Laveen Retail Activity Heating Up!!!

Here's what we know:  Scooptacular has opened in the old Cold Stone location near Fry's and Starbuck's.  The bonus here is that this is a Laveen family-owned homemade ice cream shop.  From what I've heard about their soft opening yesterday (or is it a soft serve opening), they are amazing!  And judging by friends' facebook status updates, it's worth taking more than one trip per day.  I kid you not.  Just go to the Laveen page (linked on the right) and see what people are saying.  If only I were an ice cream fan....

L.A. Fitness is finally finishing construction at the SW corner of Baseline/51st Avenue.  The company's targeted construction schedule is nine months, which I think would put them at an early fall 2010 opening.  This is exciting for most of us, not to mention a great sign of the times for Laveen.  L.A. Fitness is usually quite picky when it comes to evaluating market demand.  And if only you knew all the issues that could have killed this deal....  You've got to hand it to Terrazona for making this happen.  (Speaking of Terrazona, please stay tuned for further updates.)

You've probably seen the signs for Goodwill and Mi Pueblo Supermercado in the old Mervyn's building at Southern/35th Avenue.  Both are confirmed as future tenants in the otherwise mostly empty space.  Also, I learned today that a Pizza Patron is expected to move into the small strip of stores closest to the corner (end cap near US Bank).  And then I had to dig a little deeper for info about a yet unfamiliar concept, dd's Discounts, which is planning to build their store adjacent to the Goodwill.

Last but not least, let's go back to Baseline/51st Avenue.  The Safeway shopping center will soon be full, according to the owners, Evergreen.  TheraPro and Stewart Chiropractic have both committed to occupying the inline spaces in the 'elbow' of the shopping center, and the word on the streets is that a financial services company is eying the space as well -- again, a great indicator of Laveen's economic vitality, I can hardly wait to share further details.  And didn't I say that the space was nearly full?  Yes, how about the end cap.....

As you all know, we were expecting a Denny's to move into the end cap location (near Sonic), but the Denny's franchisee decided not to move forward on the deal.  Logically, I thought this was perhaps an opportunity to get something nicer than Denny's -- it's a great restaurant site, after all -- but there just isn't much opportunity for a restaurant in that location at the moment.  This is for a variety of reasons that I will cover later.  But for now, let's just be glad that the space is being considered primarily as a dentist's office, and secondarily as a potential restaurant location......  That's right, there is a potential restaurant user still considering this location, although I cannot share the details.  Soon, my friends... Soon.  In the mean time, please accept my apology for slacking on the retail updates and know to expect much more going forward.

P.S.  If this kind of subject matter is particularly interesting to you, what would you say to a quick Saturday morning retail workshop in the next few months?  I bet we could get several of our property owners/managers together to discuss things like space requirements, demographics, investment considerations, location, location, location, and other related subjects.  Anyone in?  If so, I'll start putting something together.  And if you think you even might have a bit of an entrepreneurial bug, we could perhaps expand the scope to be a small business workshop....  You game?

Home Ownership and Community Development

After posting this article to my other blog, I wondered how we might apply the discussion to Laveen.  I think that homeowners' intent to stay put can be a powerful mechanism to creating a more vibrant community -- especially when looking at residential regions lacking in a strong daytime population, such as ours (nearby, yes, but not exactly in our village).  There was an article recently, in the Las Vegas Sun, which highlighted the fact that 40% of the Las Vegas area's residents want to move out of the area, and the housing numbers don't appear to demonstrate that there are many people willing to replace that kind of exodus of residents.

Anecdotally, it seems that we're in a much better position than the likes of Las Vegas (and even other areas of Phoenix), having recently voted to grant our school districts an override (investing in our future) and judging by the relative stability of our housing market at the moment -- not to mention the renewed interest in retail and a few other green shoots.  But I would love to challenge this assumption with a survey.... maybe on the Laveen group's facebook page?  Also, what are your thoughts?  Please comment.

More on the Housing Market

In case anyone doesn't already follow my other blog, Western Development News, I just posted a new article that applies in Laveen as much as anywhere.  It is quite maturely titled, "Seriously?  Still Talking Trash about the Phoenix Housing Market?  Get Over It Already:" http://bit.ly/cuFac2

Interesting Criticism on the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway

While I obviously disagree with his overall stance on the subject, I can at least take a little pride in helping push Jon Talton to discuss the Loop 202 from his well-informed perspective: http://bit.ly/bqjuF3.  I'll restrain from elaborating much on my comments here, since I already posted them on his article's comments section (and have written ad nauseum on the topic already), but this is a worthy dialog for us as Laveen residents and for others impacted by the proposed freeway.  After all, it makes sense that fellow Phoenicians might see this as yet another unnecessary freeway for most -- it's our job to convince them otherwise.  While I hope to have sufficiently addressed these claims, I'd love to know what others think.


