Last Friday, the Winslow Chamber of Commerce hosted an Italian-themed dinner at the Hubble Building where all the food was prepared by chamber CEO Bob Hall, City Manager David Coolidge gave his State of the City speech where he spoke about the current developments taking place in the City of Winslow and afterward there was a raffle where all the prizes were donated items from local businesses around the city. The event was attended by local business leaders and members of the public and was as much a networking event as it was a celebration of local commerce.
Coolidge began his speech with a couple of laughs and talked about how although across the nation inflation has created unfavorable conditions for businesses, especially new businesses, there is still an uptake in development interest in Winslow and that trend shows no sign of stopping.
He spoke about the development of 1,200 acres south of the airport and how that industrially zoned land is key for the next era of Winslow development. The city is currently in escrow with Atlas Global Development (AGD) for the sale of that land, where AGD has plans to develop multi million square feet of industrial warehouses that will position Winslow as the region’s logistical center; where goods will come from all over the country and even the world via the Lindbergh Regional Airport, I-40 and the rail and go to a final destination after being sorted at a facility in Winslow. This plan however will only exacerbate the housing shortage that currently exists in Winslow and much of the United States at the moment.
Coolidge addressed this by saying that not only is the Arizona legislature currently drafting solutions to alleviate the effects of the housing shortage, but there have been a handful of developers that have already approached the city to build and develop, single-family, multi-family, apartments and townhouses in Winslow.
The levee project is another major development for the City of Winslow that Coolidge spoke about in his speech at the chamber. The total cost of the project is just over $100 million and after the $65.7 million in federal funding through the Army Corps of Engineer’s Work Fund for the project, Navajo County and the city entered into an agreement to split the costs of the remaining 35%, with the county’s contribution to be mostly in-kind contributions but at least 5% of the total amount owed by the county must be financial contributions. This still leaves a large amount of money for the City of Winslow to contribute. However, even with this deal in place, the project is short approximately $20 million, which is why city and county officials have both been lobbying at the state level to obtain the remaining funding. Currently two bills, one in both the Arizona House and Senate have recently passed that would fulfill the needs of the project and will soon show up on Governor Katie Hobbs’ desk for approval.
The county and the Army Corps of Engineers predict they will have the final design for the levee by the end of April and the project will be finished sometime in 2027. In 2008 Winslow’s levee was decertified, which put the vast majority of Winslow in a flood plain requiring residents and businesses to purchase costly flood insurance. With the recertification of the levee, not only will the average resident have a bit extra money every month to spend on businesses in the community, but new businesses may find Winslow more enticing.
Winslow beautification was also a main tenant of the city manager’s speech, which includes a revitalization of the city’s downtown. The city will be investing in upgrading the Route 66 Plaza, the area near the Standin’ on the Corner Park, for tourists and residents to dine, attend events and spend time, as well as putting in event lighting for better night time use of the downtown area.
This initiative to make the city more beautiful has included a few projects that have already come to fruition that the city is very proud of such as the new Diamondbacks multi-purpose field, the splash pad and fitness court located at Vargas Field and updates to many of the city’s parks.
The speech highlighted the exciting position that Winslow currently is in where there seems to be a high demand for development compared to other points in the town’s history and gave the room filled with many of the town’s business leaders a reason to keep investing in the community.
The chamber committee also held elections of committee members, in which Reese Chatwin was appointed as a new member to the committee. Chatwin is very involved in the community and the owner of two businesses in town, Yellow Snow, which is his shaved ice shop he operates in the summertime and On Point Window Cleaning.
