Nancy Newton chats it up with Ace the myna bird at Black Bird Shopping Center in Medford. 

Owners of Black Bird Shopping Center plan to submit design plans for their new Phoenix location by April, and they expect to break ground on the 22,000-square-foot store by early summer, with opening day set for the first quarter of 2024.

As they finalize details for the new store — the company’s first expansion since the eclectic retailer opened on West Main Street in 1965 — they’re training a pair of new employees — Ace and Betty — myna birds from Florida “hired” to staff each of the two locations.

The new hires are currently hanging out at the Medford store, learning to mimic staff and customers, chattering about “low prices” and offering up a list of fun phrases and sounds.

It’s been a half-dozen years since the store had its trademark live “black bird” perched adjacent to the sporting goods department inside, said Black Bird Vice President Jonathan Quitt. Black Bird founder Lee Hobbs introduced mynas to the store culture in the 1960s, but sourcing the colorful starlings in recent years has proven difficult.

An industrious fellow, Hobbs built the 29-foot roadside statue himself in tribute to a unit he was part of during his Army days. A one-time fabricator for Boeing, Hobbs had previously built smaller-scale crows for a post-World War 2 chain of stores called Yard Birds.

The live birds inside, the mynas, were a fun way to carry the theme inside the store, Quitt said.

“When they first started having the birds in the store, Lee brought them back from Mexico. He’d go down there, and these things were in the trees, so he’d just grab one and bring it back. You obviously can’t do that anymore,” Quitt said with a laugh.

“They’re not easy to find. We found a breeder in Florida and managed to get two chicks this last year.”

Because of the bird shortage, the store “made do” with a couple of African grey parrots — Joe and Shaney — for the past several years.

A type of starling, myna birds at the store have always been the Hill variety. Bird mascots over the years have included Charlie, J-bird, Poncho, Jose and Billy.

“The last myna bird we had died seven or eight years ago now. We had the parrots, but we really wanted to get back to the mynas, because they match the statue a little better than the parrots,” Quitt explained. “When we had the parrots, the joke was that Billy was on vacation and that Joe the parrot was a washed-out myna bird.”

Betty and Ace are about a year old, and the store owners are still juggling relationship issues with the birds.

“It was always our plan to have one for each store. We had them separated, and then we were thinking just out of compassion and wanting them not to feel lonely for another bird, we brought them down together on the floor,” he said. “We’re a little concerned that, because one is male and the other is female, maybe keeping them separate is causing them more problems.

“We’ve been trying to introduce them to each other a little more often. We’re just worried Ace is a little more aggressive, and we don’t want Betty to get hurt. We also don’t want Ace stressed out trying to get to her.”

If the birds decide to be bonded pals, Quitt said, the store will find a third bird, and keep it away from the other two.

One way or another, a bird is in the plans for the Phoenix store.

Announced last spring, the new store will be located on just under 2 acres in front of Blue Heron Park adjacent to Phoenix Self Storage.

Quitt said half of the new store will include products offered via Ace Hardware, with the remainder being clothing, shoes and automotive and RV parts as

well as the usual lineup of fishing and hunting products.

Plans also call for a DIY dog wash station and a 1,000-square-foot taproom. Offering of rental equipment — the original store rents everything from snow skis to kayaks and paddleboard — have not yet been decided.

“We’re really excited, and our plans are just to make it an all-around fun place to come, just like our Medford store. We’re gonna see if we can do some food trucks out in the parking lot and some other fun stuff,” Quitt said.

Rather than having a black bird statue outside, the new store will likely feature one indoors.

Quitt said the indoor version of the popular Medford landmark will circumvent maintenance headaches and issues with vandalism.

He’s hopeful that large windows on the front of the store will make the statue visible from the street. Either way, the new digs will come with a giant bird statue and at least one bird that will mimic employees and customers.

“The statue is the first thing people think about, and then the live bird,” said Quitt. “We’ll definitely have both.”