Caputi: Scottsdale is more than a wonderful place to live

As your councilperson, I will protect the specialness of our open areas while recognizing the importance of developing our economic centers. Scottsdale cannot stay still. We can’t bubble wrap the city and close our eyes; the future is ours to create.”

Tammy Caputi, Scottsdale City Council candidate

Scottsdale is a vibrant community, blessed with engaged residents and natural beauty.

We enjoy high amenities and low residential property taxes. But we are far more than a wonderful place to live. We are an economically robust employment hub.

Our central Valley location helps fuel 18,000 businesses employing nearly 200,000 people, which is critical to supporting our lifestyle. More than half of the city’s budget is funded from sales tax revenues, and only 10% from property taxes.

The businesses in the Airpark, along the 101, and in the downtown generate the crucial tax revenue that allow us to keep our property taxes down and our quality of life high.

I recently spoke with three industry leaders in Scottsdale on how the COVID-19 crisis has affected their businesses, and listened to their thoughts on how to pivot and recover. The businesses represented auto, banking and hotels --- some of the building blocks of our local economy.

Steve Countryman, general manager of Chapman Ford, reports that sales were actually up in April compared to last year, particularly to customers in the construction industry which has remained active.

Chapman Ford was able to reach more customers at home, adjust their operations to accommodate new health protocols, and grow online sales and personal delivery of vehicles. Mr. Countryman says he’s been “optimistically surprised.” They are learning to do more with less, and thinking creatively about operations.

Bill Callahan, president and CEO of Arizona Bank and Trust, says retail business has shifted, but not declined. Arizona Bank and Trust has transitioned to drive-through tellers and electronic banking, which is now 75% of their transactions.

Commercial banking employees are working successfully from home.
They were able to process over 4,000 PPP loans for $1.5 billion --- all remotely.

They expect to continue de-emphasizing brick and mortar stores. Callahan says the city can help the recovery by moving forward with the infrastructure projects in the recent bond approvals; especially while interest rates are so low.

This would stimulate the local economy and create jobs.

Ronen Aviram, general manager of the Hotel Valley Ho, saw a 93% drop in revenue for April. They furloughed 85% of staff, but brought half of them back with PPP loans. They have used the downtime to renovate, re-train staff on safety protocols, deep clean, and reset. Pools are now open, guests are trickling back, but meetings reservations are still down.

Aviram says the city can help restore the hotel industry by offering the best possible product. We need to continually evolve to attract tourists, offering a unique experience, not just the sun. Downtown has stagnant areas that have to be activated.

Callahan says before the crisis hit his bank saw an overbuilding in hospitality and put a moratorium on lending in that sector. He sees the future direction in developing more recession-proof industries, growing and innovating along the Cure Corridor, and finding ways to attract younger families to our community to improve our financial demographics.

It’s important to pay attention to the different sectors in our city in order to attract younger people.

Aviram says his hotel chose Scottsdale for the positive business environment; the unique blend of urban and suburban, vertical and horizontal public spaces.

He sees the challenge ahead in our labor markets. With nine new hotels planned before the crisis hit, growth will exceed our labor pool.

As the economy picks back up, we will have more guests than staff which will cause competition for good employees. Aviram thinks an answer lies in more business and community support of the labor market, partnering with institutions like SCC to develop vocational training and provide jobs upon graduation tailored to skills. We can’t sustain future growth without nurturing skilled labor.

The full interview can be viewed at tammycaputi.com under “News & Events at: https://www.tammycaputi.com/news/state-of-scottsdale-business-roundtable-hosted-by-tammy-caputi

I hope you will watch, to hear some of these refreshingly optimistic and inspirational ideas. It will also give you a sense of me as a person, where you can see the professionalism and experience that I will bring to City Council and my vision for moving Scottsdale forward.

Our city is full of creative people and dynamic businesses. The crisis should be teaching us that we must be visionary and look at things in a different way; things can change very quickly when they have to. We also must look at the big picture, not just one or two hot-button projects.

Scottsdale is 185 square miles, 25% of which are in our preserve. Our quality of life depends on tourism and economic activity, which is generated from a few very small geographic areas. Downtown is two square miles; 1% of our city.

The area zoned for Class 3 height is just a few square blocks.

As your councilperson, I will protect the specialness of our open areas while recognizing the importance of developing our economic centers. Scottsdale cannot stay still. We can’t bubble wrap the city and close our eyes; the future is ours to create.

Editor’s Note: Tammy Caputi is a Scottsdale resident seeking election to City Council in the August primary.