are not filled.
When the Mayor asked how much space was leased vs. still available, Malin said, "I don't have a breakdown" and then he went on to mostly guess with his answers.
I find it interesting how he came to this meeting totally unprepared to discuss anything other than the list of tenants which he could have provided in an e-mail or letter to the council. So he had to know that there would be more to this meeting than him just rattling off a list. He knew there would be follow-up questions asked, yet he deliberately came unprepared to answer them.
Then, when he was asked about tenants that they are negotiating with, he said, "It is not our practice to announce tenants until we have a signed lease."
At this point, the Mayor should have said, "Well, it's not our practice to contribute $23 million dollars to a project and then be left in the dark as to where that project stands."
Ms. Coyote mentioned in another post that Malin would blame the economy for the lack of better stores. That's exactly what he did. He said that specialty retail wasn't locating in Oro Valley or anywhere in AZ at the moment because of the economy. He said that segment of retail is stagnant.
He also said that specialty retail is "highly selective" of where they locate (that's right...they don't locate in a plaza with a Wal-Mart). Malin wouldn't admit to that, however. He expects us to believe that the entire problem is...
It's the economy, stupid.
I think the council should have asked many more questions and been much harder on him while they had him under the interrogation lights. He was clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing and couldn't wait to get out of there. His discomfort level was a clear sign that he has a lot to hide.
Cowgirl,
I also noticed how uncomfortable Malin appeared. I find that unusual for somebody in his position.
He seemed to think that he was just there to recite a list of stores.
I am also disappointed that council let him off so easy.
I don't get it.
When Paula Abbott asked him if would come back in 6 months for talk about tax revenue, He said No, it was not his area or something like that.
Somebody on council should have asked or requested that somebody from Vestar address the council on that issue.
I think the town and the council should be holding Vestar more accountable for that 23.2 of our sales tax money.
Why Not?? It is a lot of money.
Aside from the money, that mall is going to be a blemish on Oro Valley.
VC, thank you for addressing my mistakes and/or ommissions; I thought that the term 'brilliant' had been in their opening (home) page. As to the store selection, I depended on what was written on the original post and because so many versions have been written or spoken of, I simply assumed that this list was IT. I had desired to be at the meeting of last night (and tonight's relative to AG), but unfortunately company and prior obligations had to be dealt with. As to the rest of my commentary, I will continue to stand by it. As to Malins excuses relative to the economy, etc., that's very convenient. For example, I had heard MANY months ago and prior to much of the economic woes that Bev-Mo wasn't coming to the Marketplace. I had read many months ago that Linens n' Things was filing bankruptcy and most likely would NOT be following up on opening new stores, yet one of the mouthpieces for Vestar insisted that he was assured that LnT would open here.
As an added note, if Vestar refers to the architecture as the cause celebre for the term 'upscale', how sadly they are mistaken and ridiculously self-serving. Their architecture is cheap and old hat and is in direct conflict with the natural beauty of the surrounding scape. In fact, Oro Valley, the Town itself, needs to start utilizing and enforcing design standards that escape the mundane and enhance the area not fight it and kill it. As a career interior designer (part of my home furnishings profession) as well as an architectural design student and consultant, I am beginning to resent the junk design elements that are being allowed into the commercial sphere of development within Oro Valley; we are becoming a very ordinary, unimaginative Town resting ON, NOT WITHIN, a beautiful high desert setting. This is not what I imagined when I moved here.
Today's Wall St. Journal has a piece about empty malls around the country, so OV and Vestar are not alone--small comfort, we know.
At the same time, Vestar and the Town are not going to realize any income from the development (per Vestar's agreement with the town) if they can't find tenants.
Cut and paste the following into your web browser to read the article:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=388462795
Boobie baby
Yes there are many empty malls around the country; unfortunately the same developer mindset that created the OV Marketplace as well as a few other smaller centers here, abounds in other areas as well. Yet, there are centers around the country, well planned and community sensitive, that do havecertain mixes of businesses deemed to be attractive to the CORE population immediately within the vicinity of center's reach. I will still maintain that the intersection of Oracle and Tangerine had no business being turned into REGIONAL center concept with a Wal-mart anchor. I suppose Wal-mart has it's place in our retail sector but it still is NOT the type of anchor that attracts good lifestyle tenants; on the contrary it has been shown to repel them.
As a former retailer I could go on and on but what's the use. It seems that no matter what, most everyone is angry that the other side 'doesn't get it'. But I will go back to one of the basic reasons for the rejection of this
mess by those who cannot and will not accept it: the fact is, the community DID NOT GET WHAT IT WAS LED TO BELIEVE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO GET. That cannot be argued except by a few 'insiders' who KNEW all along that the residents were being duped.
