Posted on 04/08/2006 5:55:06 AM PDT by Borax Queen
NOGALES, Sonora — Along Boulevard El Greco, construction crews and bulldozers cross the busy street while just beyond the dust clouds, a pair of large retail centers are quickly taking shape.
The new 250,000-square-foot Nogales Mall and the 130,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter are under construction at the city's southern edge. At the same site, a new Peter Piper Pizza and a Carl's Jr. are getting ready to open their doors, alongside a new Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar.
Touted as the largest mall to be built in Sonora, with the city's first pair of escalators, the Nogales Mall will have 114 stores, a 12-screen movie theater and a 14-vendor food court, said Juan Jaime de la Torre, principal architect for Nogales Mall.
The $17 million project is being developed by Apostolos Kyriakis, a Nogales-based commercial developer.
"This is where we are developing our new city. This is where opportunity exists and where we hope to develop success," said Nestor Orozco-Ruiz, director of economic development for the city of Nogales, Sonora.
The new developments are exciting for local shoppers like 19-year-old Iran Vazquez Diaz, who lost his passport and can no longer cross the U.S. border to shop.
He's looking forward especially to the new Wal-Mart, set to open by early summer.
"You can buy almost anything there. It's exciting because everything's coming to town," Diaz said through an interpreter.
Though Wal-Mart Corp. officials won't give an opening date, developers with the project — and Orozco-Ruiz — said an opening is expected by June.
Wal-Mart is now Mexico's largest retailer, with 105 supercenters and 70 Sam's Club warehouses, according to Wal-Mart's corporate Web site. The retailer also owns some Mexican chain stores and restaurants, including, 287 VIPS Restaurants, 55 Superamas, 54 Suburbias and several Mi Bodegas, Mercamas and Mi Bodega Express. Orozco-Ruiz said of Wal-Mart, "It's a lot more popular than in the U.S. A lot of people here are anxious to see it."
Well, not everyone.
The new Wal-Mart will create competition and will be a challenge, said Jose Sanchez Diaz, a manager at Soriana, a 125,000-square-foot supercenter that opened two years ago. The Soriana store offers amenities similar to those found at Wal-Mart Supercenters, combining a grocery store, household goods, clothing and electronics under one roof.
"We have established our store in the market. Wal-Mart will be a challenge but we'll be OK," said Diaz through an interpreter.
With an estimated population of 350,000 to 450,000 people in Nogales, Sonora, the retail centers will have no shortage of customers, said Nils Urman, director of Santa Cruz County's commerce and economy development office.
"There's an assumption that all 450,000 come here (to Nogales, Ariz.) for shopping, but that's just not the case," Urman said.
The centers will also be good for those residents who don't have visas, passports or cars to travel across the border, he said.
Only about 40 percent of Nogales residents have passports, Orozco-Ruiz said.
"There's a concern about competition on the U.S. side," said de la Torre. "But we're selling Mexican products here. This is for people who don't have passports and for locals who want to shop here."
An official of Tucson's biggest mall said the Nogales retail centers don't pose much of a competitive threat.
"It's good for the local residents to fill their local shopping needs. But we expect them to come to Tucson for their major shopping," said Jill Harlow, spokeswoman for Tucson Mall. "We have diverse products which can't be purchased in Mexico. People will still come for dining and experiences Tucson has to offer."
The Nogales Mall and new retail stores will also bring more economic development and options for local shoppers, said Felipe García, vice president for Mexico marketing with the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The bureau estimates about 23 million Mexican visitors come to Arizona annually and those shoppers spend about $1 billion.
There will be more opportunities for U.S. companies and businesses to locate in Nogales, "creating a better quality of life," he said. "But people will still come to Tucson's malls."
Store surge - A look at Nogales' developing retail hub: -Nogales Mall, 250,000 square feet with 114 stores, touted as Sonora's largest planned mall -Wal-Mart Supercenter, 130,000 square feet, the first to open in Nogales, Sonora
See? Walmart is going to take all of downtown Tucson's business away. Walmart is EVIL.
How would you like to be in charge of security?You would need a good spreadsheet on your laptop just to keep track of all the payoffs to local cops,politicos,etc.Trying to find enough people that could pass a pre-employment drug test would be another hurdle....
Thanks for pointing out that everyone in Nogales is a criminal.
Doesn't Wal-Mart already have a huge presence in Mexico for a number of years? You have to wonder if Wal-Mart is getting the same complaints about their stores in Mexico sucking the life out of nearby stores like we get in the USA....
How amusing. The reporter doesn't seem to understand that when the Mexicans interviewed say "passport" they mean a US laser visa. One reason the folks in Nogales, Sonora shops come shop in Nogales, AZ is because they trust American stores. While gasoline in Mexico may be a bit cheaper its often dirty and the attendants rig the pumps to overcharge. So 6:00am you see the Nogales, Sonora taxi cabs lined up at the border to cross and fill on the US side. Nogales, AZ with a population of 13,000 has a super Walmart and enormous Safeway filled with Mexican shoppers.
Even the poorest maquila worker will tell you that it is worth it to buy on the US side because you know the chicken, meat, eggs and milk will not be rotten. Ironically, most of the chicken, beef and eggs sold in the Safeway and Walmart were imported from Mexico. So everyday you can watch little old Mexican ladies getting off the Nogales, AZ buses that transport border crossers to the various store, carrying bags of groceries back to Mexico. The Nogales, Mexico restaurants too serve beef they buy on the US side.
They are lots of Walmarts in Mexico including a big one about 3 hours south of Nogales in Hermosillo. That doesn't stop people from Hermosillo driving up to the Nogales and Tuscon Walmarts as the prices and quality are better on the US side.
I don't know. How many unions and fake conservatives do they have down there? You know, just fighting the capitalism that american fake conseravitves.....
Always low prices, saving the money that Americans won't save. Always.
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