Sam Fox sets opening date for Gilbert Culinary Dropout

on February 21, 2019

Fox Restaurant Concepts has set an opening date of April 3 for its Culinary Dropout at the Yard location in downtown Gilbert.

The project, which was announced more than two years ago, is highly anticipated and will be the latest expansion of Sam Fox’s empire in his home state. It will be the seventh Culinary Dropout location.

Fox has been focusing a lot of his brands’ growth in other parts of the country over the past few years, but still is adding restaurants across the Valley.

The new restaurant, on the northeast corner of Gilbert Road and Hearn Way in Gilbert’s Heritage District, will be in a two-story, 25,000-square-foot space. It will feature indoor-outdoor seating, two private dining rooms and an outdoor entertainment area with games like cornhole and ping-pong, just like other Yard locations in Phoenix, Tempe and Tucson.

Fox worked with developer Common Bond Development Group on the project. Common Bond and FRC obtained the rights to develop the land from Gilbert in 2016. Shercon Construction was general contractor for the restaurant and architecture was done by Circle West Architects.

Culinary Dropout has proven to be one of Fox’s most popular concepts. Last year FRC closed down its seafood restaurant Little Cleo’s on Seventh Street in Phoenix so it could expand the Culinary Dropout location next door into that space.

FRC will hire 190 positions for the new Culinary Dropout location. The company will hold a job fair at the restaurant March 4-9 and March 11-16. The company will hire for a variety of jobs including management positions, chefs, line and prep cooks, bakers, dishwashers, servers, bartenders, hosts, security and banquet servers.

Fox recently announced that he’ll also open a location of his Blanco Tacos & Tequila brand in downtown Phoenix at the high-profile Block 23 development later this year.

Town of Queen Creek approves Ironwood Crossing annexation

on March 9, 2018

San Tan Valley just got a little bit smaller.

On Wednesday, March 7th, the Queen Creek Town Council voted to accept the “Ironwood Crossing Annexation”, which includes both residential and commercial properties covering 1,485 acres.

The item which was listed on the council’s consent agenda read:

Consideration and possible approval of Ordinance 657-18, (Case P17-0144) “Ironwood Crossing Annexation”, a proposed annexation of numerous parcels totaling approximately 1,485 acres, generally located between Germann and Ocotillo Roads; and Meridian Road and Ironwood Drive (Road).

Ironwood Crossing Annexation committee members, Nancie Naylor and Beth Riley, spoke during the December 6, 2017 council meeting’s public hearing which kicked off the signature collection process for the effort.

On February 22, 2018, the annexation committee announced that they had collected the necessary signatures (50% + 1 property owners & 50% + $1 assessed value).  A post on their website read:

Update 02-22-18

Hey Ironwood Crossing!! It is with GREAT PRIDE that the Ironwood Crossing Annexation Committee announces that we are DONE with the petition drive. It was successful, and we are moving on to the final step in the annexation process!!

On Wednesday, March 7th, at the QC Town Council meeting, the council will vote to accept us into the Town of Queen Creek! This will start the 30-day period where the annexation can be protested (Only if they are able to find something incorrect with our application and/or the petition signatures.)

If nobody protests the annexation, we will officially become part of Queen Creek on Monday, April 9th, at 8am!

If our annexation is protested during that 30-day waiting period, the clock will stop while the case goes to court. That could take approximately 5 months, however, even if STV were to incorporate in the meantime, we would still go back to the original date of April 9th to annex.

Congratulations to everyone who supported the annexation efforts and signed the petition! You rock!! We’ll keep you updated on the progress as it happens!

Now that the QC Council has approved the annexation, there is a 30-day waiting period.  If no challenges to the annexation are filed, all parcels included in the annexation (numerous parcels between Meridian and Ocotillo to Ironwood and Germann) will become part of the Town of Queen Creek on April 9, 2018.

 

A public hearing for another annexation into the Town of Queen Creek was also held at the March 7, 2018 council meeting.  The hearing was for 23 acres located at the southwest corner of Ellsworth & Empire.  No one spoke in favor of or in opposition to the annexation.  The applicant can begin collecting signatures to annex into Queen Creek March 14, 2018.

