The 250,000-square-foot Nogales Mall, foreground, is being built to face a new 130,000-square-foot Wal-Mart in the prosperous El Greco area south of downtown Nogales, Sonora. Shoppers eagerly await their opening, expected in June or July.

david sanders / Arizona Daily Star

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NOGALES, Sonora — Along Boulevard El Greco, construction crews and bulldozers cross the busy street while just beyond the dust clouds, a pair of large retail centers are quickly taking shape.

The new 250,000-square-foot Nogales Mall and the 130,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter are under construction at the city's southern edge. At the same site, a new Peter Piper Pizza and a Carl's Jr. are getting ready to open their doors, alongside a new Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar.

Touted as the largest mall to be built in Sonora, with the city's first pair of escalators, the Nogales Mall will have 114 stores, a 12-screen movie theater and a 14-vendor food court, said Juan Jaime de la Torre, principal architect for Nogales Mall.

The $17 million project is being developed by Apostolos Kyriakis, a Nogales-based commercial developer.

"This is where we are developing our new city. This is where opportunity exists and where we hope to develop success," said Nestor Orozco-Ruiz, director of economic development for the city of Nogales, Sonora.

The new developments are exciting for local shoppers like 19-year-old Iran Vazquez Diaz, who lost his passport and can no longer cross the U.S. border to shop.

He's looking forward especially to the new Wal-Mart, set to open by early summer.

"You can buy almost anything there. It's exciting because everything's coming to town," Diaz said through an interpreter.

Though Wal-Mart Corp. officials won't give an opening date, developers with the project — and Orozco-Ruiz — said an opening is expected by June.

Wal-Mart is now Mexico's largest retailer, with 105 supercenters and 70 Sam's Club warehouses, according to Wal-Mart's corporate Web site. The retailer also owns some Mexican chain stores and restaurants, including, 287 VIPS Restaurants, 55 Superamas, 54 Suburbias and several Mi Bodegas, Mercamas and Mi Bodega Express.

Orozco-Ruiz said of Wal-Mart, "It's a lot more popular than in the U.S. A lot of people here are anxious to see it."

Well, not everyone.

The new Wal-Mart will create competition and will be a challenge, said Jose Sanchez Diaz, a manager at Soriana, a 125,000-square-foot supercenter that opened two years ago. The Soriana store offers amenities similar to those found at Wal-Mart Supercenters, combining a grocery store, household goods, clothing and electronics under one roof.

"We have established our store in the market. Wal-Mart will be a challenge but we'll be OK," said Diaz through an interpreter.

With an estimated population of 350,000 to 450,000 people in Nogales, Sonora, the retail centers will have no shortage of customers, said Nils Urman, director of Santa Cruz County's commerce and economy development office.

"There's an assumption that all 450,000 come here (to Nogales, Ariz.) for shopping, but that's just not the case," Urman said.

The centers will also be good for those residents who don't have visas, passports or cars to travel across the border, he said.

Only about 40 percent of Nogales residents have passports, Orozco-Ruiz said.

"There's a concern about competition on the U.S. side," said de la Torre. "But we're selling Mexican products here. This is for people who don't have passports and for locals who want to shop here."

An official of Tucson's biggest mall said the Nogales retail centers don't pose much of a competitive threat.

"It's good for the local residents to fill their local shopping needs. But we expect them to come to Tucson for their major shopping," said Jill Harlow, spokeswoman for Tucson Mall. "We have diverse products which can't be purchased in Mexico. People will still come for dining and experiences Tucson has to offer."

The Nogales Mall and new retail stores will also bring more economic development and options for local shoppers, said Felipe García, vice president for Mexico marketing with the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau.

The bureau estimates about 23 million Mexican visitors come to Arizona annually and those shoppers spend about $1 billion.

There will be more opportunities for U.S. companies and businesses to locate in Nogales, "creating a better quality of life," he said. "But people will still come to Tucson's malls."