As one of the fastest growing cities in the country, development is booming in Goodyear. Hear from Vice Mayor Laura Kaino as she discusses the process of development in the city. Plus, learn how the city works to attract the top businesses that residents want.
As one of the fastest growing cities in the country, development is booming in Goodyear. Hear from Vice Mayor Laura Kaino as she discusses the process of development in the city. Plus, learn how the city works to attract the top businesses that residents want.
Coming up on this episode of Growing Goodyear,
Vice Mayor Kaino:This is certainly the West Valley's time to shine. And Goodyear is definitely a leader and development and bringing quality projects here. So we're very excited to watch our city transition into a real economic powerhouse and a leader in the West Valley.
Jordan Byrd:And welcome into the Growing Goodyear podcast. I'm Jordan Byrd.
Tammy Vo:And I'm Tammy Vo, with the city of Goodyear.
Jordan Byrd:I don't know if you're like me, but anytime I'm driving around, and I start to see construction development, whether it be in my own neighborhood or on a busy street corner, my mind automatically goes to Well, I wonder what's being built there. And so I think a lot of people are like that, especially here in Goodyear, because we are seeing so much growth, even though there still is so much land space still available for that development and growth. But I think that's a natural human instinct for people to be curious about what is going on in their community.
Tammy Vo:Yeah, sometimes, I mean, you might be so happy to see what's going in in the corner. And sometimes you might be disappointed. But the truth is, by the time the construction has started, the project is in place, there's no going back now. So in this episode of the podcast, we can really give our residents and even anyone in any city doesn't matter where you live sort of the insight as to what goes on, before the construction starts that will help you get a better understanding of how things get built. And especially when you're making really important decisions, like where to build a house, where to sign a lease, where to buy a house, there are some really important things you're gonna want to take into consideration.
Jordan Byrd:So along those lines, we're going to talk with Vice Mayor Laura Kaino, about how much control the city has, where things get built, what kind of things get built, and maybe disprove some of the common misconceptions when it comes to development in Goodyear.
Tammy Vo:And we're also going to hear from Goodyear, economic development director Wendy Bridges about how the city works to attract these types of businesses that our residents really want.
Jordan Byrd:But first, it's time for Fast Five with Vice Mayor Kaino.
Tammy Vo:First question, are you a morning person or a night owl?
Vice Mayor Kaino:Oh, I am definitely a morning person. I am up before the light. Typically my dog wakes me but no, I do my best thinking. I have my best energy in the morning.
Jordan Byrd:What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
Vice Mayor Kaino:I'm old school, it's work hard and earn your reputation.
Tammy Vo:If you could have a superpower, what might that be?
Vice Mayor Kaino:I think it would be to read minds because I think it'd be very interesting.
Jordan Byrd:What app on your phone do you use the most?
Vice Mayor Kaino:I have discovered TikTok. It's my secret passion. So I'm getting good recipes from there. I see my grandkids on there.
Tammy Vo:What do you love most about being Goodyear's vice mayor?
Vice Mayor Kaino:I love the opportunities that I have to get out in the public to represent the city to be the ambassador, the mayor gives me great opportunities to get out. So I'm very, very thankful to be able to serve the city in this role.
Jordan Byrd:And we're talking with Goodyear Vice Mayor Laura Kaino, thank you so much for joining us on this podcast and talking about a topic that I feel like a lot of residents, it's at the top of their mind, and that is what's been developed in their community.
Vice Mayor Kaino:Thank you, Jordan, you know, people are excited about development when it comes in terms of retail and restaurants, shopping, entertainment, things like that people are thrilled about it. But when a white sign goes up in their neighborhood, then they start to wonder and then they start to look at development differently. So development is really an all encompassing thing that has to do with how our city is growing, how its planned out and how things are happening. It's not like Goodyear is a Sim City, we don't get to sit up at the dais and say what's going where. We have to steward all of the competing interests between the residents, the developers and the property owners. So it can be quite challenging at times.
Tammy Vo:And with Goodyear only being built out by about 12%, which a lot of people may not know there is so much opportunity for where our city will go in the coming years. I've got to imagine that these questions from the public are ones that you hear so much what's going up here, what's going up there? What sort of a role does the city council play in what does go up around the city?