Both the March 21, 2018 and April 23, 2018 agendas include tentative motions to approve the petitions.

If successful, this will be the fourth annexation of San Tan Valley property, by the Town of Queen Creek in less than one year.

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Sprouts anchored shopping center sold for $25.75 million

on December 21, 2017

PHOENIX, Arizona – Cushman & Wakefield, on behalf of Phoenix-based Common Bond Development Group, completed the sale of The Plant; a Sprouts Farmers Market anchored neighborhood shopping center. Located on the southeast corner of Gilbert and Ocotillo Roads in Chandler, Ariz., the property was purchased by Dallas-based Sarofim Realty Advisors for $25.75 million ($453 PSF).

Executive Managing Directors Ryan Schubert and Michael Hackett of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller.

Anchored by Sprouts Farmers Market, The Plant is a newly developed 56,831-square-foot neighborhood shopping center spanning 7.59 acres and is currently 100% leased to a complimentary collection of national, regional and local tenants. Approximately 81% of the Plant is leased to top-tier national tenants, including Dairy Queen, Café Rio and Starbucks.

“Common Bond spared no expense to create an irreplaceable neighborhood destination in the heart of Chandler and it was extremely attractive to a broad spectrum of investors,” said Ryan Schubert.

Sam Fox’s Culinary Dropout shows restaurateur can still make the grade

on September 17, 2017

Sam Fox will open the doors to Culinary Dropout at Grant Road Lumber Yard on Wednesday, Sept. 20, his first new restaurant in Tucson in a decade and one of the most expensive projects the Tucson native has undertaken since he launched his restaurant career with Wildflower in 1998.

The price tag for the 19,000-square-foot project at the former Grant Road Lumber, 2543 E. Grant Road, could top $11 million — the amount he paid to open a similar restaurant/entertainment complex at The Tempe Yard in 2014.

“Tucson is really going to be proud of what we were able to build here,” Fox said Friday, on the eve of hosting an invitation-only weekend of preview events for 1,200 that gave his staff of 250 a chance to iron out any kinks. Two more events are planned for Sunday.

“We’re excited to be here,” Fox said.

The opening comes more than a year after Fox announced in spring 2016 that he was buying the lumber yard and converting it into a sprawling restaurant and entertainment center that includes foosball tables, cornhole courts, ping pong tables, a private dining room and live entertainment. A private dining/conference room called The Coop can seat 100, or accommodate 175 in a cocktail party setting, while the dining rooms can seat a total of 500 to 600.

At Saturday morning’s lunch preview, a couple of hundred guests nibbled on plates of build-your-own antipasti with thin-sliced, spicy capicola and sherry-drizzled beets on pillows of whipped goat cheese, house pub burgers and the house special 36-hour pork ribs, slow cooked and drizzled with a slightly spicy jalapeño molasses. As they sipped craft beers and cocktails and tucked into gooey, cinnamony hunks of Monkey Bread topped with homemade vanilla bean ice cream, Fox strolled around the twin dining rooms greeting friends and strangers alike.

Tucson businessman Chris Edwards of Tucson Appliance gave Fox a big hug and asked him to pose for a picture, taking the same fingers-pointing-toward-the-camera stance Edwards uses in his ubiquitous TV commercials. He quickly hugged a woman who works with the University of Arizona athletic department who came bearing a Wildcats bobblehead for Fox’s son and greeted an employee setting up a table with Culinary Dropout T-shirts that they sold to benefit victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Fox shook hands with several people as he made his way into the kitchen, where dozens of employees brought the gastro-pub inspired menu to life, all of it from scratch. A baker checked on loaves of bread proofing in tin pans as another chef two rows of work stations over stirred a pot of soup. Fox opened the walk-in freezer where a pair of chefs trimmed cuts of meat.

“All of the proteins are prepared in the cooler,” he said, and one of the chefs smiled and nodded.

Culinary Dropout joins a handful of Fox Restaurant Concept titles in Tucson, including Blanco Tacos + Tequila and Zin Burger, the last two restaurants that Fox brought to his hometown. That was in 2007 and in the decade since, his Tucson-born, Phoenix-based company has launched several restaurants, including Sauce Pizza + Wine, which he sold to the founders of Ra Sushi in 2015; and True Food Kitchen that he launched in 2008 with Tucson health guru Andrew Weil and arguably his most ambitious restaurant project.

