Glendale celebrates $1 billion development surge, transforms into Arizona's sports entertainment hub

2023. What an amazing year this has been for the City of Glendale. I'm Sue Redding, and I'm here to walk you through the story of our journey. What were the tough times? Like, why was a turnaround needed? How are we reaching new heights and where are we today? Well, first in February, Glendale had the attention of an international audience as the hosts city of Super Bowl 57. Our city workers contributed greatly to the success of the big game, which was the most watched telecast of all time.

And then in March, did you hear about the city that symbolically renamed itself Swift City? Well, that was us celebrating how Taylor Swift's Eras tour kicked off in Glendale and how it was unprecedented the way that she set records selling every ticket for two shows at State Farm Stadium, about 260,000 people called Glendale Home, and we're experiencing an explosion of business growth in our sports and entertainment district.

There are projects taking shape, bringing new jobs, and new visitors to our city. Jessica Menz joins us from the construction site of Vi Resort. Jessica, thanks, Sue. It's clear that businesses booming in Glendale. Just take a look at this massive resort complex that's coming to life. Vie Resort is going to be an entertainment destination for visitors from all around the country and the world.

It's just one example of a project putting Glendale on the map yet again, and there's so much more to come. Looking forward into future growth for the city of Glendale. We're gonna keep the, uh, foot on the gas pedal. Glendale has 80% left to be built out all around the Sports Entertainment district in a 3 0 3. And so Glendale's in a position now to pick whom builds the future in the best possible way.

You get one chance in our lifetimes to build a project of the, the scale and magnitude that we're seeing today. The Via Resort is building almost a billion dollars worth of infrastructure. So This entire hotel complex revolves around a $40 million concert stage where we're looking at targeting a, b, c artists, comedians to perform here over a hundred times a year where we're standing right here.

This is actually one of the hotel room balconies that just happened to be front row seats for this concert. This resort is really made for public interfacing as well as guest interfacing tickets. So we also have over 7,000 ticket opportunities for the public. The party doesn't stop after the encore at Vie, there's so many other opportunities pre or post show where you could really have a three day vacation. We have the largest manmade party island.

So Konas Island is gonna feature white sand beaches and really gonna kind of redefine that day life entertainment aspect. Most hotel rooms in Arizona, so we're just, um, under 1100 hotel rooms with the four towers. We also have wedding venues, nightclubs, 12 culinary restaurants, over 70,000 square feet of retail. And when we're all fully functioning, we'll probably around 1800, 2000, um, employees, you can see just the migration. Everything's pushing west.

So 10 years from now, really the center of Phoenix is everything's shifting out here into our backyard, being right alongside the 1 0 1, having a phenomenal neighbor like State Farm Arena and everything else. Glendale truly is gonna become that entertainment district of Arizona, and that's exactly the niche where virus resort fits in. We could have gone anywhere in the world for this. We chose Glendale for a reason. Great partnerships. Glendale is very pro growth, very easy to work with.

They see the big goals in the end, and they don't put glass ceilings on these developers. Welcome to the site of the Mattel Adventure Park. This is the first of its kind in the world, and we are featuring Mattel toys. We're bringing these toys to life. You can get behind the wheel of a hot wheels go-kart and literally drive it on one of the largest go-kart tracks in the world. We have an actual Barbie beach house right on White sand. You will see the bone shaker rollercoaster.

This is a family coaster for all ages that actually has a lift that goes through the roof on top of the roof and spins into a double helix back inside. I feel like we've cracked the code. We have acres of cool space inside where guests can enjoy this park without suffering from the heat. Just Team Glendale was just amazing. And the more we looked, the more we liked. We just found ways to meet common goals.

What we will have with the VI resort in the Mattel Adventure Park is a project that has not been replicated and likely will not be replicated for many years to come anywhere in the state of Arizona. So it really gives us something to differentiate ourself from the competition coming off of the Super Bowl. And then all of the national international attention we had by being the kickoff site for the Taylor Swift concert where we renamed our city. The city of Glendale will be renamed Swift City.

