Necessity is the mother of invention, but it’s often the father of entrepreneurship, too. 

“I’d never really worked on cars, I kind of fell into automotive service from my three brothers,” says Chris Greulich, president of Greulich’s Automotive Repair. “One of my brothers owns a machine shop and was into racecars and rebuilding engines for classic cars of all types. The genesis of my getting into auto service was that his location near Scottsdale Airpark wasn’t zoned to do retail work, so he basically wasn’t allowed to take engines in and out of cars for customers. I’d finished college in 1989 and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go ahead and open up a service center down the street where the zoning allows it.' "

Greulich shifted gears rapidly. After opening the service center, he later added a parts store, a towing company (which became the largest provider for AAA in Arizona) and an auto collision center. Eventually, he sold the parts and body shop businesses and exited the towing business.
 
For the past 15 years, Greulich’s focus has been on growing the service centers, opening stores across the Phoenix metro area. Currently, there are 18 locations, with three more launching by the end of the 2022.
 
“Our growth has really been driven by our employees,” Greulich says. “They’re the most important asset we’ve got. And for them to grow within their careers, I’ve got to grow. In the past three years, it’s been exponential.”
 
One dramatic change, especially in Arizona, has been the consolidation within automotive repair chains. “Sun Devil Auto and Wilhelm Automotive both were acquired in the past two years, so we’re really the last independently-owned company,” Greulich says. “What’s worked in our favor is that we’re hiring a lot of people who don’t want to work in a corporate environment.”
 

To cultivate the next generation of technicians, Greulich is partnering with Gateway Community College. “There’s an annual shortage of about 50,000 automotive technicians across the U.S.,” he says. “We’ll provide scholarships for students who want to complete a program and agree to work for us for a certain period of time, with the hopes that they’ll become a fulltime employee long-term.”

There’s power in a product that puts a big smile on its customers’ faces every day. PHAT electric fat-tire scooters have become a familiar sight cruising the Valley’s bike lanes, sidewalks and golf courses since the company’s launch in 2017. Following a management change and financial restructuring in February 2021, the trend has become increasingly national.“

“When I came on a year ago, most of our sales were in Arizona,” says PHAT Scooters CEO Tim Moran. “Now, about 40% of our sales are outside the state, predominantly California and Texas, and we’re starting to get a foothold in the Carolinas and Florida. About 20% of our sales are in golf, including partnerships with Troon and Dallas-based Arcis Golf Management. With 21 employees, we’re doing about $7 million a year of revenue, and we expect to see that number increase quite a bit this year.”
 
As part of the turnaround, Moran and team streamlined from five frame styles down to one, with three different customizable models, including the O.G. base model; the Amp’d, which has a Boss Audio or Rockford Fosgate speaker system; and the Golf, which features a golf bag holder, cup holder and cooler.
 
Other big moves in 2021 included opening the PHAT Lounge at Scottsdale Fashion Square in July and the relocation of frame manufacturing to Deer Valley, with plans to source batteries and motors in the U.S., as well. Upcoming initiatives include adding safety features and a click system for accessories.
 
“We want people to be able to easily attach a basket, golf clubs, cooler holder or a trailer—even if you’re challenged with a wrench like I am,” Moran says. By the end of 2022, the company also plans to have an app that will serve as a virtual key, allow riders to set speeds, and tell golfers the distance to the pin.
 
Moran sees the PHAT’s power in alleviating traffic while letting customers enjoy a comfortable ride with the wind in their hair. “As our city gets denser, we believe we can really help improve urban mobility with scooter that’s fast and also has up to 50 miles range,” he says.

In the holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey describes plane motors as one of the three most exciting sounds in the world. Nowhere is that truer than at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, which has grown exponentially since launching commercial passenger service in 2007.
 
“We started as a small base for Allegiant and a handful of destinations,” says Ryan Smith, C.M., director of communications and government relations. “Now we’re well over 60 destinations with five airlines and expect to cross 2 million passengers this year.”
 
As the facility has grown, so has its economic impact. “We view the airport as a 3,000-acre economic development project that just happens to have three 10,000-foot runways that allow us to land the world’s largest aircraft,” Smith says. “From a business perspective, it’s all-encompassing—everything from Apache helicopters that are produced in Mesa to large shipments for construction of the new Intel Corporation plant to the U.S. Forest Service base.”
 
In the past five years, the airport has had well over $100 million of private investment. Skybridge, 360 acres of private aeronautical development, is already underway as a cargo and logistics hub. Gateway East, currently in the planning stage, will be 400 acres of non-aeronautical development, including office, warehouse, commercial and industrial space. 
 
In addition, it was recently announced that Gulfstream will be starting phase one on a $70 million, 250,000-square-foot maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) facility that will become their largest service facility on the West Coast, creating as many as 300 high-paying jobs.
 
“That’s a big deal for the entire region, because that brings suppliers and new people in that otherwise might not come to Arizona,” Smith says.
 
Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport also stands to benefit from funds dedicated to terminal modernization by Congress. “As we grew to 10 gates, we added new modern facilities to the original modular portable buildings,” Smith continues. “The infrastructure funds will allow us to build a new five-gate facility, adding concession space, outdoor space for our passengers, and an additional gate that allows us to continue to court new airlines and for our current airlines to add capacity.”