The Casa Grande Dispatch is reporting that little by little, the pieces of PhoenixMart could soon start be falling into place.
The Casa Grande Board of Adjustment on Tuesday approved a temporary use permit that allows PhoenixMart developers to install signs and landscaping on 7 acres of the proposed gateway into the sourcing center.
Once work on the entryway begins, other projects will follow, PhoenixMart Project Manager Brad Holyoak told the Board of Adjustment members. “Our goal is that work will continuously be happening on site until the project is complete next year,” he said.
While a building permit application will not be submitted to the city until May, Holyoak said developers are eager to begin smaller projects. Developing the entryway first made sense as it pinpoints the site location, he said.
“We are excited to show progress, to identify where our site is and make it attractive to the public and investors,” Holyoak said.
The monument signs are a pair of L-shaped concrete walls about 10 feet tall and 60 feet wide with the PhoenixMart logo and lettering. They will be set back about 120 feet from the edge of Florence Boulevard, leaving the developers plenty of room to negotiate with the Arizona Department of Transportation regarding the right of way and road improvements.
The company is awaiting ADOT’s approval on its traffic impact analysis.
Developers believe the 120-foot setback provides enough room to build turning lanes, he said. “If it’s not enough, the risk is on us and we’ll adjust our site plan to conform,” Holyoak said.
PhoenixMart developers plan other improvements to Florence Boulevard near the site, including curbing and landscaping, but Holyoak said a sidewalk is not planned.
“ADOT has told us that their standard is to not provide a walkway on the side of their highway,” he said.
The temporary use permit approved Tuesday allows the signs and landscaping to remain in place for a year.
It can be renewed administratively for another year, but for the monument signs and trees to remain in place permanently, comprehensive sign and landscaping plans need approval by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. Should the commission reject the development’s sign and landscape plan, the monuments and plants would be removed or altered to conform to requirements.
PhoenixMart is expected to open next year with space for 1,740 tenants to establish wholesale showrooms. Developers have said PhoenixMart could bring nearly 9,000 jobs to Pinal County.
For full story go to Casa Grande news at Trivalley.com