Mesa Riverview Positive Expansion
August 10, 2008 – 1:12 am
Arizona Resorts/ Arizona Travel Deals / Arizona Golf / Spas in AZ
Retailers happy with results at growing Riverview
The Theater District, a Main Street venue stretching between Cinemark Theatres and Bass Pro Shops, will soon bring Mesa Riverview to life with more entertainment, specialty shops and eateries, the same mix that is drawing big crowds to Tempe Marketplace and San Tan Village in Gilbert.
And with the announcement that Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill will be part of the mix, retailers and small businesses are checking out spaces for business, a Riverview business owner says.
“Last Friday it was packed with people with notepads asking about putting a business in here,” said Robert Guertin, owner of Big Sticks Fine Cigars.
To date new tenants include Howie’s Game Shack, a family activity center; Mattas Mexican Restaurant, a long-time Mesa icon; Jump N Shout, an interactive child’s play facility; Taco Time; Surf City Squeeze; Samari Sam’s; Omega Gyros and Hubbard’s Swim School.
Guertin, whose cigar store was the first independent business to open in the district in May 2007, isn’t fazed by how long it’s taken to develop the area.
“I am very happy,” said Guertin, whose storefront faces the planned Toby Keith restaurant. He’s also banking on future traffic from the Waveyard, a planned water park coming to Mesa.
Guertin said Mesa Riverview is twice the size of any mixed-use project in the area, “so it’s going to take twice as long to build it. And I knew this going into it.”
He said some small businesses that couldn’t wait for more retailers to open left.
“All those people that didn’t put a business here missed the boat,” he said.
Shoppers are also finding other activities in the district area by cooling off at water fountain features in front of the movie theater. Shaded benches surround the water fountain for individuals.
Dayna Birmingham, of Mesa, who often takes her three children to the movies, recently watched them cool off at the district’s water features. It was the family’s second trip to the district in two days.
“We’ve been watching them build,” said Birmingham. “It’s close to us and it’s going to be amazing.”
She is not the only shopper keeping an eye the on progress at the developing 250-acre mixed-use project near Loop 202 and Dobson Road.
“It’s awesome to see the different types of shops,” said Katie Gomez, who with her family spent an afternoon at Bass Pro Shops looking at fish featured in the sporting-goods store. Riverview also offers big-box and discount chains such as Home Depot, Party City, Bed Bath & Beyond, Wal-Mart Supercenter and a slew of other major retailers.
To the east of the regional power center, passersby can view construction of elevator caps for a Hyatt Place hotel. Two buildings are up for offices. And, at Riverview Auto Mall, a Toyota dealership recently opened with Nissan on its way by the fall.
Jonikka Alder, of east Mesa, said she shops at Jo-Ann Fabrics, Ross and Marshalls once a week. The fact that Mesa Riverview is accessible just off Loop 202 is another plus, she said.
And though Alder does most of her shopping at Mesa, she still makes her way to Tempe Marketplace, just two miles from Mesa Riverview.
“Those (shops) are a little more high end,” she said of the Target, The Gap and other retailers offered there.
Mega anchors such as the Wal-Mart Supercenter and Bass Pro Shops say they are doing well and are pleased with the mixed-use development since they opened.
Ken Brown, a store manager at the Dollar Tree, agrees.
Sales are up 25 percent, he said, compared with its former location just a few miles away at Alma School Road and University Drive.
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