Vice Mayor Kaino:Well Tammy that is a great question. We do play an important role when people are coming with their plans to either bring a business in or to build something from the ground up. They have to initially engage with city staff, most typically in the development services group or they may have initial contact through our economic development people so the process starts there and it doesn't really bubble up to count So for a little bit, if it involves perhaps rezoning or maybe there's a special land use or special permit, then it gets in that council lane. Otherwise, if the land is already zoned, and what they're going to build fits what the the land is already designated for, then they can just start building and for those, sometimes I have to drive around to see what's coming up, because there is new businesses and new developments that pop up that we haven't heard about, because they are completely legal from the original start of them. So there's some that requires any intervention, and then there's some development that just could go straight to work.
Jordan Byrd:Let's dig in a little bit deeper on that zoning, because areas may be zoned for a specific business or industry type well before a resident might be living there. I mean, you might be moving into a new development and across the street, it's already been zoned for something that could be coming further down the road. Where and how does that zoning start?
Vice Mayor Kaino:The zoning actually starts with a founding document that has to be updated every 10 years. And that is the general plan. And the general plan is a process where the city invites members of the community that are located from all over to come in with all of their various backgrounds, their various life experience, and talk about how they envision Goodyear, so they review the general plan, they make changes and amendments, and then it goes out to the public for review for comment. In fact, that's the time period that we're in right now, where the general plan is out there for all of our residents to see to give us feedback on and then the council will approve it, and then it will go out to the voters. So this is where the voters and the residents really have the opportunity to say what the basis of the city looks like.
Tammy Vo:I think really the beauty of living in Goodyear is you can really drive just about any part of town, you can see cranes construction going on, which I know can get frustrating, but it's really a sign that there's more to come. And one of the big questions is I know from our residences, like what is that what is going up in my neighborhood, there's a couple of areas that we often hear about from residents and I'm sure you do two apartments or multi family housing, industrial buildings, and the third one being farmland around town. Tell us a little bit about those three topics and just what your view is on some of these hot topics for residents in Goodyear. Let's start with apartments or multifamily housing.
Vice Mayor Kaino:Well, those are exactly hot topics. That was a great way to describe it. No matter where we go as mayor and council, the top subjects that people want to talk about include multifamily, the industrial and then what's happening to the agriculture in the area. And it's a hard adjustment where we have historically been a town where we have single family residence, maybe a few apartments here and there. But that was back when we were more of a bedroom community. We are evolving really into an economic hub, the loop 303 changed a lot for Goodyear and it makes it easy for people to come and go to work. But it's always been important for us to have a place where people could go to work locally. And so multifamily housing provides an alternate form of housing that gives people some options. Unfortunately, with interest rates and housing costs. Homeownership isn't as achievable right now, but the multifamily housing provides opportunities for young people who maybe not ready to buy homes. I see good your police officers living there. I see military guy see him in the morning they've got their camo on and they're headed up towards Luke Air Force Base, young families, it provides a very important and viable housing stock for people who just at this point in their lives, either are not ready to scale up or perhaps have decided to scale down we are trying to provide options so young people can stay here people who work can live nearby, and also for people for whatever life's reason can find places to live here and Goodyear.
Tammy Vo:So on the other topic of hot topic of industrial in our city. And I think what a lot of people don't realize is that there are certain pockets of town that are specifically zoned for industrial type of development. It's not like they can just go develop on any street corner, correct?
Vice Mayor Kaino:That is correct. And a big part of that zoning and those requirements has to do with Luke Air Force Base and Goodyear as well as every West Valley city has made a commitment to do what we can to protect Luke and so what we have to do is to make sure that our zoning doesn't create problems for them. There are certain noise contours because of Luke Air Force, where we cannot put housing it just the fact is just gets too loud but there's also areas where they have deemed our accident prone that we also are limited on what we can put in that area. So you will see clusters especially along the loop 303 and the north part of Goodyear certainly along Camelback, where it is primarily going to be industrial and with industrial people think all you have is warehouses. And it hasn't turned out that way. We do have manufacturing. And certainly we're helping trying to grow that because it definitely creates the most jobs. But it was always planned that because of the limitations due to the base, as well as the Goodyear airport, that there are certain areas that are designated as industrial.
