Maricopa chamber members told PhoenixMart to be ‘international window for commerce’

Jeremy Schoenfelder, president of PhoenixMart, LLC, spoke Thursday about economic development during Maricopa Chamber of Commerce’s monthly breakfast at Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino.

PhoenixMart is a 585-acre master planned community that will include a 1.7- million-square-foot products center. The project is expected to break ground in Casa Grande in July.

Schoenfelder said the “core concept of the center is sourcing product.”

“We have to change our mindset – in the U.S. we think of ourselves as consumers. We have to think of ourselves first of all as a producer,” he said.

PhoenixMart’s goal is to “connect thousands of North American manufacturers and distributors with domestic and global buyers,” as stated on the company’s website.

For example, one business inside PhoenixMart might be a manufacturer of hairdryers and this store would sell nothing but its hairdryers, conceivably to consumers all over the world, he said.

“We believe we are creating an international window for commerce,” he said. “We believe the opportunity for the U.S. now is in export. We don’t do that (enough) now.”

He said the company has encountered “some hiccups” moving the project forward. The project site is three miles from any existing utility lines. The company had to install the infrastructure.

Another aspect of the plan that has taken more time than expected is a large portion of the project’s funding has come from an immigration program that allows foreigners to invest in U.S. business, he said. The EB-5 program allows foreigners, who invest in U.S. businesses that create U.S. jobs, to become citizens.

He said countries such as China and Russia are looking for ways to invest in the U.S. because they see it as a more stable place to do business compared to their own countries.

He said when looking for a site for the project, the company looked at the Southwestern and the Southeastern United States. The project focused on the Southwest because the weather was more stable compared to the Southeast, where hurricanes could disrupt commerce.

Also, transporting products from Casa Grande to California and east across the country is relatively easy, he said.

He said the project when built out is expected to create 9,700 jobs – 4,700 expected to be local.