Featured in Phoenix Business Journal on August 7, 2024.

Timing did not rule in Joshua Simon's favor when his company decided to pursue the development of the Prasada shopping complex in 2019.

"There was a lot of 'Oh, s--t' moments in the beginning," said Simon, the founder and CEO of Scottsdale-based SimonCRE. "Covid hits and nobody wants to talk to you in the retail world because all of their stores are being shut down."

But Arizona quickly opened back up, so it wasn't long before retailers started lining up to be part of Simon's Village at Prasada in Surprise – an area of the Valley that had grown substantially in population despite stagnant retail growth following the Great Recession.

Now, about three years after SimonCRE started construction on the 700,000-square-foot power center, all of the spaces in the outdoor mall are spoken for. The second phase – the 350,000-square-foot Prasada North – only has 20,000 square feet left to lease.