Tammy Vo:And it's the people here who then attract I mean, all the things we talked about that people like the restaurants, the shopping, right, I mean, you need to have people physically here in the city day and night, in order for those businesses to come.
Vice Mayor Kaino:And you hit the key that we have to have a daytime population. And in the past at most everybody got on I 10 and drove east to go to work really limiting our daytime population. So now with our ability to create jobs here with our multifamily building up the density, it has really created opportunity for us to recruit and welcome many new restaurants and retail things that we've waited for for a very long time. And the fact is, there's more coming down the pike, we just can't announce them yet. And we're busting at the seams waiting until we can get some of those announcements out. I know that the residents of Goodyear going to be really pleased.
Jordan Byrd:Along those lines, Goodyear is no longer just an agricultural community. And I know that there are a lot of residents and a lot of people in general who see the development and the density that is growing in Goodyear, and they become apprehensive they become concerned about it. Can you speak a little bit about maybe, if that's a misconception, the agricultural side of things.
Vice Mayor Kaino:You know, we hear that a lot. People love to see green fields, they love to watch the crops grow and get harvested. And it just brings a piece to your soul to see wide expanses of green space. And we all love that. But the truth is that land is owned by somebody. In fact, the farming land has already been sold to a developer. And a lot of times, they're just leasing it now to continue to farm it until they're ready to develop. But people have been concerned that we are going to now not have food or somehow it will be detrimental to our overall well being and health with the fields and farms going away. And while it is a big change. Interestingly enough, the elimination of agriculture saves tremendous amounts of water, the water use by AG is incredible, and is probably the primary water user in Arizona. So it creates a significant water savings. But we are not taking farming away from anybody who is currently farmers. But the fact is that development is coming out very strong in the West Valley, the land has become very valuable, the land is now going to be put to a different use.
Jordan Byrd:And just to reiterate, those decisions that are being made to move from maybe agriculture to a development, that's not coming from the city that's coming from the landowner.
Vice Mayor Kaino:Exactly right. The landowner has the right to make decisions as they see on the property in terms of the timing in terms of what they want to see the land to become.
Tammy Vo:So overall, I'm kind of hearing I think it's very similar theme from our conversation with you, which is private property owners do have rights. Yes, they do. Whether you see a business going up and it ends up being I don't know, a fast food restaurant, a gas station, a really cool restaurant, whatever it may be. I mean, there are rights for the developers and the property owners. Do you think that is also a misconception sometimes from the public, that the city could own and control and be down to that degree, the type of business that will end up on the street corner?
Vice Mayor Kaino:That is a very common misconception about the control that the city council has over privately owned property. Oftentimes, a parcel which is a defined piece of land is zoned appropriately for its intended use, which means the project can be developed without any public approval process and private property owners definitely have the right to request rezoning as well as to develop and sell their land as they deem appropriate. Here's the thing the city cannot unreasonably restrict development on private property if a proposed project is in alignment with our general plan and zoning ordinance. And so it's our role as City Council's to ensure the projects align with our vision and meet our development standards and guidelines. But this is a delicate balance and we may try to influence things about the project in terms of design, maybe how it is set up to minimize the impact on neighbors or you know take a lot of things into consideration but ultimately, we have to honor the rights of the property owners if they can comply with our zoning requirements. Then we are really hard pressed to turn down a project.
Jordan Byrd:it really sounds like for of residents who may have some concerns about what has been developed, there are avenues for them to voice those concerns, it just may be well earlier in the process than they may think.
Vice Mayor Kaino:That's exactly right. There are many opportunities for our residents to engage into the discussion and to voice their either their support or their opposition to changes that might be coming up through the public approval process. Certainly, as we mentioned before, the General Plan update is so key. And I really would love to see interested residents who want to know more about that, go to the website, goodyear gp.com and see what is on the general plan, this is going to be coming to the voters of good year in the spring. And it's going to be so important that they know what's on that plan and how that works. And to understand that this is still the time for comments and feedback. So that was one of the first things. Also, when you see one of those white signs come up on a corner or in your neighborhood or somewhere where you've driven by unfortunately, you can't read it from the road, find a safe place to park and go up and look at that sign, read the sign find out what's going on and get the phone numbers to call for more information.
Tammy Vo:Cause that's a public notice, right?
Vice Mayor Kaino:It's a public notice.
