Cofco Chinese Cultural Center
Do you reside in Phoenix city? Let us let you in on a secret, you can go shopping and have a feel of Chinese heritage and culture all in one place. Read on to learn more.
The Chinese Cultural Center otherwise known as the “COFCO’ center is located at 668 North 44th street on the North-Eastern side of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
COFCO is an acronym that stands for “China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuff Corporation”. The hours of operation at the center are from 10 AM to 7 PM daily and it is absolutely free to visit.
The COFCO was developed in the year 1997 by BNU Corporation, the corporation was a subsidiary of the COFCO organization. The COFCO is an enterprise that is run by the Republic of China. The Chinese center was sold in 2017 by COFCO to David Tedesco a businessman, David Tedesco then redeveloped the building into a large retail complex.
The COFCO center brings some of China’s heritage and culture to the city of Phoenix. The building was built in the traditional China architectural style, it also has a designed Chinese garden. The garden has replicas of ancient landmarks from over five Chinese cities.
Inside the center is the super L Ranch market which lays specifications on quality products. Restaurants like the Szechwan Palace and Beijing Garden Chinese are also found at the center.
A short History of the Phoenix Chinese Cultural center (COFCO)
The center was built at the inception by the owner with help from community volunteers and generous donations from local Chinese immigrants and also the project was supported by the government of Phoenix city. Special materials and supplies for the work were imported from China. Skilled and qualified workers were also brought in from China for the work. The workers spent years working and designing the site to what is now one of the most beautiful Chinese cultural centers in the whole of North America. On the wall of Honor is engraved the various names of the donors that supported the project, this has become a landmark and a prized part of the history of Arizona.
5% of the center was owned by the Szechwan Palace Restaurants until December 1998. Recently 668 LLC which is a subsidiary of Scottsdale-based True North companies is the majority owner of the center having bought 95% of the condo units in June 2017.