A nearly complete three-story building near Glendale's Westgate entertainment district has sat empty since it was constructed in 2008, a casualty of the housing crash that froze the project before it ever opened. Now its owner says the roughly 7.5-acre site, known as Capistrano, could be reborn as a 400-unit senior housing development, complete with assisted living, memory care and age-restricted active-adult homes.
The site sits south of Desert Diamond Casino West Valley near 91st Avenue and Zanjero Boulevard, according to The Modesto Bee. It's also close to the Vai Resort, which is currently under construction, as well as the Westgate Entertainment District and Tanger Outlets. Shaun Kanaka, principal at Nirvana Homes, bought the site for $10 million in 2021 and says he saw possibilities where others saw a dead project.
A Half-Finished Building Waiting Two Decades
Construction on the original building began before the 2008 housing crash, but it has stood unused ever since, per the same account. Kanaka's development team has described the property as underutilized for almost 20 years. His plan now is to finish that existing structure and add new buildings around the perimeter of the parcel.
The existing building, Kanaka said, will be used for assisted living and memory care, while the new perimeter buildings could become an age-restricted, active-adult project. He called the existing structure ideally suited for senior living and said the location is probably the best spot in the West Valley for it, adding that the area may still lack enough supply to meet demand for 400 units of senior housing.
Weighing Whether to Build, Partner or Sell
Kanaka says senior housing operators have already shown interest in the site. He's weighing three paths forward: developing the project himself, partnering with an established senior-housing developer, or selling the site outright to another operator. He expects permits to be ready within six months and anticipates construction on both the conversion and the new buildings could begin in the first half of 2027.
Kanaka isn't a stranger to juggling multiple Valley projects at once. He also has a townhome development near Chandler Fashion Center underway and is in the process of rezoning land for apartments in Buckeye, according to the same report.
How Capistrano Compares to Other Arizona Senior Communities
If it moves forward, Capistrano would join a growing list of senior-focused developments across the Phoenix metro. In Chandler, Cadence Living broke ground on a $46 million senior-living community called Cadence at Ocotillo, a 191-unit project on 7.7 acres offering independent living, assisted living and memory care, according to the Arizona Commerce Authority. At the time, Cadence Living said it had invested more than $200 million into Arizona senior communities, with another $100 million projected for future projects, and the company already managed three other Arizona communities, including ones tied to Glendale, Mesa and Scottsdale.
On the far larger end of the spectrum sits PebbleCreek in Goodyear, a luxury 55-plus active-adult community that bills itself among Robson Resort Communities' offerings. The community includes 36 pickleball courts, seven tennis courts and 12 bocce courts at its Eagle's Nest Country Club, plus a 332-seat Renaissance Theater, according to Robson Resort Communities. Capistrano's scale and amenities remain far less defined at this early stage, but the comparisons underscore just how much appetite Arizona developers see in the 55-and-older housing market.
For now, Capistrano remains a proposal rather than a done deal. No financing, operator, rents or unit mix have been finalized, and Kanaka's six-month permitting timeline is an expectation rather than a confirmed schedule. Still, after nearly two decades of sitting empty near one of Glendale's busiest entertainment corridors, the building finishing out its skeleton with actual residents would mark a notable turn for a site that outlasted one economic collapse only to wait out a very long recovery.
