A big orange box could give a big green light to the development of Maricopa.

Atlanta-based Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement chain with more than 2,300 stores in North America, is coming to Maricopa, the city confirmed this week. Expected to be a full-size approximately 100,000-square-foot facility, the stores will be built at Stonegate and Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway.

While meeting the needs of the tens of thousands of residents who had to drive from Chandler or Casa Grande to the nearest store, it means more to the city in the long run, said Mayor Rick Horst. says.

“From the fact that we announced it, other things are likely to come along,” Holst said. “Home Depot is an important retailer for us and, of course, it will attract others. If you look around the large Phoenix area and see one of these big boxes pop up, , a lot of other companies want to sit next to it, they like sitting next to each other.”

In communities like Chandler and Gilbert, every time a Home Depot or Lowe’s builds, there’s another built right next door.

Home Depot is on the southeast side of Maricopa, but it’s long been rumored that Lowe’s is interested in the Maricopa station near John Wayne Parkway and Maricopa Casa Grande Highway.

“I can tell they’re snorting,” Horst said of Lowes. “But that’s all I know at this point.”

So do others. For example, restaurants attract other restaurants.

“Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers are certainly off to a great start,” says Horst. “We are providing data to a lot of people, and a lot of people are participating.

“What people don’t realize is that our community sales average is 30 to 69 percent higher than the national average. People are starting to realize that.”

Holst points out that landing at Home Depot was a 15-year battle, driven in large part by the Great Recession and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic.

“What everyone forgets is that most of our citizens today weren’t here then, so when our city started, we were the fastest growing, if not the It means that it was one of the cities where of It’s the fastest growing in the country,” he said. “We were processing up to 1,500 homes in a month.”

Then, after the recession, Maricopa came to be called the foreclosure capital of the world.

“Overcoming that negative tone and getting to where it started to attract interest again has a lot to do with how we do business as a city, being more business-friendly and less bureaucratic. Was.

Removing business licenses cost the city about $800,000 a year, but Holst said the companies are now able to pass the savings on to their businesses. As a result, it helped build a broader tax base for the city.

“Our stance is a business, and residents have a choice. They don’t have to come here,” said Horst. “Essentially, we are competing with our fellow communities. We have to do things better and faster, improve quality of life and lower crime rates. But in the end it makes a difference.

“We’re not perfect, but as a community that celebrates its 20th anniversary this October, we surpass other communities that have taken 30, 40, 50 years to get to where we are today. I think we’re doing pretty well, we’re not perfect, we’ll keep learning, we’ll try to make adjustments, but in a family of 70,000 people, making everyone happy is I can’t, but I can make most people happy.”