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Hosted by SRPMIC Assistant Community Manager, Lena Jackson-Eckert, this podcast takes a closer look at the programs, services, and people that help shape our Community. From everyday resources to unique stories and conversations, we’re here to share what matters. So let’s go ahead and zoom in.
Hey, welcome to Lena's Lens. I'm Lena Jackson Eckert, one of the assistant community managers with the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. From helpful resources to unique conversations, we're on a journey to explore our community. So let's go ahead and zoom in. All right.
Lena:Today we have an exciting episode where we're going to learn a little bit more about what's going on in the Community, and we have our Community Manager here with us, Mr. Bryan Meyers. Welcome, Bryan.
Bryan:Thanks for letting me be on the show.
Lena:Thanks for coming. I'm just going to jump right in because I've been excited about this topic. I hear you sit on the auto show board. Maybe you can start by telling us a little bit more about that project and maybe some of the exciting things that could be going on with the Auto Show.
Bryan:Well, thank you very much for the question. I do sit on the Auto Show board. I'm actually the chair. Been the chair since it started in its existence. Most people probably drive by it every day, don't think a lot about it.
Bryan:It means a lot to me personally and a lot to the community because it was actually a result of part of a bigger strategic planning effort that we worked on with the council to really try to target and go after businesses that would drive high tax revenue for the community. As you know
Lena:Cars not cheap.
Bryan:Cars aren't cheap. We have very little space in the corridor. You sell a lot of cars, so you sell a lot of something that's expensive, it drives up the tax revenue, which is important for the community. So we worked for several years to fill what we call the South Side of Salt River Auto Show up with the dealers that you see there. It's my understanding you even I bought a couple of cars
Lena:I did buy a couple there.
Bryan:Thank you for contributing.
Lena:Absolutely.
Bryan:A lot of people don't know this, but the community gets community tax from every auto sold there, whether it's used or new. Our And tax rate is at 1.75%. It's equivalent to like a City Of Scottsdale tax. Interestingly, frustratingly, the state still collects their portion in the county, but that travel tax alone is so important for this community's future. It pays for a lot of services that our members really need.
Lena:And we use those dollars, like you said, for our budget and for services that our people need. What are some exciting things that are happening with the Auto Show?
Bryan:Well, it took us a while, but we filled up the entire southern portion. And about a year and a half ago, council approved what we call Salt River Auto Show North, is kind So of a mirror image of where it is we're South Of Indian School, East Of Pima Road, West of the freeway kind of nestled in there, and now we've got a mirror image North Of Indian School Road. I'm excited to say we've been working on some designs in that area, so we already got a design for kind of a spine road that goes through, and we've developed properties. We're going to continue to pursue additional dealerships to add to that project.
Lena:It's going to be pretty much the same size as South?
Bryan:Same size as South, but there's one very exciting nuance that I'm happy to announce. Literally coming out this week or very, very soon, so I'm excited to talk about it. We've been pursuing this entity for a long time, so I'm happy to announce.
Lena:Should we do some drum rolls?
Bryan:We should. We are bringing a Costco right here to Salt River.
Lena:That is very awesome.
Bryan:That is awesome. So let me tell you why it's awesome for me. It's not that I'm pro development, but what I am pro is providing funding for this community. I personally believe in, and as the community manager feel, that being able to create our own funding streams really strengthens our sovereignty as a community.
Lena:Right, and not having to rely so much on gaming.
Bryan:Exactly, and that's the way it's been for many, many years, so the treasurer, even yourself in your role as the ACM, in my role in the council, we've been working hard to try to diversify that dependence on gaming, bring new businesses into the corridor. One of the exciting things about Costco, it'll be the highest tax revenue generator for a single entity that we have seen to date, and for the foreseeable future, I just can't think of anything that's going to bring more money
Lena:in And why is that?
Bryan:The one Costco will bring in the equivalent of like five dealerships.
Lena:Wow.
Bryan:And let me put that into context. Another exciting project that I'll talk about a little bit later is the Pavilions. The Pavilions has come a long way since the days where some of those big boxes were leaving, and it's pretty dense. There's a lot of buildings and facilities up there now. But just to give the listeners a little example, the Pavilions at its current density, let's say it brings in so many dollars in taxes per square foot of area that the buildings sit on.
