[sh9730]

So, I mentioned this a few weeks back on the Phoenixmart thread - but today the Casa Grande City Council approved several economic incentives to allow staff to negotiate an agreement with Tractor Supply Co (big ranch/farm store chain just starting to make a presence in the Southwest - but big in rest of country) to build a 600 SF distribution center in CG, very near the existing Wal-Mart distribution center already in place.

The City will give about a million bucks in various fee and permit waivers etc. and the zone has been approved for a Foreign Trade Zone application that TSC is expected to apply for soon. This will allow for property tax breaks for the next 20 years.

In exchange TSC will build the $70 million bldg. (90 million at buildout) and bring all the construction jobs that will entail. Afterwards they will hire between 250-300 jobs that must pay a MINIMUM wage of 75% over the existing federal minimum wage (currently 7.25 per hour) as well as 25% of wages in benefits. Not too bad for warehouse workers.

Of course the bigger issue is that it will be the 2nd large disty center in CG which will improve the infrastructure even more and will hopefully position CG as a true competitor with the Phoenix West Valley for other distribution centers in the future.

RUMOR has it that TSC wants to start construction by August - that seems pretty quick - but CG can be aggressive when need be, as Phoenixmart has shown.

SO, this project, plus a large Commercial Bakery to begin construction soon (200K SF) and other more limited projects CG can expect about 500+ jobs within the next 18 months. Of course this doesn't include PhoenixMart which is still moving forward and will be at least several thousand jobs.

I know its not urban - but I see other threads of similar nature here so I thought it might be of interest due to the building size if nothing else - 600K SF is a pretty big warehouse.