A hotel developer is in escrow and plans to construct lodgings on the site of a new outlet mall opening soon in Marana.
And, developers of Tucson Premium Outlets, near Interstate 10 and Twin Peaks Road, are in negotiations with car dealers in the hopes of opening a second auto mall.
“They know there’s a large population on the northwest side of town and they want to serve that population,” Casey Treadwell, with Vintage Partners, told members of the Pima County Real Estate Council at their quarterly meeting Thursday.
In partnership with Simon Premium Outlets, Vintage has recruited and been sought out by many outlet retailers because of the mall’s location, Treadwell said.
“Many outlets told us they were looking to stay within the 75 miles of free trade zone,” he said. “They really want that Mexican market.”
Under a federal program, Mexican visitors with a border crossing card can visit Arizona for up to 30 days but must stay within 75 miles of the border. For many shoppers, that puts outlets malls in Chandler, Scottsdale or Phoenix out of reach.
Tourism officials estimate shoppers from Mexico spend more than $7 million a day in Arizona at malls, restaurants and hotels.
Those shoppers are closely following the progress of the new outlet mall, said J. Felipe Garcia, executive vice president of Visit Tucson.
“I get between 3,000 and 4,000 ‘likes’ from Mexico when I post something about the new outlet mall on Visit Tucson’s Facebook page,” he said.
Garcia met with developers and prospective tenants that were being recruited to the new mall and said they all inquired about Mexican shoppers.
“They all asked,” he said. “They all wanted to be sure it was within the border zone.”
Simon Premium Outlets also has outlet malls within the border zones of California and Texas.
At the meeting of the Pima County Real Estate Council, Treadwell, in response to questions from the audience about a second outlet mall in Vail, said the outlets have conducted their own market studies and determined “Tucson is a one-premium-outlet market.”
Asked how the new outlet might impact Foothills Mall, Treadwell said, “In my opinion, Foothills won’t remain an outlet mall.” He predicted that the mall, located on Ina Road and La Cholla Boulevard, would take a different direction with its retailers.
Regina Harmon, general manager of Foothills Mall, said a corporate directive prevented her from commenting on the mall’s plans.
Mall owner Schottenstein Property Group has Foothills Mall as the featured property on its website homepage. Calls to the corporate office in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday afternoon resulted in three hang-ups.
Developers broke ground on Tucson Premium Outlets in November and expect to house more than 90 retailers. The mall is currently recruiting employees to fill more than 800 full- and part-time positions.
Available jobs are posted on various job sites. Search “Tucson Premium Outlets jobs” to review openings.
The mall is scheduled to open in October.
