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Diversified Partners
Challenge:
Raising awareness of Diversified Partners’ integral role in the redevelopment of Phoenix’s Metrocenter Mall and its impact as one of the largest redevelopment projects in Arizona’s history, by securing widespread coverage across Phoenix media outlets.
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Background:
Diversified Partners, a national commercial real estate firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona, partnered with additional leading developers on a sweeping, $850 million project to redevelop Phoenix’s iconic Metrocenter Mall. This historic project would transform the 1.4-million-square-foot mall into an expansive mixed-use community with more than 1,100 townhomes, 400 apartments and a sprawling retail component. Diversified Partners took on the pivotal role of leading the project’s retail component, spanning over 100,000 square feet of retail, dining and entertainment.
To generate community support for the project and attract high-value retail tenants, Diversified Partners sought to raise awareness in 2025 of how the project would serve as a powerful growth engine, infusing the community with new economic opportunities. The firm also aimed to highlight its critical role in spearheading the project’s retail component, further cementing its status as a prominent industry leader and positioning the firm as a viable partner for future projects.
Diversified Partners hired The McRae Agency to help cultivate this awareness among a wide variety of local media outlets, especially business outlets reaching influential business and real estate professionals who would have a vested interest in the project and its stakeholders. This plan included a goal of securing 10 local media placements.
Challenge:
As Phoenix is a large metropolitan city, local media outlets receive a daily inundation of press releases and story pitches. To secure widespread local coverage of the Metrocenter redevelopment, The McRae Agency needed to formulate an effective strategy that would not only stand out against other timely news, but also drive powerful interest among business reporters.
The coverage additionally needed to present the redevelopment project and Diversified Partners in a positive light, to foster robust community support and further elevate the firm’s polished reputation in the commercial real estate industry.
Solution:
To secure positive local coverage across a wide range of outlets, The McRae Agency team carried out a multi-pronged media campaign with calculated messaging, underscoring the project’s large-scale impact on the local economy and community members’ lives. Reaching out to thoughtfully identified contacts across local TV, print and digital, the agency team applied highly engaging story angles highlighting the project’s significant benefits, including how it would transform local quality of life with premium retail and dining destinations, as well as generate thousands of jobs across construction, retail, dining and property management.
This messaging also emphasized Diversified Partners’ instrumental role in leading the project’s retail component. To add a timely hook, the team centered media outreach on key milestones of the project, such as the completed mall demolition and the redevelopment’s groundbreaking.
Results:
The McRae Agency team’s thorough media campaign secured 36 earned media placements among local print, TV and digital outlets in Phoenix, totaling a reach of over 36.2 million, significantly surpassing the initial target goal. All of the coverage featured positive reporting of the project’s projected economic impact, with notable discussion of Diversified Partners’ role in leading the project’s retail component. This successfully achieved the goal of fostering public support and promoting Diversified Partners as a commercial real estate leader and valuable partner for ongoing projects.
The coverage included media placements in Phoenix’s most popular newspapers, magazines and major network affiliates, such as AZ Central, Phoenix New Times, Arizona Foothills Magazine, Fox 10, ABC15 and NBC affiliate 12News. The coverage also spanned the area’s most respected business publications, including the Phoenix Business Journal, InBusiness Phoenix and Arizona Builders Exchange, successfully reaching the targeted business community.
The coverage additionally included an article in national real estate trade publication Connect CRE, further cementing the project’s prominence and Diversified Partners’ critical leadership role.