Bryan:Well, dealerships bring in about four times, 400% more than the Pavilions, and now the Costco would be like five dealerships, so it's a big deal for the Community.
Lena:That's huge.
Lena:And when you think about it, I think the next closest Costco is like North Scottsdale and then way East Mesa.
Bryan:If you shop at that North Scottsdale Costco, it is
Lena:not Hard to get in and out.
Bryan:Absolutely, the traffic's terrible. So I'm excited. My goal So ironically, that North Costco has set records for sales in the country, and my goal is for Salt River to pass them up soon
Lena:think we have a good opportunity because it's the perfect location.
Bryan:The big reason Costco was able to land here is the council had the courage to pass the packaged liquor ordinance, and a lot of people don't know this
Lena:tough one, yeah.
Bryan:But Costco just wouldn't come without that ability to sell packaged liquor. Now, sell a ton of products in there. If you've not been into Costco
Lena:Oh, I go every week.
Bryan:I do too. It's very dangerous because it seems like I come out with 10 things that I don't need. I call The
Lena:last two for the year.
Bryan:I call it the $500 club because if you've got a tight budget for groceries or other things, you need to really just stick with your list and get in and get out because they do a great job of selling. But why does it make so much money? It's because there's a lot of people, there's a lot of volume, and you buy a lot in bulk there, so instead of getting two rolls of paper towels, you can get a whole 24 of them at a discounted price, but now you got 22 that you got to store somewhere, and so when people are buying that much, it just drives the cost up, which again means more tax revenue for the Community.
Lena:Makes sense. Will these You kind of talk a little bit about the local economy and how the taxes impact our budget. What about jobs? How are we working with Costco and jobs?
Bryan:You know, that's a great question. And we work hard with all the new businesses. I've never had an opportunity to work at Costco, but I've had a lot of friends who have, who really, that are very complimentary. It's supposedly One of the for best. A retail Absolutely one of the best, one of the best with benefits.
Bryan:So that is an added benefit. They have agreed completely to follow all of our Community hiring preferences, so they'll be working with our HR department and doing job fairs and those types of things when they start hiring. They've also agreed during the construction to utilize Salt River Materials Group, utilize Saddleback for all their communications. And so they came in completely agreeing to everything the Community asked for, which is really good.
Lena:That's exciting.
Bryan:The other thing that I'm excited about is, you know, I am a frequent flyer for Costco, but personally I think they've got great selection for meat products and produce and fruits, above and beyond what you can get at a lot of other stores. So I'm excited to at least give community members a close local place where they can even get healthy foods.
Lena:Yeah, right. And then furniture, if you need some.
Bryan:Exactly.
Lena:I also heard, I don't know if this is true or not and maybe you don't know it yet, but I heard that they're going to have a car wash there.
Bryan:They are, and there's not a lot of Costcos that have one
Lena:No, right, I don't that think have I've seen one.
Bryan:So you'll be able to go to the fuel station because they'll also have a fuel station, and like a lot of people do, you can get a pretty good price on fuel at Costco's. Immediately you can go and right get your car washed too, and then do your shopping before or after. So they will have a car wash and a fuel station at this location.
Lena:That's awesome. Thanks for We feel really good that you got to break the news here. What else is going on? Like the Pavilions, I think they have some
Bryan:Let new me touch a little bit on the Pavilions. Something happened just within the last eighteen months or so, and that was that the Community actually purchased to be the majority owner in the Pavilion's property. Before that, it's changed hands several times, there's different ownership groups, and Marty De Rito, who was the developer that was managing Pavilions, also had a partial ownership, but it was owned primarily by a bunch of third party investment companies. And those companies decided to move on, cash in on their investments, and that opportunity became available for the Community to purchase the Pavilions, and so council deliberated over almost a year, I think it took, to get through all the legal work and decided to buy it. And I think it was a great strategic move.
Bryan:The Pavilion is, in essence, the gateway to our commercial corridor, to our Talking Stick Entertainment District. So I think the Community itself have an actual control over that, what it looks like in the future, the upkeep of it, is kind of an investment in ourselves to make sure that that stays the shining star that it's grown into.
Lena:Absolutely.