What we're doing is really kind of building this momentum to where we're staying in the front of people's minds, uh, across the country and internationally. And we're starting to be recognized really as a true destination spot for the Second time ever. The Men's Final Four is headed to Phoenix in 2024. Final Four is just another magnificent mega event in the long lineup of Glendale's history, of hosting world-class events. This is just one more opportunity for us to showcase our city.

Our city staff is getting much, much better at that, the outlets that they reach. And we're getting feedback from that here because we're getting more calls. The marketplace is looking glendale's perceived as a flagship sports entertainment district, not just in the state or on the west coast, but throughout the nation. There's only a handful, less than five that now have the density, the type and the kind of enterprises that Glendale now has with another square mile or two to keep developing.

And then on the Loop 3 0 3, we have a few million square feet of development's under construction right now. The momentum that you have there and all of the city is incredible. We are getting ready to close down the city hall and do a major redevelopment that'll take about two years. Project will probably be north of 80 to $85 million and we're doing it without having to go to the voters for new bond authorization. That's very unique in in the local government site.

Since we announced the city's intention to redevelop our downtown campus, we've already seen the fruits of that decision. We had a developer come in and purchase the property downtown that had been, uh, damaged through a a truck and car accident, and now are reopening it up as a brew hub and, uh, making a major investment there. Uh, we're now talking to a major hotelier, potentially a building a hotel.

We're starting to field a lot of questions from the development community that we weren't field, uh, a year ago, two years ago. We are convinced that if we do our downtown project correctly, we're gonna create a real jewel. The future of our downtown campus and our surrounding business community is very bright, being focused not only on the revenue, but on the jobs that we have the opportunity to provide our citizens.

We think we'll create a stronger community of people more plugged in and with more ownership of the city of Glendale, We have an amazing reputation in the valley and in the state forevermore. I'm grateful to to council, to the leadership, to my fellow department heads for having created that perception through their hard work. Sky's the limit for Glendale, for the 2000 employees that we have here in Glendale to our elected officials. We have really have been on a remarkable run.

We remain even more optimistic about our future. Thanks Jessica. Projects like those were not possible a decade ago. We still feel the sting of how Glendale was in the news, including the Wall Street Journal as an example of a city in dire financial straits. Mike Harris has more Sue. So many great things are happening in Glendale now that the city's in a good spot fiscally. There have been improvements to streets, parks and public safety.

It's a huge turnaround that's taken place over the last 10 years. When I came in, it was about 10 years ago in December, and um, the city was in really bad financial condition and it was so bad as, as a matter of fact, that when I told friends of mine and my colleagues that I was gonna leave the city of Phoenix and come to the city of Glendale, they asked me like, are you sure you know what you're doing? And I said, well, you know, like how bad could it be?

Uh, but then of course when I got here and I was kind of on the inside of the organization, I realized, yeah, it could be pretty bad. In fact, it was worse than, you know, what I thought it would be. We were going into the new budget year, so we prepared a five year forecast and sat down with the council to share with them what things looked like moving into the future and had an honest conversation with them about how bad things were looking. Come on up please.

And they knew that they were gonna have to make some tough decisions and some of those decisions were not very popular, uh, but they were willing to do it, to do the right thing for the city, and they could see that there was a path forward if they did the right things. The city has a very healthy budget now. We were able to refinance a lot of debt, save the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars, and we were able to put money away into reserves. And so new businesses started coming in.

They don't want to come into a city that looks like it's failing, but they wanna be in a city that's vibrant and where the budget is balanced and things are looking good. And so we got new businesses in that generates more revenue for the city. And really it's just been an incredible turnaround. Our city's mayor and council, they understand the importance of public safety and they trust and support us day in and day out. And through that trust, they listen to us.

They listen to our for what our needs are because they know that we are asking for things that we believe are gonna make us serve our community, their community better, and provide a better safer environment for the citizens of Glendale. They have supported us in hiring new officers and new civilians, and with those professionals we're able to enhance our services.

As the city became more financially secure, we started investing in a lot of technology and that includes our real time crime center, which morphed into our drone program and license plate readers. And this technology has put us on the leading edge, which has allowed us to solve crimes in a more efficient manner and a safer manner. Obviously the, the residents benefit because we're able to bring closure to the victims and get our officers back in service.