“Who would have thought a health food restaurant would do so well,” Fox said.

In October, Scottsdale-based P.F. Chang’s China Bistro parent Centerbridge Partners will take over the True Food health food restaurant brand with plans to bring it to markets across the country. Centerbridge, in a deal that was hashed out two years ago between Fox and the Scottsdale company, inherits the 23 True Food restaurants that Fox has opened across the country in the past nine years; two more True Food outposts are set to open next spring — one in Nashville, Tennessee, and the other in Boca Raton, Florida.

“We’ve built this great brand and now it’s time to let it go off on its own,” he said, comparing it to a parent seeing their child off to college.

Fox can imagine something similar happening with Culinary Concepts, which has grown over the past four or five years to include a location in Austin, Texas, and Las Vegas. Tucson is the sixth location, but Fox said there are four in the works, including a Gilbert project set to open in winter 2019, and projects in Denver and Nashville.

“I can see Culinary Dropout taking off in the next 24 months,” he said.

And he sees potential in growing North Italia, which is in La Encantada. There are 11 North Italia restaurants in five states, including Kansas, and there are plans to open three more in the next two years, including a second Austin, Texas, location and one in Philadelphia, Fox said.

In addition to the lumber yard property, Fox also acquired the adjacent car wash on the corner of Grant and Tucson Boulevard. He knocked down the business and has broken ground for what will be a 6,500-square-foot building that will house an Orangetheory Fitness studio, a sandwich shop and a poke bowl restaurant.

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Sam Fox hiring almost 200 for new Culinary Dropout

on August 15, 2017

Arizona restaurateur Sam Fox is bringing The Yard to his native Tucson, and is hiring almost 200 positions in anticipation of its opening.

Culinary Dropout, the anchor of Fox Restaurant Concepts’ Yard developments, will be hosting a job fair Aug. 21 through Sept. 2 at the new location in the former Grant Road Lumber Yard at 2543 E. Grant Road the northeast corner of Grant and Tucson Boulevard in central Tucson.

The restaurant is hiring line cooks, prep cooks, pastry cooks, dishwashers, servers, bartenders and hosts/hostesses.

The new space opens Sept. 20.

Fox is also in the process of opening The Yard in downtown Gilbert, which will be the largest one to date. Fox paid slightly more than $1 million for the parcel.

The Tucson development will cost less than his Tempe location of The Yard, which cost around $11 million.

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Sam Fox expands corporate office in Phoenix

on April 3, 2017

PHOENIX, Arizona — Since 2012, Sam Fox’s corporate headquarters for Fox Restaurant Concepts has sat above The Henry, one of his signature restaurants, in a multi-tenant office complex called The Park located at 4455 East Camelback Road in Phoenix, AZ.

Recently, Fox announced the expansion of their corporate offices at The Park. Fox Restaurant Concepts and True Foods Kitchen, both part of Fox’s corporate offices, will occupy two office spaces totaling 13,673-square-feet.

Jon Rosenberg and Keri Davies of Levrose Commercial Real Estate negotiated both leases on behalf of the Landlord and Jerry Roberts of CBRE represented the Tenant.

The office expansion announcement comes as the latest in a series of announcements from Sam Fox, including the opening of Fox’s latest restaurant, Doughbird Pizza & Rotisserie, which opened on Tuesday, March 28. Also announced was Fox’s nomination for Outstanding Restaurateur for the 10th year in a row by the James Beard Foundation.

Meanwhile in the Old Pueblo, work being done by Common Bond Development Group and partner Sam Fox continues on The Yard at Grant Road Lumber, 2543 E Grant Road in Tucson, a 20,000-square-foot restaurant building that promises to be the “nicest Yard to date”. Opening is planned for Sept 2017.

Common Bond Development Group is also building a 6,825-square-foot multi-tenant retail pad on the immediate corner of this project on Grant Road with quoted rents in the “low-$40’s/SF, NNN.”

