Managing Director of Redbridge Development Partners William Beal presented plans for the Copper Creek Development deal during the Dec. 8 Globe City Council meeting. The deal, which has been in the works since 2015, proposes construction of over 200 units in the multi-family housing phase on land that once occupied the Apache Drive In Theatre.

According to Beal’s presentation, the City of Globe has received grant money to expand its public profile and spur economic development and the proposed project land is currently under contract with escrow open.

Beal said that future development will meet a demand that has continued to increase year over year. “The Resolution Mine is currently awaiting the issuance of the final EIR report soon, and copper prices overall have risen 25 percent this year with growth projected through 2030,” said Beal. He went on to highlight that area job growth in the next four to 10 years will increase the local population by up to 50 percent, based on data obtained from a Resolution Mine market study.

Beal stated that the current housing stock is insufficient, estimating the need for 900-plus units to meet demand per a market study completed in 2015. While smaller projects are in discussion with the City of Globe, they are not enough to meet the demand. “Globe is currently the only city in Southern Gila County that has sufficient infrastructure growth, meaning sewer, water, power – and our site has all three,” said Beal.

The master planned mixed use site contains approximately 23 contiguous acres of flat, mostly graded, shovel ready land with minimal demo needed to develop. Utilities are on site and accessible. Beal stated that the site will not only meet the current growing demand for housing, it will also contain a new retail center plus a proposed fast food pad and gas station site. “Additionally, there are 34 single family homesites to be developed later at the back of the property,” said Beal.

Beal is confident that they will successfully obtain the remaining financing needed to move forward and while it’s hard to predict when groundbreaking will occur, they are shooting for mid-2021.

“The beauty of this project is the drive-in theater site has the perfect grade angle to build on – we see a lot of positives starting up without having to do much grading,” said Beal. “We are looking at a two-step process to get the site prep done and then the infrastructure in. We will probably have a big party out there to knock the big screen down, then we are ready to build after that.”

Beal believes that the demand in Globe is going to increase exponentially with significant growth in people providing services for the mine. “I think at the end of the day we will accommodate continued growth in Globe,” said Beal.