So the future is bright, Glendale is growing, the police department's growing right along with it, and we look forward to the Future. The mayor and council have helped the City of Glendale Fire Department in their advocacy and support for public safety. Those tangible demonstrations of appropriating money to our budget shows their commitment to public safety, to their citizens, their constituents, but also a commitment to public safety and the men and women assigned to the fire department.

It shows a, uh, trust and respect for the work we do. And then we're gonna match that by serving our citizens. Those investments have seen us, uh, do remodels of our fire stations, uh, new roofs, new HVACs. We're seeing the purchase of new fire engines all the way from the smallest bit of equipment to things like fire trucks and new fire stations in the future. We are set and poised for the growth of the city of Glendale.

We have invested about $247 million over the past seven years in the street infrastructure of the city. And this, uh, investment resulted in about 2,300 lane miles of road, which we have improved with this investment. And we are also planning to invest another $81 million on the roadway infrastructure in the coming year. So what it means for the residents.

So we have reduced congestions, uh, reduced delay timings, reduced polluted, um, air emissions and safe and efficient, uh, transportation option to our citizens. We are investing another $36 million on upkeep and improving the landscape, which is surrounding the city streets. This will make our city streets look, uh, visually pleasing and will project a positive image of the city. Well, we've been able to to address a lot of, um, needs in a lot of community, uh, benefits.

One example is the council provided us quite a bit of resources to redesign and rebuild three small community centers. We were able to renovate both of our big aquatics complexes, the Roseland pool and the Foothills pool, completely repl them, resurfaced the decks, repainted all the, the equipment and the slides, fix pumps and drains and all the equipment. It'll keep them alive and functional for, uh, another decade or so, which is great.

We were able to design and build with the assistance of our engineering department, the lake out at Heroes Park. It's a major amenity. It's been promised to the community for something like 30 years, and we're able to get that built and open and, and have the first fishing event out at this last fall. We've done 30 new playgrounds in the park system and that's scattered all throughout the entire city. So it's a good example of, um, their commitment to, to refreshing the entire park system.

Thanks, Mike. We have attracted new business growth with our very unique business model. Glendale has a different vision. They're very pro-business. They know that time is money and getting projects done is great for their community. So I think they prioritize those projects for the private sector. They have the capital, they have the desire and the dream. It's our job to facilitate and to help them place that capital.

Here in Glendale, We'll look for ways that we can help the development community grow, continue their processes, but also looking at their projects and plans from the perspective of a regulator so that they come out safe, they come out enjoyable for the public, but also move at the speed of business. Absolutely, it's culture without a doubt.

It comes from the city council straight down to the city manager through the department heads and through every one of us city employees that understand that we are only as good as our word and what we say is what we must do. And I think Glendale certainly enjoys a very, very robust reputation for the level of customer service it provides.

They Bring the whole team on, which is really nice, and you get to talk with everybody at the start of the project and they really just help move things along. 3, 2, 1. One of the major successes we've had in Glendale is in working with our council, they developed a policy of growth, uh, in the west, uh, part of our city in the Loop 3 0 3 area.

If you went back, uh, to 2017, we had no buildings out there before we actually started developing out there though council gave us guidance to go out and meet with the landowners, brokers, developers and companies and say, what would you need from the city to make this a successful development?

And one of the first things council did of, they converted our annexation policy from a fairly long policy with some red tape in it to the shortest, most simple annexation policy that led from 2017 to now to thousands and thousands of acres, being able to be annexed into the city, go through design, review, get zoned, and now have buildings under construction and complete. We've already constructed more than 30 million square feet of, uh, industrial manufacturing space.

We have another 15 to 20 million square feet in the pipeline. And this has been a huge success. It's one of the strongest areas of growth in the entire state of Arizona, has just been along this new frontier along the 3 0 3 corridor.

One of the developments that we're really proud about here that I think demonstrates our approach to business and our speed to the market happened a couple years ago as we were working to try to win the White Claw, uh, factory that they were looking at building here in Glendale. They came to us because there were 50 million cases a year behind in delivery and they needed a way to get into business quickly. So they had pre-ordered equipment for a building that they don't have yet.