Tammy Vo:It's basically telling the residents and community, yes, we're talking about this project to be built, be part of
Vice Mayor Kaino:Be part of the conversation, that sign is out the conversation. there to notify people. In addition, if you live within 500 feet of a project where there's going to be a rezoning or a special use permit, then you will be notified of the process. We'll then go to planning and zoning, which is a public meeting our planning and zoning our resident volunteers, and they get all the information about the project, they ask a lot of very good questions. And they are really your citizen representatives in this process. So I encourage you to go to a planning and zoning meeting. It's a process it takes a little bit of time. But there's multiple avenues for our residents to be engaged or express their feelings either for or against a project.
Jordan Byrd:So there's a lot of information that residents have available to them. And one of the good resources that the city has is its monthly InFocus magazine, that not only covers a lot of these topics on a monthly basis, but it also has a lot of great information about council meetings or planning and zoning committees, and when they might be meeting those months. Right?
Vice Mayor Kaino:Exactly right. And I just want to give out a shout out to the team that puts together the infocus we do get so much positive feedback when we're out in the community about this magazine, and how easy it is to read how helpful it is. And it's just so visually appealing. So kudos to the staff that put it together. But I want to draw your attention specifically to the September issue. And this entire issue is dedicated to the very topic of development, the whole process. And there's always council members, council assistant staff that are happy to talk with residents that really have concerns are trying to understand a certain project or just the process. But this is certainly the west valley's time to shine and good years, definitely a leader in development and bringing quality projects here. So we're very excited to watch our city transition into a real economic powerhouse. And a leader in the West Valley, as the mayor often likes to say it's a great time to be a Goodyear.
Tammy Vo:And sometimes there are growing pains that come along with that, of course.
Vice Mayor Kaino:Oh my gosh, we are having growing pains. And that's evidenced by another common complaint we get. It's about the traffic and the road closures and things like that all that is tied into the development. And we are certainly making a lot of investment in infrastructure to improve our roads. And we're very excited about our future and just hold on during these growing pains. It'll be all worth it.
Tammy Vo:We very much appreciate your leadership, Vice Mayor, Goodyear really does care and in projects may not always turn out exactly the way you know, a neighborhood or resident may want to but it doesn't mean that they haven't been heard.
Vice Mayor Kaino:Exactly, yes, Goodyear does care. And I'll tell you when mayor and council gets emails from concerned citizens, they always get a response and phone calls are returned. And so we do care. And we have to care about what's happening now as well as trying to envisions what's coming in the future. And so it's a bit of a challenge. But we're all trying to be very good stewards of the city and the city's resources and help us to grow into something so special.
Jordan Byrd:Vice Mayor Kaino, thank you so much for taking the time today and joining us and helping to explain this process a little bit that we know is so important to our residents. Thank you for the information and thank you for your time.
Vice Mayor Kaino:Thank you, Jordan.
Jordan Byrd:Although the city doesn't ultimately pick or decide what businesses come to the city of Goodyear and where those businesses get built, the city does actively work to attract the types of businesses that you the residents want. So with more on how that process works. We sat down with Goodyear Economic Development Director Wendy Bridges. Wendy, thank you so much for joining us on the Growing Goodyear podcast.
Wendy Bridges:Thank you for inviting me. I'm glad to be here.
Jordan Byrd:We know our residents are highly invested in the types of businesses, restaurants, shops, retail, that comes to Goodyear. And as the Director of Economic Development, you and your department have a big hand in that. So maybe explain a little bit to our residents. What kind of role does economic development have when it comes to attracting the types of businesses that they want in
Wendy Bridges:The first place that we start is by marketing Goodyear? Goodyear. We know all the great things our city offers, because we live here. But we want to share that on a much larger level, we reach out to business leaders across the state across the country, even around the world who are looking to expand their business, because people might know about Arizona, but maybe they don't know about Goodyear and all the great opportunities available here. When we talk about the role that our team plays, once we get beyond marketing, there really isn't a one size fits all approach to economic development. It looks different for every project. But generally what we say is we work with our companies from hello to CFO and CFO is the certificate of occupancy, which is what allows them to open their doors. So we start actively out in the community and in the region sourcing companies to join our community. Sometimes we take them on tours of properties, and we introduce them to business leaders. In good year. We assist with regulations, oftentimes, we research industry sectors, so we can provide them with lots of data so they can make informed decisions. We help them with sourcing and hiring talent, anything they need to get up and running and get their doors open.
