Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

After years of negative media stories about Glendale’s finances, nowadays there is nothing but good news as Glendale has regained its economic development “mojo.” Glendale is back in the game.

All of the new development that is occurring is market driven, because the city has not provided tax breaks or other incentives to the companies. Most of the development is on the city’s west side (the district I represent, the Yucca district) and surrounds the Loop 101, or is either in Westgate or directly west and north of that area. Because this area provides easy access to the Loop 101, other high-end development and Luke Air Force Base, this area has become the first place commercial developers look.  Transportation access makes it easy for employees to come to or to leave the area. Business decision-makers are choosing to develop near similar existing or planned developments. It’s a matter of synergy. Success in economic development breeds more success.

Glendale’s success is dispelling the myth that there’s no talent, especially technological talent, on the Valley’s west side.  Glendale is proof that it’s just the opposite. You can find a ton of people that are just brilliant on this side of the Valley and are anxious to work for a technology company.

A sampling of the development now occurring is clustered in four industries: manufacturing, medical technology, advanced business services, and signature retail and entertainment: 

  • Aloft Hotel will be the latest addition to the Westgate area with a 100-rooms and four-stories. It will be located at the southwest corner of Glendale and 93rd Avenues. 
  • Construction is now complete and open for business is a Hilton-brand hotel, Home2 Suites, located in Westgate, just northwest of University of Phoenix Stadium.
  • Dutch Brothers Coffee will soon begin construction on the southeast side of Glendale Avenue and 95th Avenue.
  • Credit Union West,a Glendale-based financial-services firm, plans to begin work on a new corporate headquarters building near 99th and Glendale. It is slated for completion in late 2018.    
  • The medical influx began with St. Joseph’s Westgate Medical Center (part of the Dignity network), north of Glendale Avenue on 99th Avenue. This new hospital has 24 patient rooms and a 12 bed emergency room and plenty of room for future expansion.
  • It has been followed by a new Dignity Emergency facility located at the northwest corner of 83rd Avenue and Camelback Road.
  • Now, 101 West Healthcare is developing a $30 million, 200,000-square-foot medical campus south of St. Joseph’s Westgate Medical Center on the northwest corner of 99th and Glendale Avenue. Plans call for physicians’ offices, surgery centers, laboratories, a long-term care facility and related spaces.

Elsewhere in Glendale businesses are expanding or relocating. They include but are not limited to:

  • Conair Corporation has just opened the second largest industrial facility (second to Intel) at the Glendale Airpark. As it ramps up it will employ 750.
  • MobileLogix expects to have 24 employees at its 6,200-square-foot facility at 5150 W. Phelps Drive this year, and double that next year.
  • Canyon State Bus Sales relocated from Phoenix to 5600 W. Claremont St., in Glendale, in February. The company sells, maintains and repairs school buses and specialized vehicles, such as hotel shuttle buses and prison buses.
  • The Iron Factory, a golf club iron refinisher, is moving from Grand Junction, Colo., to 7615 N. 75th Ave., in Glendale. The operation opened in July. It opened in 1974 and has since repaired, rebuilt and refinished more than 1 million clubs for professional and amateur golfers.

Combined, these new companies (plus others not included in this article) represent approximately 1,000 immediate jobs and 3,000 jobs at build-out.

There is more news coming but until these new locates are ready to announce, I am not at liberty to share them. Glendale is by no means done and has vast tracts of land in Western Glendale, the Yucca district, that can be annexed into the city as it continues to partner with the economic development community. In fact, Glendale is just getting started…

© Joyce Clark, 2017               

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