OVERBUILDING LEAVES MALLS UNDER-OCCUPIED.
Wall Street Journal
9/10/08
A decade of rapid expansion by developers and an increase in store closings has created a glut of space in malls that could persist for years, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“There were a lot of projects that shouldn't have been built” during the past decade, the CEO of the top US mall-owner says. An upside: Rent is coming down for retailers.
Developers added a billion square feet of new shopping space in the past 10 years—boosting the average retail space per consumer from 29 square feet in 1983 to 38 square feet this year.
Now, with retailers withdrawing and belts tightening in tough economic times, the developers are canceling projects because “there just aren’t enough tenants to go around.”
__________
My comment?
"a glut of space in malls that could persist for years."
Oh, goody! OVM will be half junk stores and half empty storefronts. Just as I predicted.
VC, thanks for the actual quote. The statement by boobie baby that
"OV and Vestar are not alone" most certainly shouldn't cushion the slap that OV and Vestar have brought to this community. Developers of retail centers reasonably should know how the economy works and NOT overbuild
in anticipation of a huge increases in population demands. Now we are stuck (countrywide) with a huge inventory of homes with more to come, a population that is maxed out in credit purchasing, that has more credit risks than ever before, that a HUGE number will NOT be able to purchase a home for years to come because of what ruined credit has done for them, that credit requirements for home purchases will return to strict lending policies - in short, even when the economy does stabilize, purchasing power will probably be stagnant for years to come. Even when the housing market does 'pick up' no one knows how and where this will happen (take note SAHBA, your life, as you think you know it, may be over).
Unfortunately, as in many areas of the country, this Town, Oro Valley, thinks it is so special that it might be somewhat immune from failure. Guess again Oro Valley, you left your roots, you tried and are still trying to become bigshots, you have forgsaken your base, and, just like politics, when you do that, you lose the election.
No intent on my part to "cushion" the slap at Vestar and/or the Town.
No one could have foreseen the economic conditions of 2008, so the arguments against the project that had been made in the past have to stand on their own merit.
Now we have the "perfect storm," a combination of unkept promises and a global financial situation that doesn't lend itself to increased retail spending.
Sooner or later (years), it will all settle down, but in the mean time neither the Town nor Vestar are going to make any significant money off of the project. That's too bad, because the only saving grace (if you can call it that) was the sales taxes that were supposed to flow from the development, even if a portion of them went to the developer.
Now we look at the prospect of a half-built center producing only a fraction of what it was supposed to produce in the way of income for all parties. All we have at the moment are places for citizens to go to the movies, buy paint at 11 p.m., and eat middling food.
We should make clear that Vestar is not getting $23 million. Remember--no tenants, no spending, no taxes generated. So, in fact, Vestar and the Town are getting "bubkas" and, before you know it, the economic incentive agreement will run out. Anybody want to guess what will happen then?
bb, the "cushion the slap" comment I made was not intended to be a comment on your intent.
That no one could have forseen the economic conditions of 2008 is simply a bit of smoke and mirrors (this is NOT direced at your own
personal statement); there were MANY indications of this potential as long as 5 years ago: gasoline prices unstable, the euro vs the dollar in a state of fluctuation and the beginning of rise of the euro and decline of the dollar, the overly rapid growth of home purchasing, housing INFLATION, easy home loans, credit card flooding, and so forth. And then there were the decline and/or failures of many large companies (some of it credited to unlawful activities), Enron, World Com, MCI, IBM, the overall 'dot com' industry, the airlines industry, and then there was the way the FED was overly manipulative of our supposedly capitalist economy; you can only bouy up a sputtering giant for so long.
And you think that ALL of the stupid brains in our country were blind to the forseeable future? They wern't and they greedily took advantage of the muddle, made hoards of money, and are still trying to find new ways to maintain their devious selves and crying their crocadile tears as if they were in horrific need of some more bread crumbs. It is quite well documented in the annals of Arizona history as to the mindset and tie-ins of the developers here and it is not the prettiest sight you can see, even here in Oro Valley. If the good-ol'-boy developer network in this state (and elsewhere) should fall, then I say 'fine', eat dirt, your finally getting out of mother earth what you gave to it.
Incidentally, this is not an indictment of the whole of the development community; I have seen good, bad, and the ugly; the negatives within this post are directed mostly at THE UGLY and I consider VESTAR as one of those!
Zev,
Loved your line...Eat dirt, you're finally getting out of Mother Earth what you gave to it.
The first thing I pictured was when Saddam Insane was found cowering in his little dirt hole in the ground...after having lived in a palace.
They all get what's coming to them in the end.
Post a Comment