Bryan:They always are turning over. There's kind of been a trend, as most of you know, that a lot of these big boxes have started to fade away with the Amazons and all this online shopping, but I think the Pavilions as a shopping center has done a great job on pivoting. So an example, there used to be a Conn's and even before that it was one of these kind of electric
Lena:Best Buy.
Bryan:Best Buy, there you go. One of those type of stores was in there. Well, they've turned that into something called the Pickler, where you can actually go and play indoor
Lena:Pickleball, yeah.
Bryan:Pickleballers are hot right and they're taking advantage. So they're using some of these businesses that may have faded away because the times have changed, and they're trying to create experience type based industries so you could go up there for different types of entertainment. Again, I think that fits well in right, our Talking Stick
Lena:with the casino and then a lot of other things that focus on families. Not everybody has to go to the casino and play the slot machine, but they can go play pickleball.
Bryan:Exactly. Lots of other things to do over there, too. Lots of activities for the kids. You've got Octane, you've got Mavericks, you've got this new slide park that's indoors. So, it's a great place for all families.
Lena:That's awesome. In general, I mean, think you kind of talked a little bit about making sure that the development kind of matches what we're doing in the corridor. But in general, what steps do we normally take to ensure that development that occurs in the Community fits the character of the Community? How do we work with that?
Bryan:You know, it's a very tenuous, laborious process, a laborious process. We have a lot of existing rule sets, ordinances, and practices that are in place to govern just that, to make sure that when new development comes in, that it has a good fit, it meets our standards. And so an example, and this is both on tribal land where council's making the majority of the decisions, or even allotted land where you have allotees. Allotees still have to go through the same processes as well as the Community projects that are pushed through. And there are different staff groups that review this from a public health and welfare and safety perspective.
Bryan:So there's committees that review all these projects. We have all of these rule sets on the books and our ordinances and our general development plan that talk about things about like how many parking places you need and what kind of landscaping you need. We have a design review committee that looks at colors and features and trying to incorporate native designs. I'm sure you've probably seen some
Lena:of Yeah, the basket designs on some of the buildings I've noticed, like Baskin Robbins, I think, and the Dutch Brothers. They all have that kind of feel.
Bryan:Yeah, exactly. And that's what these staff groups work to do. Council gets a bite at the apple a couple of different times, so a lot of times they'll be on the front end kind of at the concept approval. But once these projects get through the system and get through design review, then we have a set of Community members that sit on our land board and the land board is charged again to look at these projects to make sure that they are fitting within the community standards that are out there, but also, to your point, they have the right character, they have the right look and feel, and that will have benefit for the whole Community, not just that one group of landowners.
Lena:Yeah, I think that's great because at least when people come and go to the Dutch Brothers or go to the Target, they know where they're at. It's very clear where they're shopping or getting their coffee at. So when might the public begin to see the construction on something like a Costco?
Bryan:So, great question. The Community is actually championing the, what I'm going call like the roadway network and the infrastructure, and so we're breaking ground very soon. You should literally see some clearing and grubbing operations and some equipment being placed out there within the next couple of weeks. They're going to take some of the larger trees that are out there and capture them, box them up to reuse them in landscaping or any other cacti or anything that can be salvaged. We just don't mow all that over and tear them down, we reuse them, very environmentally friendly approach.
Bryan:Next couple of weeks they're going to be in construction. Costco anticipates starting construction in July, and they plan on being open right toward the end of the calendar year.
Lena:Just in time for Christmas.
Bryan:Well, they're hoping. There's no promises, but if that's the ballpark timeframe, we're probably looking at December. I mean, if we have a lot of rain and things, that may slip past into January, but I think everybody's hoping to try to get it open for that Christmas holiday, but if not, we're going to be close. And then the infrastructure we're putting in play will also be going on concurrently. So not only Costco will be able to connect to the road network, but the utilities will be put in for future development and hopefully even more dealerships that are in that area on the North Side.
Lena:So you know what? I don't even think I asked you where is it going to be? I know it's going to be on the North Side, but where?
Bryan:So the property, if you think about a mirror image, and I'm going to start at the bottom of the property, that would be Indian School Road. So on the South side of that is all the existing auto dealerships. All of the properties that are adjacent or right next to Indian School are going to be for dealerships. So the Costco is being pushed to the farthest northern point of that property. There's going to be actually a signal that's going to be put in on Pima Road so you can get in and out of that area, especially you know that the Costco gas line and now the Carwash line causes a lot of queuing, and so the engineers are working to make sure that people can get both in and out safely, in and out of the dealership.