Jordan Byrd:As one of the fastest growing cities in America, have you noticed recently that there is a greater awareness from businesses about Goodyear than maybe there was even just a few years ago?
Wendy Bridges:Definitely there's a greater awareness. One of the things that really has helped put good you're on the map is some of the amazing companies that have already located here. We've gotten a great deal of media attention for some of those, you know, we have the first Amazon robotics company here. So that was something that got a lot of media attention, some of our data centers, that amount of investment, you know, we're talking billions of dollars, that generates a lot of attention. So those are some of the things that help put good, you're on the map. And those really strong companies making these huge investments. And our community also sets the table for another company to feel comfortable like this is a place they can feel good about investing their money.
Jordan Byrd:When it comes to a business potentially coming to Goodyear or opening a new location in Goodyear. What is that process? Like, do these businesses come to the city? Does the city and economic development, are they actively recruiting these businesses? Like just explain maybe a little bit how that process works of garnering that interest to begin with of coming to Goodyear.
Wendy Bridges:So all of the above to what you suggested, sometimes they come to us directly, you know, we may get a phone call or an email, or we just may meet them somewhere. And they have a conversation about what a great place it is to do business and what it's like to live here. But we also actively go out and source leads of companies that are in a position to expand or grow or perhaps maybe they're on the East Coast when we're seeing that a lot of their suppliers or customers are on the west coast. So those might be companies that we would reach out to.
Jordan Byrd:For residents of Goodyear, they always have their wants and needs. We want this type of business. We want this restaurant we want this kind of retail store. How do you guys collect that data? How do you guys know what residents of Goodyear want business wise here in the city?
Wendy Bridges:We ask, we ask.
Jordan Byrd:What a novel idea.
Wendy Bridges:What do you want, there are some that we just know are wanted in our community. We know our community wants to Trader Joe's and we know our community wants a Whole Foods. But there are some that may not be on our radar. So what we do, every two years economic development does a retail survey and we send that survey out to our residents in the community. We send out postcards, we talk about it on social media, you the listener can tell us what is on your wish list. So for those that we expect to see on the top of the list, you know, still let us know those who want to Trader Joe's or Whole Foods or even like a Cheesecake Factory. But maybe there's some that you visited maybe you were traveling and you went to this great place and you thought Oh I'd love to have that in Goodyear. This is your chance to let us know. We take all of the information that we get from that survey and we use it to create a target list. We already have a retail target list of company needs that we actively are reaching out to. And yes, Trader Joe's Whole Foods Cheesecake Factory on that list. But we use this target list to reach out to the companies. And this method has been extremely successful in helping Goodyear attract retailers and restaurants that our community is asking for two recent examples BJs restaurant and brew house and Hobby Lobby, those were on the top of our residents most wanted.
Jordan Byrd:From the city's perspective, I got to imagine that there's certain criteria characteristics that the city is looking for in the types of businesses that they're attracting to Goodyear. What about the flip side of that? What are those businesses looking for out of the communities that they might potentially expand into?
Wendy Bridges:It looks different for different industries, for example, a manufacturing company, they may need access to an interstate, so they're going to look for a location that gives them access to an interstate and maybe their end user or their suppliers. But for a restaurant and retailer, which is probably what our residents want to know the most like, what are they looking for? What do we need to be on their hit list, they need to know that the population can support it. So in the example of a restaurant, it's not enough that they will have a busy dinner crowd, those restaurants need to know that there's a daytime population too. So will they have a lunch crowd, you know, they can be really, really busy at dinner time. But if it's tumbleweeds going through the restaurant at lunchtime, that's not going to support their business model. So that is a situation where having large employers in our community helps to support restaurants think about like abrazo West, for example, hundreds of employees at abrazo and they go out for lunch. So restaurants know they can locate nearby. And they're going to be able to have a healthy business model.
Jordan Byrd:We've talked a lot so far about maybe some of these large, bigger businesses and companies that might be national might be chains. What about smaller businesses? What about local businesses? Is there a balance that goes on in economic development of attracting those national namebrand chains, but then also facilitating the need for local small businesses?
