12.07

Merry Christmas from all of us on the Yourland team!

If you need to do any last minute Christmas shopping or if you're looking for things to do with the family over the holiday weekend be sure to pick up the newly released "Small Wonders" map that can now be found at many local businesses around town. Small Wonders is a cd jacket sized fold-out publication that features 74 of Phoenix's best locally owned shops and restaurants and was created and distributed by a good friend of ours, Local First Arizona.  Yourland is featured as the main sponsor of this directory and we are very excited about the way that it will continue to spread the word about Yourland.  You can find the map at various businesses, at Lux for sure, and we also have a big box of them if you'd like to get some to share with your family and friends.  So that you'll know what to look for it looks like this:

The Welcome Diner will also be moving to 16th St. very soon.  It will first take up residence in the old KFC and will later make its way back into the main Yourland space.  Stay tuned for more info and be sure to come visit us in the new space.

Abatement of the existing Smitty’s and Walgreen’s buildings is about complete and in early January we will be heading into demolition of the interior portions of the two buildings.  It will not be long before we will be in a position to begin infrastructure construction. We are planning to have our building permit process completed in January, and are continuing to work with tenants so as to begin planning their tenant improvement needs.

We've also updated our website.  The new address is www.marthaandmary.net/yourland, although yourland.net will continue to take you there as well.  The site has some new images and informational materials and will be updated periodically and development progresses.  Be sure to stay tuned for up to date info.

We received an incredible influx of emails in response to the June article in the Arizona Republic on Yourland.  Many these were from people who either had worked at Smitty's #1, had shopped there, were in the neighborhood or just had fond memories of the store.  On October 20th at the Welcome Diner we had a Smitty's "reunion" lunch for many of the folks who replied.  It was a great afternoon, and many incredible stories and memories were shared.  The history of Smitty's #1 has been so rich and fascinating to us that we're letting it develop into a history project that helps Yourland remember its roots.  Here are a few mementos that Arnie Eggers (that’s Arnie holding the commerative Smitty’s bottle), the original Smitty's #1 baker shared with us:

The Yourland Team