Chandler Starting 2003 With Rash of New Retail Openings

CHANDLER, AZ-Nine new retail stores and restaurants are set to open by January at three retail shopping plazas surrounding the Chandler Fashion Center Mall, creating a destination mecca for shoppers in the East Valley.

Chandler Gateway, a 256,000-sf retail power center located at Loop 101 and Chandler Boulevard across from the mall, will be almost fully leased with the addition of Sleep America, Glass Table, Paddy O’ Furniture and Honmachi Grill, all scheduled to open within the next two weeks. The 24.6-acre site is anchored by the Great Indoors, Razmataz and Circuit City. Baja Fresh, a Mexican restaurant, opened its doors in the same plaza within the last two months.

Four additional businesses will open by January 2003 at the Boulevard Shops, a 50,670-sf specialty center located in the Chandler Fashion Center complex. Fore Her Golf, Destination Tan, One Art and Jacomet Fine Jewelers will join Blooms & Beyond and Jacquie O along with two destination restaurants, Pasta Pomodoro and P.F. Chang’s.

The 600,000-sf Chandler Festival center, anchored by Ultimate Electronics, Nordstrom Rack, Office Max and PetsMart and several other large retailers, will add a new restaurant, Chop Stixx, in January to its existing restaurant tenants, NYPD Pizza and Quiznos Subs. A Black Angus Steakhouse, which recently signed a lease on the property, is set to open by the end of next year.

The three retail outlets, representing nearly one million sf of retail space was designed by the Phoenix-based architectural firm of DFD CornoyerHendrick and developed by Westcor, a subsidiary of the Macerich Co.