Wendy Bridges:You just hit my soft spot, I have a special place in my heart, everyone loves a small mom and pop shop, right? Maybe they're your neighbor or your kids go to school together, those small businesses are really part of what makes a city feel like a community. So they are really important. And we are so focused on our small businesses and entrepreneur community in Goodyear, that we have the Innovation Hub at the Goodyear library where small business owners can go to get free one on one mentoring or take business classes and even network there's a lot of really great opportunities. So if you know someone or you are a small business owner, or maybe you're an entrepreneur looking for how do you launch your business, get in touch with us, because we'd love to help you with that.
Jordan Byrd:Right here at Goodyear City Hall, we're starting to see some of this development that's taking place with GSQ. I have to imagine this is an exciting time that after all of the work, we're now starting to see buildings, we're starting to see infrastructure be put in place for what ultimately is going to be the city's downtown area. And we've already got some pretty exciting announcements that have been made about businesses and retail and restaurants coming to GSQ.
Wendy Bridges:I am so glad that you asked because it is an exciting time, our economic development team has been so excited to work with amazing companies like the Globe Corporation and Red Development to create Goodyear's new downtown. As many of you know, it started with this brand new city hall and beautiful Georgia T Lord library. These two buildings just by themselves brought so much energy to the area. So when we're touring new retailers and restaurants around the area, they're seeing that activity right here at GSQ. And they're seeing that there's people already here to support their business. Some of the recent ones that have been announced we're really excited about is The Stillery live music and dancing. The Yard milkshake bar if you like milkshakes, prepare to be dazzled.
Jordan Byrd:And I think what's cool about some of these announcements that have already been made about GSQ is the type of variety and the background of it. I mean, we've been talking about, you know, local small businesses, a lot of these. Yes, they may already have a location somewhere else in the valley specifically like High Tide Seafood Bar and Grill. Yes, but they're bringing a new location not only to Goodyear, but they're bringing their first location ever to the west valley.
Wendy Bridges:High Tide wasn't specifically on our top 10 list. The concept of High Tide give us a higher end restaurant give us a nice place we can go for maybe anniversary celebration of a special birthday Something like that. And you know, it's going to be a fancy date night place too. So our residents are asking for things like that. And while we do in Goodyear, see a lot of fast food, quick serve restaurants, those do have a place in our market and they are supported. But they also make the case for restaurants like High Tide, when they're looking at going into a new community. They see that people eat out a lot in Goodyear, they see that. And that helps make the case for them to feel better about investing here.
Jordan Byrd:When you have a project like GSQ is it ever a trickle down effect or the ball rolling? Like once you get The Stillery signed on or High Tide, does that encourage other businesses or make them more agreeable to potentially coming to that same area themselves?
Wendy Bridges:Absolutely 100%. So a great example of that is Shake Shack. Shake Shack recently announced that they are going to be right on McDowell at the corner of 100 and 50th. So that'll be really exciting. But what's especially important about that is Shake Shack is a company known in the real estate community for being extremely selective about where they go, they vet out the community, the area, the demographics in such great detail. They are very particular about where they go. So a company like Shake Shack announcing they're going to come to GSQ. They're kind of the company that proves the market, like if Shake Shack feels comfortable enough going into Goodyear, where they don't have any locations, then XYZ company can also feel comfortable about coming here because they know Shake Shack does their homework.
Jordan Byrd:I don't want to put you on the spot here. But we've talked about a lot of already announced exciting businesses that are coming to Goodyear. Are there any others that you potentially could share with us?
