PHOENIX — The former Sears at Desert Sky Mall near 75th Avenue and Thomas Road in Phoenix will be transformed into a multi-level entertainment venue.
Pedro and Melchor Marques, brothers, owners of the club El Capri and media companies like Radio Fiesta La Mejor recently bought that location and have had big plans to build out in a space like that. Unfortunately, Melchor recently died.
The brother- Pedro- and his son -Pedro Jr. – will continue to construct and make this project into a reality, according to Jeffrey Garza Walker their commercial real estate adviser who brokered the deal.
THE INVESTMENT
Garza Walker shared with ABC15 that when the Sears building had become available, the Marques brothers were interested in purchasing it- even with a bidding process in place required to acquire it.
“All of the other bids really were about tearing it down and making it into multifamily apartments is what they were going to do. We were really the only venue that came in that they felt represented the Hispanic community, and really was going to bring something that would activate the space really served the community and they bought into that vision of what we shared with them,” said Garza Walker.
The space was bought for about $7.1 million and “anywhere from 3 to 5 million dollars” will be used for the redevelopment.
THE LAYOUT
The former Sears is two floors- so how will this new concept take place? Here’s the floor plans envisioning what’s going to take place in that space:
First floor: Guest will find a concert venue here, with a floor plan that’s pretty open.
“It'll be mainly [a] dance floor. There will be some VIP seating up front towards the stage that people will be able to purchase and sit,” explained Garza Walker to ABC15.
The main bar on this level will take shape - kind of like a horseshow design- around the escalator that’ll lead guests to the second floor. Several standing tables will be placed on this floor too.
“In the back, you'll have more bars around that area. And so that people can gather and hang out and then you have a boatload of bathrooms because when you've got a venue that's going to have anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 people- you're going to need a lot of bathrooms,” explained Garza Walker. “There will be a cutout at top where people can stand in another VIP section and be able to look down on the stage and hang out there and look at the acts. We're excited. It's a massive undertaking… but [the] Marques’ have been getting ready for this. And we've been planning for this- so, we're [going] all in.”
Second floor: This level will have four banquet halls available to be rented for special events.
Each hall can hold about 200 guests- but if need the renter needs more space for its event, the banquet halls can be combined to allocate that space.
“Those [banquet halls] will have walls that you can move. So, let's say somebody wants to put a couple of rooms together because they have a bigger party, they'll be able to do that; they're not going to be walls that that are permanently in location,” said Garza Walker. “Even the venue below, we're putting a giant divider wall down the middle. So, if there's a time where let's say it's just a smaller venue, or let's say somebody wants to rent the back half and use the back half for a bigger venue, they'd be able to do that.”
With the cutout design in between the floors, Garza Walker explained that the banquet halls won’t be able to be rented the night that a concert takes place on the main level.
“So, when there's concerts, no, we won't rent those out because it would just be too hard with the music in there,” explained Garza Walker in an interview with ABC15. “We have the acoustical panels going in. So, we have an expert that we brought in acoustically to make sure that the music transfers and goes up… and then bounce the music back down so that people on the second floor will still be able to get a rich sound quality.
THE MISSION
“We are going to lean into that it is absolutely geared towards the Mexican culture, and it is absolutely a venue that is going to welcome and bring them in and it's going to have a lot of music. So that is really what it's [going to] be. And you know, for all intents and purposes, I tell people you can call it club Capri Number Two if you [they] want, but …. it’s the Mexican music venue that's going to be the anchor space in the West Valley that will draw a regional crowd all the way from Mexico,” said Garza Walker who also stated that with the musicians, artists that they plan to book, the event venue will draw people from other states and even Mexico.
According to Garza Walker, they plan to have this venue space open in the fourth quarter of 2024 or “no later than first quarter of 2025.”
- The video in the player above showcases the best things to do in the Valley this November. Read more about it, right here.
