Don Quixote had his windmills; James Ballentyne has his cotton gin.<\/p>\n
But while the 17th century fictional character had only his sidekick Sancho Panza, the Mesa businessman has the support of his family and a growing Queen Creek contingent to help in his historical-preservation quest.<\/p>\n
And, when you listen to Ballentyne, his dream to take apart, move and reassemble an old cotton mill building doesn\u2019t sound all that impossible.<\/p>\n
The building, which Ballentyne\u2019s business has leased and operated as the Big Tin Cotton Gin for about six years, sits on the northeast corner of Ocotillo and Meridian roads in Queen Creek. It\u2019s one of five commercial properties that have closed after the landowner sold the corner to the Quik Trip Corp. for a reported $6 million.<\/p>\n
Quik Trip plans to begin construction in the winter 2027, said Aisha Jefferson, corporate communications manager.<\/p>\n
Those other businesses that have been displaced by the coming of a QT convenience store are:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022Americano Ammunition & Coffee, one of the Ballentyne businesses.<\/p>\n
\u2022Sweet Creek boutique, which is moving to Ellsworth Road in downtown Queen Creek.<\/p>\n
\u2022Maritza\u2019s Pupusas.<\/p>\n
\u2022MDI Rock.<\/p>\n
The Ocotillo-Meridian intersection section promises to become Convenience Store Central as Circle K is planning to build across Meridian from the QT. The Queen Creek Town Council recently recommended that the state grant Circle K\u2019s liquor license request.<\/p>\n
While the convenience stores will be close, they will be in different counties. Meridian Road serves as the county line with Maricopa County on the west and Pinal County on the east.<\/p>\n
A higher partner<\/p>\n
Ballentyne aptly describes the project as \u201ccolossal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a massive project between me and God,\u201d said Ballentyne, who says he\u2019s working 12 to 15 hours a day, six days a week. \u201cWhen there are decisions, I just say \u2018I defer to my partner.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Plans call for disassembling that building and nearby coffee shop, transporting the pieces to a yet-to-be-finalized San Tan Valley site and reassembling them.<\/p>\n
While finalizing a San Tan Valley site, Ballentyne said the project has received a warm reception from officials in that recently incorporated town.<\/p>\n
Ballentyne estimates it will cost $80,000 to $150,000 to take down the two metal structures and $2 million to $2.5 million to put them back together. He figures the project will take 2 to 2 1\/2 years to complete.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need a corporate sponsor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Those cost estimates factor in the non-paid help of \u201ctwo pages\u201d of volunteers, including 15 businesses and people who have vital equipment and expertise.<\/p>\n
Crews are finishing taking fixtures out of the building as well as removing such physical assets as pavers and planters. Next, QT will take over the building to assess and remediate any asbestos, a process that Ballentyne says takes two to six weeks. Then his crew will have 60 days to take it apart.<\/p>\n
A giant Erector Set<\/p>\n
That process should be deceptively easy, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis building has a modular construction. It\u2019s all put together with bolts,\u201d Ballentyne explained. \u201cIt\u2019s like a giant Erector Set. You take it apart by pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valuable help on that part of the project appeared in what Ballentyne would classify as a not-by-chance encounter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo guys drove in here a couple of weeks ago and they have started a business that puts together buildings like this,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said they would help us, even shut down their business for a week to work here. We talked about our religion for about a half-hour and the project for about 15 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ballentyne is effusive in his praise of the QT Corp., which gave him access to the two buildings he had leased.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe QT people have been extremely cooperative — very gracious working with the Ballentyne family,\u201d Ballentyne said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t ask for more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ballentyne family includes wife Julie, their two grown children and several \u201cinformally adopted\u201d kids. \u201cWe were always the catch-all house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a prepared statement, Quik Trip\u2019s Jefferson said: Over the past several months, we have worked with multiple partners to ensure the historic cotton gin currently located on our Queen Creek property can be preserved and relocated for its continued use on a new site.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arizona\u2019s 5 C\u2019s<\/p>\n
The cotton gin at Ocotillo and Meridian operated from 1950 to the mid-1980s, ginning high-grade Pima (long-staple) cotton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After its closure, it was site to many businesses, including a tire shop, food pantry and lighting business, Ballentyne said.<\/p>\n
He and Julie took over the building about six years ago as a wedding venue. \u201cIt had been empty for quite a while and I worked 16-hour days for nine months to get it ready because we had weddings scheduled,\u201d Ballentyne recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Big Tin Cotton Gin also hosted such events as gun shows, high school proms and arts and craft fairs.<\/p>\n
That business was never a money maker with the Ballentynes\u2019 other family businesses underwriting it, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cotton mill project is an attempt to preserve part of Arizona\u2019s disappearing history. And, in the interest of history, the project is being filmed for a documentary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo most people, Arizona doesn\u2019t have a history. They are from somewhere else,\u201d said Ballentyne, 60, who was born in Mesa and lives four miles from his childhood home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were taught about Arizona\u2019s \u201cFive C\u2019s\u201d that drove the economy. People today have no idea what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cotton is one of those C\u2019s as years ago, gins dotted the farmlands in central Arizona. (The others C\u2019s are citrus, cattle, copper and climate).<\/p>\n
Cotton acreage shrinks<\/p>\n
But as houses started sprouting up in cotton fields, gins started closing. The closest working gin to Queen Creek is 21 miles away at Eleven Mile Corner east of Casa Grande.<\/p>\n
According to the Arizona Farm Bureau, the state once had 500,000-600,000 acres planted in cotton. It\u2019s down to about 110,000 acres today.<\/p>\n
Evidence of cotton\u2019s demise can be seen near the project site. About a half mile south on the east side of Meridian, two construction projects are underway \u2013 one beginning and the other wrapping up \u2013 that are supplanting cotton fields with about 1,200 houses.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce gentrification starts, nothing is saved,\u201d Ballentyne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowth is happening so fast here, it runs you over, no matter who you are. That\u2019s progress.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don Quixote had his windmills; James Ballentyne has his cotton gin. But while the 17th century fictional character…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[73307,73303,73302,9,24,63,73305,73306,73304,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-181750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-arizona-cotton","tag-big-tin-cotton-gin","tag-james-ballentyne","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queen-creek-circle-k","tag-queen-creek-construction","tag-queen-creek-quik-trip","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}