The Casa Grande Dispatch is reporting tractors and grading equipment have started rolling at the 585-acre PhoenixMart site along Florence Boulevard near its intersection with Toltec Buttes Road in Casa Grande.
The city issued a grading permit to PhoenixMart last week to begin landscaping and sign installation work on 7 acres that eventually will be the entryway into the development.
A master-planned community is planned for the 585-acre site. Its centerpiece is to be the PhoenixMart building, a 1.7-million-square-foot manufacturer sourcing center with showroom space for 1,740 tenants.
Although developers are awaiting the final approvals from the city to begin work on the sourcing center, a temporary use permit was approved in March to allow the company to install signs and landscaping. Plans call for monument-style concrete wall signs and landscaping along the edge of Florence Boulevard.
Company officials have said work on the sourcing center could begin late this summer, with an anticipated opening sometime next year.
“All is still on schedule,” PhoenixMart spokesman Patrick Welch said.
PhoenixMart follows a collective marketing strategy similar to developments in Yiwu, China, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where manufacturers gather in one central location to sell goods. Developers have said the project could bring nearly 9,000 jobs to Pinal County.
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