Casa Grande, AZ

The Garnet of Casa Grande ignored Tom Blackbird's pleas to dump out and clean the urinals left in his room, according to him and his son.

CASA GRANDE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- When you put a loved one in a nursing home, you expect they’ll be cared for, and the employees will clean their rooms and tend to their needs. But that’s not what a Pinal County family says they got. They were so disturbed by the conditions they filed a complaint with the state and reached out to Arizona’s Family.

“Here’s the room,” Cody Blackbird said during a TikTok video. He took out his cell phone and started recording when he went to pick up his father from the Garnet of Casa Grande last week. “This is how they left his cart, no one ever cleaned it for him. He’s left side paralyzed, he can’t clean on his own,” he explained on the video.

His father, Tom, said he’d been staying at that assisted living facility since September. The family explained they’d visited several homes, but this one stood out. “It was impressive. We walked in, and there was somebody playing piano,” Cody said. “Very nice dining facility, game room setup. Seemed to be clean.”

Arizona’s Family asked what the first signs were that something was off. “We would go in and there would be some urinals that would be filled up, hanging from his cart or sheets that weren’t changed,” Tom said. “When I mentioned to the caregivers about my urinals, that’s not my job. That’s the answer I got a lot.”

Cody said he didn’t realize how bad the conditions were until they moved their dad out last week. “You can hear sticky, that is sticky, that is urine,” Cody said in the TikTok. “The people who complained were ignored, so I kinda just started being quiet,” Tom said.

Cody said he confronted the managers there, but they didn’t take him seriously. “These are our loved ones, these are our elders, and we can’t leave them to be treated that way,” Cody said.

Arizona’s Family stopped by the Garnet and asked for a manager. “No comment, OK,” a woman who identified herself as a manager replied.

The Department of Health Services oversees and licenses nursing homes. They couldn’t say if they were investigating the Garnet. Those previous violations include providing inadequate care for skin rashes and service plans. State law fines to $500 per violation per day.

Tom is back at home with his sons. They’re speaking out because they said they don’t want others to go through what their dad experienced.

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The domes surrounded by myths and rumors have been standing since the 1980s, but it only took less than a day for them to be destroyed.

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — The mystery and legends coming from the Casa Grande domes brought countless people to see them. Now, they’re gone.

On Monday, a team to came in and tore down the oddly shaped domes located on Thornton Road just south of Interstate 8 following the approval of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors.

People driving by Tuesday were seen slowing down to see the rubble that now sits on top of the land.

"I just think it's really sad,” said Cass Lansberry.

Credit: Chase Golightly

Lansberry and her husband told 12News they’ve both been coming to the domes since they were teenagers. “This is like a pillar of our community,” Cass Lansberry said. “All the kids that grew up here, we came here."

Shaped like flying saucers, the domes were created in the 1980s to be an electronic manufacturing plant. It never opened and was abandoned in the decades to come. It then became one of Casa Grande’s most popular destinations.

“It was the mystery behind it all,” said George Lansberry. “Nobody could really tell you what they were, where they came from.”

"It was just so intriguing and so interesting to be inside these weird-shaped buildings,” Cass Lansberry said, standing next to the now gated-off area. “The graffiti and the artwork inside they all told stories."

Rumors and myths quickly grew about the domes. The rumors included claims there were rumors of people doing satanic rituals and sacrifices inside the domes.

"Everyone has always thought that the domes were haunted," Cass Lansberry said. "It was very creepy."

The stories become bigger than the domes themselves. "It's about everyone having their own story about what happened here to them," said Cass Lansberry.

That includes Pinal County District 3 Supervisor Stephen Miller.

"My pick-up got stolen one night," Miller said.

Three days later, Miller got a call from the sheriff’s office.

"They had found it inside one of the domes completely burnt to the ground," Miller bursting out laughing as he told the story.

Over the years, the graffiti-covered domes started to crumble. In 2016 the county said the largest dome collapsed on its own. After that, officials determined it was unsafe for people to be there, and the domes were condemned.

“Something needed to be done,” Miller said.

Officials tried working with the property owners, but Miller said they could not come to an agreement. In 2017, it was decided the buildings would come down. The property owners attempted to appeal the ruling, drawing out a five-year legal battle.

It ended with the County moving forward with tearing down the domes. Miller said the decision was not easy. “We have to make these kinds of decisions or tough decisions. We don't like them, but we also need property owners to be responsible."

The cost to demolish the domes came out to just under $129,000, according to reports given to 12News by Pinal County officials.

As for what’s next for the land, Miller said that is up to the property owners. For the Lansberrys, they hope it doesn’t remain an empty lot.

“They were something to us, and that’s what matters,” Lansberry said.

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CASA GRANDE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- Last week, Lucid USA, an electric vehicle manufacturer, announced plans to lay off over 900 people at its Casa Grande facility. Some of those impacted say they feel blindsided by the decision. “Having it end at the snap of a finger is really disheartening,” one former employee said.

Those fired employees will receive two months of paid leave and a severance package. The process started on Tuesday with an email from Rawlinson to all employees announcing the upcoming layoffs. By Thursday, Casa Grande employees found out their fate. Some were laid off following a shift, others when their badges didn’t work when they got to work. “The whole shift before that kind of felt like the last day of school,” a former employee said. “Not really knowing if you’re going to see your friends the next time you come in.”

