Shops with an Asian flair are proliferating around the intersection of Chandler Boulevard and Dobson Road.
The increase in Asian-themed stores is expected to serve Chandler’s fastest growing minority population. All of the tech industries that have settled in the city have hired people with the requisite skills, and many of them are of Asian descent.
The city’s Asian population has grown from 17,500 in 2011 to almost 28,000 in 2020. That’s a jump of 59%. Asian-themed companies have noticed.
“A lot of the tenants that we sort of worked with wanted to see a project in Arizona because that’s the market they want to get into,” said Naoyuki Kondo, a leasing specialist for NewQuest Properties, which manages the Chandler Ranch mall at the Corner of Dobson and Chandler Boulevard.
This mall currently has nearly a dozen Asian-themed stores. There are more at the mall across the street. Daiso Japan, Gen Korean BBQ House and SomiSomi Korean Soft Serve are scheduled to open soon.
They join the existing businesses and a number of other businesses: Asian Corner Cafe, Ramen Hood, and Kura Sushi. The Chandler Ranch Center’s anchor store is 99 Ranch Market, an Asian supermarket. Signage inside is in English and Mandarin, and aisles are filled with American and Asian produce.
“Business is actually booming,” said Christy Nguyen, manager of Kura Sushi. “We have a lot of good sales. The Chandler Ranch area is more of an Asian-dominated community, but we have a lot of diversity here.”
Kura Sushi is a far cry from the traditional sit-down sushi bar that many people have experienced. It should be lighter and funnier. A robot will bring you your drinks. The sushi passes your table on a conveyor belt. So if you see something you like, grab it. You can also order another dish, e.g. B. Ramen, and it is delivered directly from the kitchen to your table by another conveyor belt.
“It’s a very good story to tell when people come to Arizona from California or New York, and they have that comfort zone when … when they see a lot of Asian people in the mall,” Kondo said. “And what they’re also seeing, a lot of retailers and restaurants in that corridor are doing well.”
Kondo said they began remodeling Chandler Ranch in the early days of the pandemic. Now they are approaching 100 percent utilization.
“We want to make sure what we offer serves a community in the area,” said Caitlin Jones, NewQuest’s director of marketing. “We are an essential neighborhood and we are community driven. And those are the types of malls that we really want to build.”
It would be unfair to say that the entire mall is Asian oriented. There’s a Peter Piper Pizza, a Jack In the Box, and a new Cajun seafood restaurant opening soon.
But there are still plenty of Asians, including a Chinese hotpot restaurant and plans to launch a Japanese retailer.
“One of the main reasons we chose Chandler was the growth in the Asian population,” Kondo said. “This was actually a home game for us where the biggest variables in terms of demographics, revenue and just location were a perfect fit for Chandler Ranch.”