These two Tucson projects represent approximately $15 million combined investment.

For more information on the Tucson property sale see Real Estate Daily News September 9, 2016 and see early grading of the Yard at Grant Road Lumber here.

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Sam Fox opening Yard concept in downtown Gilbert

on December 2, 2016

Sam Fox, the mastermind behind Fox Restaurant Concepts, which has developed concepts such as The Henry, Flower Child and North Italia, among others, has announced plans to open Culinary Dropout at The Yard in downtown Gilbert.

The 25,000-square-foot space, which is Fox’s biggest development yet, will open off Gilbert Road, adjacent to the Powerline Trail in the Heritage District — directly across from Heritage Marketplace, a popular restaurant development.

Sam FoxEnlarge

Sam Fox

PROVIDED BY FOX RESTAURANT CONCEPTS

FRC and development partner Common Bond Development obtained the rights to the land from the town of Gilbert, and is slated to open in fall 2018.

Fox’s concept Zinburger already has a location at downtown Gilbert’s Heritage Marketplace.

“The sense of community in downtown Gilbert is contagious. It’s one of the reasons we’re so proud be a part of the town, and build an additional place where everyone can come together,” Fox said in a statement. “We are still working on details but The Yard at Gilbert Heritage District will definitely be designed with the whole family in mind.”

Culinary Dropout will be the space’s only tenant, occupying two floors. The first floor will have a full dining room, outdoor patio seating, bar, and two yard gaming areas, one for adults and one for kids; while the second floor will include The Coop, a 150-person event space. It’s the first time the concept has made space for a children’s area.

Fox opened his first Yard concept in uptown Phoenix a few years ago, which features multiple tenants with Culinary Dropout as the anchor. FRC opened its second concept in Tempe in the Farmers Arts District, which cost $11 million.

The Gilbert parcel cost considerably less for slightly more than $1 million, or $50 per square foot. Gilbert is leasing a hundred parking spaces to the restaurant as well.

The Gilbert development will be the seventh Culinary Dropout location, with locations in Scottsdale, Las Vegas and a recently opened Culinary Dropout at The Yard in Austin. A Tucson location is slated to open next year.

Downtown Gilbert has been in the midst of a restaurant boom in recent years with several high-profile Valley restaurateurs and groups opening concepts in the Southeast Valley city.

Last lighting of Grant Road lumber sign marked before repurposing to The Yard in Tucson

on September 9, 2016

 


Sam Hauert and his sons, David and Steve closed the Grant Road Lumber business last August after 66 years and held a last lighting ceremony with family and friends of the iconic Grant Road Lumber sign at 2543 E Gran Road in Tucson before the sale of property closed on September 1st.

Sam Fox, through affiliate company, Common Bond Development Group (Brian Frakes, manager) purchased the property for $1.325 million ($14.50 PSF) for land value of the 2.1-acre parcel located at Grant Road and Tucson Blvd.

Fox plans to transform the former Grant Road Lumber facility into The Yard in Tucson. “We have a vision that that whole area gets repurposed, and we hope we can be the genesis to jump-start that,” said Fox, who will incorporate the salvaged bricks and boards from the original structures into the new construction. “We like to find old buildings that have soul and character and repurpose them.”

Dean Cotlow of Cotlow Company represented the Hauerts in the transaction. “This will be one of the biggest and most significant redevelopment projects underway in Tucson,” said Cotlow. “The Grant Road Lumber Sign and some of the building walls are to stay in place.”

It will certainly be Fox’s biggest and most ambitious Tucson venture in the 18 years since he launched his restaurant career with upscale Wildflower on North Oracle Road in 1998. This will also be his first new concept here since 2007, when he opened Blanco Tacos and ZinBurger.

The restaurant at the center of the sprawling 19,000-square-foot Yard in Tucson complex will include a covered “yard” with couches, fireplaces, corn hole games, foosball tables and other backyard-style activities. A 150-seat dining room called The Coop, where Fox said they will hold private parties, weddings and corporate events, rounds out the project.

The concept is to be similar to The Yard in Tempe at the Farmer Arts District that opened in 2014. The Arizona Republic at the time called that the biggest project Fox had ever done. The Tucson concept will cost less than the $11 million Fox spent building the second Yard in Tempe.