In his email, Rawlinson said, “We have been reviewing and implementing several other ways to optimize our cost structure, but unfortunately, these measures alone won’t achieve our objectives.”

All in all, the California-based company laid off about 18% of its employees, about 1,300 people. For two other former Lucid employees, working there was a dream job. “A lot of us planned to have a long career there,” one said. “And just like that, we were escorted out of the building.” “I loved my job. I loved it here,” another said. “The people made Lucid what it is.”

The layoffs happened despite the company exceeding expected vehicle production at its Arizona facility in 2022 and reporting annual revenue of over $600 million. Now, those without a job are unsure of what’s next. “I gotta keep looking for work,” a former employee said. “Just keep trying every day, keep trying to find something.”

But these former employees all have a message for Lucid. “They let all of that stuff happen in three days, and I’m not OK with it,” one said. “It was unprofessional.” “Take care of the people that are still there,” another added.

Arizona’s Family reached out to Lucid to try and speak with them directly about the layoffs but never heard back from them.

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Chemical Strategies Inc. is expanding with a new location south of Phoenix in the Central Arizona Commerce Park.

The company plans to develop a new 70,000 to 100,000-square-foot industrial building for chemical distribution and third-party logistics in Casa Grande, near the northeast corner of Burris and Peters roads.

It represents a $10 million to $14 million investment and is expected to be operational by mid-2024, the company said.

The Anthem-based chemical distributor supports the semiconductor, aerospace and defense industries and said its new facility will help support the growing semiconductor industry in Arizona.

It joins several other semiconductor-related companies that have also decided to expand in Casa Grande to support Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

"We are very excited for our newest expansion project in our home state," the company said in an email to the Phoenix Business Journal.

Chemical Strategies did not answer questions about how many jobs it will bring or if a general contractor or architect has been selected. The company first started in 2001 and has since expanded to other states such as California and Florida.

Chemical Strategies was the latest to purchase a site in the CAZCP industrial center in Casa Grande. It closed on 10 acres of land for $2.4 million in May 2023, according to real estate database Vizzda. It purchased the land from Saint Holdings, a company that has been credited with bringing prime industrial sites to Pinal County cities including Casa Grande and Coolidge.

Bill Honsaker, Tony Lydon and Marc Hertzberg of JLL are the brokers representing Saint Holdings for the CAZCP. Kelly Royle of JLL represented Chemical Strategies in the sale.

Saint Holdings said the recent sale to Chemical Strategies means only about five acres are left for sale in the overall 740-acre CAZCP, which is home to Lucid Group Inc.'s growing electric vehicle manufacturing campus.

Other companies that have acquired land in the park include another semiconductor supplier, LCY Electronic Materials, Trulieve, a cannabis company, Triumvirate Environmental, Wright Asphalt, Desert Mountain Corp., and Sheffield Lubricants.

Other semiconductor-related companies building facilities in Casa Grande include KPPC Advanced Chemicals Inc., Jing He Science Co., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Chang Chun Group, Topco Scientific USA and Solvay Corp. Inc.

Read more: The Business Journal previously published a list of all known semiconductor-related companies that have expanded or located in the Phoenix metro since TMSC was announced.

The Casa Grande City Council is expected to vote on a 321-acre rezoning case that will bring 1,200 homes and upward of 2,500 apartment units to a new master-planned community.

The city's planning commission voted unanimously to move the project forward and it is expected to go to council within the next few weeks, said Patty Lafferty, principal and designated broker for The Land Agency who brokered the $23 million cash purchase of the land in November 2021.

Anita Verma-Lallian, through her Phoenix-based Arizona Land Consulting firm, is leading a syndication to develop the master-planned community at Selma Highway and Interstate 10, about a mile from downtown Casa Grande.

"The owners were drawn to the property not only because of its prime location, but also due to the fact that it has a certificate of assured water supply, which is critical for the development," Lafferty said. "Casa Grande has experienced a boom in industrial development tied to Lucid, Kohler and TSMC as developers in all asset classes look to acquire land, they will prioritize properties that have entitlements in place, reducing a layer of risk."

Verma-Lallian said the master-planned community, named Vista Estates, will have more density — smaller lot sizes — than the original plat from 2007.

"We have a mix of 50-foot, 45-foot and 60-foot lots — what people are looking for in markets like Casa Grande for starter homes," she said. "That's the product type in highest demand right now."

That original plat also had included condos. Instead, the revised master plan will include build-to-rent homes and garden-style apartments.

"We already have a good amount of interest from developers and homebuilders on this site," Verma-Lallian said.

The western edge of the property aligned with Interstate 10 is being rezoned to industrial to accommodate all the needs of the big manufacturing plants sprouting up there, she said.

Newark, California-based Lucid Motors (Nasdaq: LCID) is hiring for its advanced manufacturing facility in Casa Grande, while Kohler Co. is building a 1 million-square-foot plant — all creating a need for more homes in the area, Lafferty said.

"We're eager to see this project come to life," Verma-Lallian said.

In March 2022, Verma-Lallian also was involved in the purchase of a 51-acre vacant parcel across the street from Lucid Motors' manufacturing plant, where Lucid is expanding its presence in Casa Grande.

Verma-Lallian helped find the site for Valley Land Group, which paid $8.44 million for that parcel.

"The site near Lucid is being explored by many different developers right now," she said.