Bryan:There's multiple entrances and exit points to help traffic but it's the farthest northern end of the property is where the Costcos go. It's about 26 acres up on the north side. And I would take a guess around 1,000 to 1,500 feet north of the Indian School Pima Road Intersection.
Lena:Okay. Nice. Exciting. So, five or ten years from now, what do you hope that development will mean to the community? I mean, not only that, I think considering what you mentioned earlier about the impact that a Costco and the auto show have in general development, what kind of impact do you hope?
Bryan:You know, I'm going to go back to that difficult council decision, and I know it was difficult for this Community to approve packaged liquor. My hope is that that's going to open more doors just like it opened the door for us for Costco. Because a lot of people may not know this, but drugstores, grocery stores, a heavy part of their profit margin is tied to selling packaged liquor.
Bryan:And we don't have a lot of grocery stores other than we just have our Walmart Walmart can do it because they're Walmart. They're just this huge and they can absorb losses that they would get from not being able to sell that. Although Walmart and Target and others have taken advantage of creating spaces so they can sell it because it is big for those type of retail establishments. But my hope is Costco can continue to send a message to developers out there that, Hey, it'd be nice to get some competition for a regular grocery store or have a CVS pharmacy here because our members I know we can get prescriptions at our PHC, but there's a lot of other things that come along with those smaller scale type businesses that we're not here for a specific reason and my hope is this starts to open the door. And again, why what would I like to see or why is it so important to me as Community Manager?
Bryan:One, I like our members to have access to services that they need for their families in a very convenient way. It's crazy driving the freeway and even getting off community can be a little harrowing through some of the traffic patterns that have formed through the valley over the years. But most important is to develop our portfolio, our total financial portfolio, and try to generate taxes for the foreseeable future. A lot of people may not know this, but the government itself is funded primarily from gaming. That makes me nervous.
Bryan:Gaming is not guaranteed forever. There's always a threat out there that the state could legalize it. I don't think anything like that is going to happen, but my goal is if something like that happens that we are positioned so well that it's not a huge impact. We wouldn't have to hurt, let staff go, which would ultimately impact services. So my goal is to help generate enough tax money to supplement anything this community needs in the future for seven generations.
Lena:That's awesome. If listeners take away just one thing about development in these particular projects, what would you hope it is?
Bryan:I think it is I'm tentative to use this word, but I'm going to use the word, it's a necessary evil. Meaning, I would not want, if I was a Community member, for us to look like across the street
Lena:right
Bryan:Fountain Hills or Scottsdale or Tempe. I think one of the great things about this Community is the preserve that they have and how the importance that everyone places on the land and trying to maintain as much of the natural habitat and preserve and save property for future generations for very important things like housing and things like that that's going to have educational pieces. I think that's important, but if we're not going to, which I don't think in the foreseeable future, different jurisdictions create funds through taxes. Like where I live in the city of Phoenix, not only do I pay sales taxes, but I have a property tax, and it goes on and on. And I don't think this council, future councils, are going to be interested in taxing Community members.
Bryan:They want to minimize that.
Lena:So
Bryan:given that, we've got to tax somebody to help feed this engine we've created of services. It's a beautiful thing, the Community member services, things like the Wolf, things like the new River People Health Center and Journey to Recovery and the new senior center, all of that takes money. And so the one thing I would leave, if we want to prioritize preserving the land internal to the community on the East Side Of The 101, then we need to make as much money as possible to stay in the Community on the West Side of the freeways, the 101 and now even the 202 South.
Lena:Yeah, and we're doing it. We're on our way.
Bryan:We are on our way.
Lena:Thank you for your leadership. That's all I have today. So I want to thank you for joining us today and sharing more about these exciting developments. I really appreciate your time. It's always great to hear the story behind projects like this and to better understand how they can shape the future of our Community.
Lena:To everyone listening, we appreciate you taking the time to tune in. Staying informed and engaged is one of the best ways we can all play a role in the growth and the future of our community. Be sure to keep an eye out as updates come along for this project, and thanks again for listening.