Fox anticipates starting construction immediately for a September 2017 opening of The Yard in Tucson.

Trevor Cohen represented the buyer, Common Bond Development Group, also doing the work, an affiliate company with Fox and fellow Tucson native Brian Frakes.

For more information, Cotlow can be reached at 520.881.8180 and Cohen can be contacted at 602.803.1160.

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Sam Fox bringing The Yard dining entertainment complex to Tucson

on May 19, 2016

Arizona restaurant mogul Sam Fox will bring The Yard, his sprawling entertainment and dining complex, to his hometown of Tucson in 2017 at the old Grant Road Lumber, 2543 E. Grant Road.

It will be his biggest, most ambitious Tucson venture in the 18 years since he launched his restaurant career with the upscale Wildflower on North Oracle Road in 1998. And it will be his first new concept here since opening Blanco Tacos and Zin Burger in 2007.

Fox estimates the project will cost just under the $11 million he invested in The Yard in Tempe at the Farmer Arts District, which opened in late 2014. The Arizona Republic pegged that project as the biggest Fox has ever done.

Fox said he won’t close on the Grant Road property until September, so he’s reluctant to call it a done deal. But he already has begun courting the city’s blessings and has applied for a liquor license for Culinary Dropout, the restaurant at the center of the sprawling 19,000-square-foot complex that will include a covered “yard” with couches, fireplaces, corn hole games, foosball tables and other backyard-style activities. A 150-seat dining room called The Coop, where Fox said they will hold private parties, weddings and corporate events, rounds out the project.

In February, Tucson Planning and Zoning officials signed off on the preliminary design concept and a noise analysis that determined the project will not create an issue with neighbors, according to city documents.

“We’re excited about it,” Fox said. “We love the site, we love the history. It’s my hometown and we get a lot of requests to bring a lot of our concepts to Tucson.”

Grant Road Lumber closed last August after 66 years in business.

Fox is hoping his move to Grant Road will spur a mini-renaissance of the area, which includes two neighboring restaurants: the popular Kingfisher Bar & Grill, which has been a Grant Road mainstay for more than 22 years; and Dante’s Fire Cocktails & Cuisine, which has been around for several years.

Fox said he has witnessed similar renaissances in Tempe and central Phoenix, where he opened his first Yard in a 55,000-square-foot motorcycle garage and dealership in early 2013.

“We have a vision that that whole area gets repurposed, and we hope we can be the genesis to jump-start that,” said Fox, who will incorporate the salvaged bricks and boards from the original structures into the new construction. “We like to find old buildings that have soul and character and repurpose them.”

“I think that already in that area, with Kingfisher and some other great venues, there’s certainly the potential for creating sort of a mini-district that could be a destination for food and entertainment,” said Tucson City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, whose Ward 3 includes that stretch of Grant Road. “Campbell Avenue already has that brand and is building on it. I think that it’s certainly possible.”

Uhlich said she believes a resurgence of the area will be market-driven, but “I can see where (Fox) will see that if he’s successful, other like investments could be drawn to the area,” she said.

“If you look at the stretch of Grant Road from the Country Club area east all the way to Swan, most of those properties are already commercially zoned and have some type of activity,” she said.

Fox anticipates starting construction in September and opening The Yard in September 2017.

The work is being done by Common Bond Development, a company he has with fellow Tucson native Brian Frakes.

In addition to several Fox Restaurant Concept projects over the past couple years, Common Bond developed Chandler’s new pedestrian-friendly retail center The Plant, set to open in the summer with Sprouts as a main anchor.

Culinary Dropout is a chef-driven gastropub with everything from breads and cured meats made in house. The menu includes a charcuterie section of meats and cheeses, meal-sized salads, burgers and entrees that range from house-made meatloaf to 36-hour pork ribs glazed with jalapeño and molasses.

Tucson’s Culinary Dropout will be Fox’s sixth. In addition to three Phoenix-area locations, he has a Culinary Dropout in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and is opening one in the fall in Austin, Texas.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com or 573-4642. On Twitter: @Starburch

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