***And btw, I've mentioned him before on this blog, but just to be thorough I highly recommend that you follow Mr. Talton's "Phoenix 101" series of articles.  I first discovered his AZ Republic business columns in 2005, shortly before he was ousted for his controversial views [at least, that's how I understand it].  His move to Seattle since then would have been a much greater loss, were it not for his continued impassioned blogging about Phoenix as the "Rogue Columnist."

City Budget Hearings

I just returned from the city budget meeting at the Burton Barr Library.  It looks to me as though people are generally unconcerned about the food tax, and instead focusing on the somewhat false dichotomy proposed by the city: either pay the food tax or see further reduction of emergency response services, which are already stressed to maintain adequate staffing levels.

I think there must be other alternatives.  Please visit http://www.phoenix.gov/budget and see where the cuts are currently proposed.  Also, please join my plea in asking for a more transparent system that allows residents to view the city manager's complete budget.  If this is made possible, perhaps we can make more informed recommendations without needing to say yes or no to police officers, depending on whether or not we want a food tax.

There were a few great ideas presented tonight, including one person who suggested we could consider a targeted food tax on junk food items, and then some guy in a mask talking about the Federal Reserve (???).  Please bring your thoughtful suggestions to the meeting next week at Cesar Chavez H.S.

An Important Note About Mortgage Defaults

Yes, it is a powerful force in our market -- particularly in a community like Laveen, where we have grown so rapidly in the last five years, and then seen our property values decline due to foreclosures and short sales.  Those housing bubble years are having a devastating impact on our home values, as has been officially reported by the Maricopa County Assessor.

But another debate has also arisen out of this situation, and that is whether it is acceptable to strategically default on a home loan that you could otherwise afford but choose not to any longer.  Recently, a UA law professor wrote a paper titled "Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis," which raised the question of why more Americans are not behaving in their rightful economic best interests.


I find this debate absolutely fascinating, and furthermore see it as the necessary dialog that can foment a true recovery,  not just reestablishing growth but also promoting the right kinds of value-creating behavior for a sustainable economy.  That's why I've started cataloging my various discussions on the matter over at my other oft neglected blog.  Please click the link and let me know your thoughts on the matter.  There's some great stuff there, including links to the Motley Fool's compelling coverage, along with that of ABC News and our own AZ Republic.

Flood Concerns for Laveen?

Here's the deal; I'm probably being paranoid about this, I know..... I worry about Laveen's preparedness for the amount of flooding that could occur this week. Yes, we have the LACC (Laveen Area Conveyance Channel) and other flood retention measures in place, but what about the amount of water that our soil and flood retention basins accumulated already this week; and what about potential bottlenecks on street drainage systems or potentially defective retention measures (which we have already seen here during past storms) among all the other things that could go wrong?

Remember, most of Laveen sits on relatively low ground, and within the typical floodplain of the Salt River, not to mention the Tres Rios confluence just west of us. This is why our county and city officials took the initiative to complete the LACC project and others like it in recent history, as Laveen's population has boomed. Just ask any long-time resident to hear some interesting stories of past flooding.

Further, we may or may not experience unprecedented levels of rainfall in the next 48 hours, combined with rising river levels due to rapid snow melt in the high country.  And I have not been able to find much specific advice for our community, which is a little frustrating....  After all, the storm a couple of weeks ago brought the gutter run-off above the sidewalk in front of my house, and last year I recall watching our water retention basin nearly fill up from a less severe storm.

So to ease all our minds, I offer the following resources:

• WEATHER.GOV/PHOENIX 
  

• Local news coverage about the potentially unprecedented rain and flooding: Channel 3 video.
• Where to pick up free sandbags from the City of Phoenix, if needed: City of PHX site.
• What to do with the sandbags, if you decide you need them: eHow article.
  
• Information about the LACC and other "big" measures to stop flooding: Image and details.
• Info from Maricopa County Flood Control District: MCFCD site.
• Arizona's Flood Warning and Drought Monitoring: AFWDS site.
  
• Historic flood info: USGS website.
• FEMA's flood preparedness advice: FEMA site.

***Bonus recommendation in case there are no sandbags at the free pick-up locations referenced above: Try Home Depot or Lowe's.  If that fails (like finding anything else in Laveen at the moment that we all need it, i.e. propane cylinders on July 4th), then I bet you could justify borrowing some sand from a nearby playground and returning it after the flood recedes.  And by the way, medium trash bags work at least as well as the big burlap ones; you just need more of them.

Please feel free to pass along this information to anyone who you think may need it, or feel free to keep it around as a resource for the next hundred or so years, in anticipation of an eventual 100-year flood (it's not really like nature is on a schedule.... here's a definition of a 100-year flood).  In the likely event that this information is totally irrelevant, then I simply request that you understand how much I love to geek out on information and preparedness.