Last modified: Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:23 AM PDT United States Bureau of Land Management employee Larry Frazier stands at his office in Vale last week. Frazier, the assistant director of the BLM’s Vale District, has a varied background in forestry. Frazier said he is happy to be in an office managing rangeland. A wide open future beckons at Marketplace By Jennifer Colton - Argus Observer Ontario - At almost any time of any day, the area of Ontario around Idaho and East Avenue is bustling. In three years, the Ontario Marketplace area — driven by national retail giants — has exploded in terms of new businesses. “That area is maturing and growing at a steady pace,” Todd Heinz, who opened a Jolts N Juice location in Ontario Marketplace in August 2004, said Thursday. “I think the future looks bright. With the two big anchors there — Wal-Mart and Home Depot — it’s been drawing a lot of traffic, and most fast food and coffee shops are traffic- driven. The traffic has definitely been increasing, and I’m sure the businesses have been increasing as well. I think it’s still a maturing market. The whole other side by Staples, that’s all going to be growing.” Mark Zimel, Portland, the property manager who opened Ontario Marketplace — the area to the north around Home Depot — in 2004 as Wal-Mart expanded into a supercenter said business spaces in the Ontario Marketplace are already scarce. “There are up to four spots available,” Zimel said. “We are working with someone who could take the whole thing. We’re also working with several smaller businesses. We anticipate during the next three to four months.” Zimel’s firm is also developing a Walgreens across the street as well as two larger buildings — one 7,000 square feet, the other 4,000 — as “Ontario Station.” “We have a 4,000-square-foot building between Goodfellow (Street) and Burger King. Great Clips is all signed up and ready to go. We’re actually looking at having tenants ready to be in by Dec. 1. We’re also working with a cellular phone company,” Zimel said. In the three years that Cold Stone Creamery has operated in the area, Clark Forsyth, Ontario, owner, said the business has steadily increased. “The traffic pattern through the Ontario Marketplace is amazing,” he said. “That’s why you would choose to be here.” Jim Griffith owns RadioShack stores in both the Ontario Marketplace and in downtown Ontario, and he said he chose to open the second location because many residents never make it into the downtown area. He said while preparing to open the Ontario Marketplace store in 2004, a Payette man approached him and said he was glad they would finally have a RadioShack in the area, although the downtown Ontario RadioShack has operated since 1980. “It’s definitely a growing marketplace,” he said. “It started slow, but as more business go in it keeps changing. As there are more stores in that area, you have more of a draw. Some people like going where there’s excitement and activity. In a center like that with Wal-Mart and Home Depot, there’s a lot of traffic and some people prefer that.” Griffith said he agreed with the sentiment many of the shoppers at Ontario Marketplace arrive from Idaho. “Then there are people from the west side of town, from Vale and Nyssa, who often hit this one (downtown location),” he said. Zimel said the Ontario Marketplace location is ideal. “It’s a busy place between I-84 and the Snake River,” Zimel said. “It’s very active, and businesses like traffic, and Wal-Mart brings a lot of traffic.” Zimel said the Ontario Wal-Mart attracts around 160 percent of what the average Supercenter brings, primarily because of the tax difference in Idaho. “It’s adjacent to a sales-tax state,” Zimel said. “The biggest diamond-in-the-rough that Ontario has is the sales tax. The people in Idaho come to Ontario to save 6 percent on their purchases. We recognized that as we were looking at that investment. We’re there for our customers and our customers are the people setting up businesses there. In order to meet our customers’ needs, we have to meet the needs of their customers.” Each business owner contacted said in the future it looks like the area will continue to grow and expand. “You’ve got the interstate access, it’s nice for people from Idaho or traveling through, but eventually that will fill up. I think we also have a need to get things on the west side of Ontario and downtown. I don’t think one hotspot can sustain a community forever. I don’t want people to lose sight of that.” Griffith said.