- Media Contact:
- Christine Romero, Westcor, 602-953-6593
Christine.Romero@westcor.com- Jennifer Munn, SanTan Village, 480-899-1878
Jennifer.Munn@westcor.com - Jennifer Munn, SanTan Village, 480-899-1878
PHOENIX - May 4, 2007 - As Arizona continues to grow, so does the passion for sports, fitness and athletics.
Dick's Sporting Goods, a new to market retailer, recognizes this viable trend and plans to open its first Gilbert store at SanTan Village - Westcor's newest regional shopping center set to open Oct. 26 near the Loop 202 and Williams Field Road.
“Arizonans are incredibly active and interested in a wide variety of sports and outdoor activities that Dick's Sporting Goods directly caters to,” said Jeff Hennion, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, of Dick's Sporting Goods. “Our new location at SanTan Village will offer a wide variety of equipment, apparel, footwear, and accessories including those for team, racquet, outdoor, and water sports along with golf, exercise, and many others.”
Most of Dick's focus has been on the Eastern half of the United States, but as the company continues to grow it has been adding more locations in the sports-friendly Western half of the nation, where sunny skies and brilliant weather encourage golf, hiking, jogging and many other activities that Dick's broad product assortment targets.
“Dick's Sporting Goods will sit in 70,000 square feet at SanTan Village and will greatly complement the existing line up of retailers,” Sheila Hunter, SanTan Village senior property manager. “Sports of all types are a central focus in Gilbert and the surrounding community, so this is a perfect fit to meet the needs of the Gilbert lifestyle.”
Active Arizona
The Dick's Sporting Goods location at SanTan Village represents much more than a new retailer - it's a way of life. Arizonans are active and embrace all forms of recreation. That passion for being active translates into a healthy market for sporting goods. The *Outdoor Industry Foundation reports that a quarter or more of the Arizonans:
Fishing, hunting, paddle and snow sports also are hot. Across Arizona, the outdoor recreation economy supports 82,000 jobs, generates nearly $350 million in state sales tax revenue and produces almost $5 billion in retail sales and services, the foundation reports.
Dick's locations offer a specialty store environment with a vast range of sporting goods equipment, including hard wear, apparel and footwear. The Dick's Sporting Goods License Shop caters to diverse interests including NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS and Collegiate just to name a few.
Phased Approach
SanTan Village is a market-driven regional shopping center that's the first to open in Westcor's Phoenix 2020 plan, a strategic approach to development that puts the right center in the right place at the right time. At build out, SanTan Village will encompass 3 million square feet on a 500-acre urban village including retail, entertainment, restaurant, office space and residential.
About 80 percent of the 1.2-million-square-foot SanTan Village regional center will open Oct. 26. Harkins Theatres opened in March and is receiving a warm reception from the community. SanTan Village will continue to take a phased approach to the rest of project. Dick's Sporting Goods is expected to open in spring 2008.
The open-air, pedestrian-friendly SanTan Village will encourage activity among its shoppers with many plazas and places to stroll. The shopping center will offer shopper an added convenience with bike racks. Children's activities at SanTan Village will provide both fun and exercise with water pop jets, a play area and grassy areas.
Founded in 1969, Phoenix-based Westcor is a wholly owned subsidiary of Macerich. The largest owner-manager of commercial properties in Arizona, Westcor's portfolio currently consists of 18 million square feet of retail space at 28 shopping centers, including 11 super-regional centers, 3 specialty retail centers and 14 urban villages. The company has set the industry benchmark for ground-up shopping center development, such as Chandler Fashion Center, Prescott Gateway Mall and Scottsdale Fashion Square. Additional information about Westcor is available online at www.westcor.com.
Macerich is a fully integrated self-managed and self-administered real estate investment trust, which focuses on the acquisition, leasing, management, development and redevelopment of regional malls throughout the United States. The company is the sole general partner and owns an 84% ownership interest in The Macerich Partnership, L.P. Macerich now owns approximately 77 million square feet of gross leaseable area consisting primarily of interests in 73 regional malls. Additional information about Macerich can be obtained from the Company's Web site at www.macerich.com.
*Report produced by the Outdoor Industry Foundation. More information is available from the Outdoor Industry Association, Megan Davis, 303-444-3353, www.outdoorindustry.org.