Wendy Bridges:There have been so many recent announcements in Goodyear, and the list is long, but if you'll just indulge me, I'd love to brag about some of the ones we're really excited about. Potato Barn opened on McDowell and Pebble Creek Parkway. And no they don't sell potatoes, but they do sell unique home furnishings. And if you're like me and love to go to see new home models and you always you know you kind of drool over the beautiful furniture and unique pieces they have. Potato Barn is one of those places that you can find those really unique pieces. Another one that I'd love to tell you about is Canyon Trail Center on Yuma and Cotton, that space around the recession, that center was struggling you know, in 2007 2008, you could find a parking spot right at the front of the center if you needed to. But now today based on the increase in our population and consumer spending habits, that center is 100% leased, and if you've been there recently, you'll see several pads that are under construction to make way for Freddy's frozen custard and new Denny's, a Starbucks there are pads that are being built up right now to make way for even more. Even right across the street on the southwest corner. There's a new Black Rock coffee and new Salad and Go and then if you come a little bit further north Turner's Outdoorsman is going to be opening in October. This is only their second store in Arizona, they're out of Southern California. I'll give you a little tease. I can't necessarily announce I'll give you a little tease. You're gonna see new construction happening in some other areas. And one that we're really excited about will be happening on the corner of Estrella Falls. And that is Pebble Creek Parkway and McDowell on the northeast corner, you're going to start seeing some construction happening there very soon. And four or maybe five new retailers and restaurants. We have a lot of projects underway throughout Goodyear, in sectors ranging from education, to life sciences, to technology, and advanced manufacturing. And all of these industries are really important to our community to help keep it healthy, help keep the economy healthy, make sure there's good jobs for people in our community so that you don't have to sit on the big parking lot of I-10. Every morning, we'd love for you to find a great job right here in Goodyear and be able to have those two hours of drive time back in your day. And if you're interested in learning about some of those sectors, we have a really great map on our website, if you go to develop Goodyear az.com that's developed Goodyear az.com You can stay up to date on the latest happenings, our development map there lists all of the projects that are announced and underway in industry sectors. You can look through the list of projects you can look on a map like maybe you're you're driving to the grocery store and you see something and you're like what is that going up there? You just go right on that website. Look on the map for that corner or that spot, and you'll see exactly what's going on there. And it's really, really helpful. And you can also follow the Goodyear economic development page on LinkedIn, to be the very first to hear about new announcements.
Jordan Byrd:For any residents who may be listening to this and getting excited about what is coming. And also having those wants and needs for other specific businesses to come. You mentioned the retail survey and how it's coming up. Just if you wouldn't mind going over that a little bit for when residents can look forward to the new retail survey coming.
Wendy Bridges:Thank you, I'm happy to talk about it. Because we really want to encourage as many people as possible to participate in the survey, let us know what you want to see in Goodyear, we're going to be sending out it'll be a computer survey. So you can just do it on your computer, we'll be sending out postcards, and sharing the link to take the survey on our website and on the various city social media channels. So if you have a favorite restaurant or a favorite place you like to shop, please please let us know. And we will put it on our list of companies to reach out to.
Jordan Byrd:Wendy, thank you so much for taking the time explaining a little bit about how the process goes in Goodyear of bringing these businesses here. And also just thank you to you and your team for the work that you guys are doing in economic development.
Wendy Bridges:Thank you for having me. It is our pleasure to serve Goodyear and our community. And we love what we do every single day. Thank you.
Jordan Byrd:So Tammy, this has been a fascinating podcast episode for me, because I feel like it really provides some insight into how things get built, how things get developed here in the city of Goodyear, that I think a lot of residents may not know what those steps and what those processes truly are.
Tammy Vo:And this doesn't happen overnight. Certainly. And I think one other thing I really took from this that was fascinating to me is that private property owners have the right to develop that property as they may as long as in line with some of those general requirements. So that really stuck out to me. So yeah, I do think this definitely sheds some light on on how the whole process works. And what I love about our residents is they are so passionate. I mean, we hear from residents all day on on social media and they always have thoughts and a lot of passion about different things in we as a city really appreciate that. That is how we hear from the public to better understand what are the priorities that the public has.
Jordan Byrd:Well and as Vice Mayor Kaino mentioned. And as Wendy Bridges mentioned, there are numerous opportunities for residents to get involved and make their opinions and their voices heard. It may just be earlier in the process than what residents may initially think. I mean, if you're starting to see shovels in the ground, it's probably too late to weigh in on something like that. But there are numerous opportunities for residents to really voice their opinions on what happens here in our city.
Tammy Vo:There's so much potential with our city as we continue to build out 12% Now, a lot more percentages to go and we always love to hear from our residents. So come to a council meeting. Let your voice be heard. And as vice mayor did say it best it's a great time to be in Goodyear.
Close:That concludes this episode of Growing Goodyear. Make sure to leave us a review and subscribe on your favorite streaming or podcast player app. If you have any questions or comments, email us at communications at Goodyear az.gov And don't forget to follow us on the city of Goodyear's social media pages.