New Foothills small businesses hope to give neighborhood an economic boost

CATALINA FOOTHILLS, Ariz. (KGUN) — After a customer asked Es Teran for a beer to drink, Teran, owner of Borderlands Brewing, asked him, "Have you been here before?”

Borderlands expanded to its latest location a few weeks ago. Inside the large storefront at the plaza on River and Craycroft in the Catalina Foothills, Teran designed the bar with arcade games, pool tables, a turf-covered balcony and colorful, eclectic art.
“We love the casual environment that Borderlands brings to the community," Teran said, "and that’s something that we wanted to replicate at this location.”

Teran admitted, though, his business and many others in Tucson have endured challenges in trying to grow these past four years.

From Oct. 2023 to Oct. 2024, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said U.S. total inflation on all goods had fallen from 3.2 percent to 2.6 percent. At the time Teran said he wanted to start expanding, Jun. 2022, national inflation peaked at 9.1 percent.

“Construction prices: steel, wood, flooring, everything was very expensive," he said. "That definitely played into our budget when we were trying to build this place out.”

As part of Borderlands' business strategy, Teran said he will continue to invest in buying local ingredients which will, in turn, propel other small businesses. Right now, he said, the new brewery will look to hire 30-35 workers, and his current team downtown will train the new staff.

BLS data showed Tucson's unemployment rate hovered around 3 to 4 percent from May-Oct. 2024, with the steadier decrease starting in August.

More entrepreneurs are taking risks in the neighborhood. At Sunrise and Kolb, owner and Pima County board supervisor Matt Heinz opened Tinajas Wine and Beer in the last few weeks.

Heinz said, so far, he has hired a mix of five full-and-part-time employees, and he's open to adding more staff based on the bar's initial success. For Heinz, this venture wants to appeal to people of all ages looking for an experience later at night.

“It’s not just retired folks (living here)," Heinz said. "There are a lot of young professional families out here, too. Those folks that are looking for places like this to go."

Before opening, Heinz said he'd run into some specific cost adjustments brought on by inflation: LED lights got more expensive, as did securing the parts for electrical wiring and and plumbing.
“(We were) having to wait for things... or wait for funds to pay more for things that were more expensive than they should’ve been,” he said.

Heinz is confident, though, his business is going to be contributing to the Foothills economy, especially because it’s so close to a wide range of other businesses. “(We're) going to help increase the traffic for everyone else, all of my neighbors here,” he said.