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Photos by Evie Carpenter
A new yogurt shop opened in CityScape last week, with its grand opening set for this Friday.
Yogurtini is the newest addition to the $900 million mixed-use downtown development. After the 7-month process of readying the building, the store is now open for business, according to its manager, Stephen Larson.
“We opened officially Friday,” said Larson. “It was crazy because we’re not used to the downtown vibe. A bunch of office folk came in and even the entire fourteenth floor came down, (so that was good news for us).”
The store offers 12 rotating flavors, with two of them identified as feature flavors that change about every two weeks. Some of the current yogurts available include peanut butter, mango sorbet and blueberry tartini.
Though Yogurtini is the newest store to open its doors in CityScape, the opening helps to bring the development one step closer to full capacity.
Jeff Moloznik, development manager at RED Development, the company that leases and manages CityScape, is optimistic about the current condition of the development. All of the retail space is leased, for a total of 200,000 square feet, and 94 percent of the office space, with a total possible area of 600,000 square feet, is also leased, according to Moloznik.
“If you talk to any of our businesses, the performance has exceeded their expectations,” Moloznik noted. “In CityScape, offices can participate in an urban lifestyle, where you have the ability to walk out on your lunch break and get a prescription filled, get groceries, or go to gym before work. It’s an entirely different experience from what people are used to.”
Moloznik said the high traffic the development gets during the week will likely make the businesses in CityScape more successful.
Yogurtini manager Larson agrees. Though Yogurtini’s opening was on Friday, the weekend was very quiet, he said, because there was a lack of traffic that the office workers typically bring.
Yogurtini is expecting “thousands” of people at the grand opening this Friday, said Larson. Workers will be handing out coupons this week, which are valid for a free yogurt on opening day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. If the coupon is not used on Friday, it acts as a 20 percent off coupon anytime after.
Moloznik is confident about the future of CityScape and its place in downtown Phoenix.
“We are very pleased with the reception we’ve had down here,” he said. “We have a solid customer base because (CityScape) is the only truly authentic destinations in the valley.”
Chipotle Mexican Grill is another newcomer to CityScape, set to open sometime this fall. By November, all of the stores in the development will be open, according to Moloznik.
Contact the reporter at anna.gunderson@asu.edu
