Real estate dominated Valley business in the '90s

The 1990s was a watershed decade for Arizona and metro Phoenix that saw a cadre of Old Guard power brokers and movers and shakers swept out by collapse of the commercial real-estate market and the subsequent savings-and-loan debacle. But the financial tsunami that swept over the state in the early 1990s created opportunities for a new breed of community leaders and businesses that were able to capitalize on the downturn and leave their mark on the area's economy and landscape. Robert Sarver's Southwest Value Partners and Francis and Jahm Najafi's companies got starts early in the decade. DMB Partners emerged as a major Phoenix area developer. Vestar Development was a pioneer of the big-box power center and helped Target and Walmart expand in the area. The new wave of entrepreneurs took the places of long-time bankers such as Gene Rice and Gary Driggs, whose MaraBank S&L and Western Savings & Loan Association were seized by the government, and high-flying developers such as Charles Keating and Conley Wolfswinkel, who were sued by the government and put out of business. High-profile business leaders such as Keith Turley and Karl Eller lost footing when their respective companies, Pinnacle West Capital Corp. and Circle K Corp., made missteps and ran into trouble.

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