By Jon Johnson
THATCHER — After nearly four years in the making, the American Southwest Credit Union (ASCU) broke ground on its newest branch on Friday, which will be an anchor store for the new Thatcher Commercial Plaza at the former Red Lamp Mobile Home Park’s site at the intersection of Highway 70 and 3rd Avenue.
“Thatcher is growing and this highway corridor behind me is filling in with businesses and commerce and we’re very excited about that especially when we bring hometown businesses here to this corridor and to our thriving community – that’s what this groundbreaking is, a hometown business making Thatcher their home,” said Thatcher Mayor Jenny Howard.
The town purchased the roughly 4.5-acre parcel for $1.2 million in 2018, evicting all the tenants and demolishing any remaining trailers.
Graham County and Thatcher dignitaries joined representatives from the ASCU and the Graham County Chamber of Commerce, along with the design firm LaMacchia Group out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and local contractor Hughes Custom Performance, to formally break ground on the credit union’s new 3,200-square-foot building, which will highlight rural Arizona. Construction is slated to last about six months, with the goal of opening by Dec. 5.
“We really want to showcase what this area has to offer and let everybody know that we’re the alternative choice,” said Jay Williamson, ASCU President and CEO. “There’s some bigger banks over in Safford, but they’re not local – we are.”
Williamson told the Gila Herald that the credit union’s whole mantra is local and rural.
“That’s everything we are built on is being local and rural Arizona,” Williamson said. “We’re glad to be part of Thatcher; glad to be part of the community. (We) are really excited to be here.”
In addition to its Gila Valley location, ASCU has two locations in Sierra Vista as well as locations in Kearney, Douglas, Benson, and Sahuarita. Williamson said they started coming to the Gila Valley by request since a local business had trouble getting his clients deals with existing banks during the COVID-19 epidemic.
“We don’t do Wall Street, we do Main Street,” Williamson said. “I really think we can make a difference in areas like this. And that’s my board’s focus. That’s my focus – making an impact on people’s lives.”
ASCU was founded to serve the military at Fort Huachuca and has since expanded to serve rural Arizona.
“That’s who we are at heart; we are not a Wall Street bank, we’re a Main Street bank and credit union, and we are here to serve small businesses and agriculture and the consumers of this area. We really want you to know that we are here for you. We want to help everybody succeed financially. We’re not for profit. We’re here to serve and to make everybody’s lives better.”
The credit union will be the first business in the plaza, and following it will likely be a Culver’s restaurant, slated to be adjacent along the highway. Known for its cooked-to-order food, Culver’s signature items include the ButterBurger, made from fresh, never-frozen beef, fresh-frozen custard, and cheese curds. It also serves chicken sandwiches, seafood, pretzel bites, soups, and salads.
Thatcher Town Manager Heath Brown said the restaurant was working on getting the architecture, engineering, and financing lined up, and he expected them to be about six months away from breaking ground.
With American Southwest Credit Union and Culver’s taking up the plaza’s highway frontage, the back half of roughly 2 acres is still usable for additional businesses.
Brown said the town has a letter of intent from Vector Financial which is looking at building a space in the southwest corner and that other entities have expressed an interest, including a food-truck type of business with multiple permanent small food retail spots and another group that is interested in building a strip mall type of space. Brown said the town will likely put another Request for Proposal for businesses interested in moving to the new plaza.