They issued us a challenge to say, you said that you can help us get this built in under a year. We wanna see that you can do it. So from the first day that we met them, 278 days later, they had a Red Bull facility open and operating On October 5th, 2020. We stood there and handed them a certificate of occupancy 363 days later for a 1 million square foot state-of-the-art beverage brewing facility. And the truth of the matter is, the first shovel in the ground to C of O was 280 days.

We layer all of the different processes that cities and jurisdictions have to go through, and then when it came to permitting, we actually allowed them to layer their permitting so that they could start the site work ahead of the construction of the building so the building could still be in review and they would already be under construction About a year after they were open.

The owner of White Claw, uh, presented our team with a challenge coin And it set on it from Roses to White Claw in 278 days. And they gave those coins to all the architects, engineers, and city folks that participated in the process. Since then, they've opened up other, uh, components including a distribution center, their research center, and they're now working on a canning facility.

Uh, but it all started with the relationship that we had and recognizing that for them, getting things done quickly was paramount to their success. Attracting luxury dealers, that was no easy task. Peoria had already established themselves as the auto dealer or auto mall area, but Glendale had a different vision. We wanted to be the luxury auto dealer.

They conduct a tremendous amount of business and so they can be, you know, very frankly, quite lucrative for local governments to help pay for, you know, our parks and public safety. This location on the 1 0 1 turned out to be a fantastic location, and the reason is there's 140 to 160,000 cars a day that travel the 1 0 1, whether you're driving north or south, you're gonna be looking at this fabulous new luxury auto retail center.

We were partners with the Van t Title organization back in 2007, 2008 with the, uh, Cadillac dealership on Bell Road. So this is actually one of the most important things that a city can actually do is maintain relationships so positively that people come back and wanna do business with you.

So while it's a business attraction locate for the luxury dealerships that are on the opposite side, the west side of the Loop 1 0 1, it's really a business retention and expansion relationship that helped create that opportunity for what we enjoy with B M W and Roro Volvo and the rest of the lineup out there. The Sports Entertainment District was initiated, obviously by council in approximately 2003 with the building of Cardinal Stadium and the Arena and even Cabelas.

Those were big moves out in that time. Since then, with Yam being one of the major owners of property out there, we've been attracting so many experiential restaurant, retail, commercial office, every venue and every market sector that maybe is struggling in other locations. It's been thriving in Glendale for years.

We've been able to bring all these great entertainment concepts and I feel like those were kind of partnerships with the city in a way because the city has always expressed their in interest in expanding and growing this entertainment part of Town. But we've also been really, you know, trying to focus on new projects that are already now completed here in the Westgate area. Probably one that's most notable is the new pop stroke, uh, development here in Westgate all day long.

There are people waiting to get into this facility and, uh, it, but again, it gives us just one more experiential type of project, uh, to go along with the 40 plus restaurants that are here in the area. Westgate's kind of a one-stop shop. You can eat here, you can do entertainment activities, go to the movies, you can go to a show at the arena, you can go to a sporting event. And we just have options for everyone.

We want to attract a layer of experiential activities that when they come to Glendale and when they, when they go back home, they'll know that the only place they could have had that experience was here in the city of Glendale. If we can create a place where people feel safe investing their money, they'll bring more business. That is the Glendale recipes, speed to market. It's culture.

All department heads working together to welcome investment of all types of, For people who are looking to invest or do something great, Glendale's a great municipality. You would work for Street improvements, parks, new city facilities, all the things that citizens see that citizens want. We get that through the process of development. Momentum is a wonderful thing for continuing good or bad. And in Glendale's case, it's all positive. It's about an ecology of a city.

It's how a city understands where its workforce is, where it spends money, how it lives, how it provides a sense of community. And Glendale has captured that. It is remarkable in as much progress as we made. We remain even as optimistic, if not more optimistic about our future. And we are no longer this town in the West Valley that's kind of a sleepy little town. We are now being recognized for being a dynamic city.

I think we're all very proud of the brand that we're becoming here in the city of Glendale. We love the story of what is happening in Glendale and stay tuned because the best is yet to come.