Mesa's City Council is set to vote Monday on a proposal that would reshape 197 acres of southeast Mesa into the largest mixed-use development in the city's history: a $3 billion project called Legacy Park. The plan, pitched by Phoenix-based developer Vestar, calls for a luxury resort hotel, office towers, apartments, retail and a man-made lake on land that once served as a General Motors proving ground.
The council's vote, scheduled for Monday, covers a package of approvals that includes annexing the land into Mesa, zoning changes, a development agreement and a special taxing district, according to KTAR News 92.3 FM. Vestar and Mesa city staff first laid out the development proposal for council members during a study session on September 10. Ryan Ash, Vestar's senior vice president of asset management, told the council that the company plans to break ground on public infrastructure, amenities and traffic improvements in January 2028, start vertical construction in June 2028, and open the project's first phase in October 2029.
What's Actually Being Built
At full buildout, Legacy Park is planned to include 300,000 square feet of upscale retail and restaurants, 2,500 multifamily residential units, a 600-room luxury resort hotel, 3.4 million square feet of Class A office space, and a 20-plus-acre urban park anchored by that lake, according to a release carried by PR Newswire. The hotel component will be developed by The Athens Group, a Phoenix-based hospitality firm whose portfolio includes the Four Seasons Hualalai, Montage Laguna Beach and Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, as reported by Arizona Foothills Magazine.
Vestar is co-developing the project with Pacific Proving LLC, the landowning entity led by Andrew Cohn and Bill Levine that controls 1,805 acres in Mesa previously used as a General Motors testing ground, per Commercial Property Executive. Vestar designed the retail and dining core to benchmark against Scottsdale Quarter, the open-air lifestyle center in north Scottsdale where Vestar also serves as a strategic operating partner, according to the Queen Creek Chamber of Commerce.
Site Sits Across From Gateway Airport
Legacy Park would rise at the northeast corner of Ellsworth Road and Williams Field Road, directly across from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and near Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus and Arizona Athletic Grounds, according to AZBEX. The same outlet reports that Vestar has separately filed plans for Gateway Crossing, a 40-acre commercial project formerly known as Legacy Towne Center, located directly across Williams Field Road from the new development.
The megaproject lands amid a broader regional building boom. Metro Phoenix had 2.2 million square feet of retail space under active construction as of late 2025, ranking as the fourth-largest retail development pipeline in the country amid rapid population growth, according to CoStar News.
The Fiscal Case Mesa Officials Are Weighing
An independent economic impact analysis presented during the council's study session projected that Legacy Park will generate $58.8 billion in total economic impact, $1.4 billion in direct tax revenue for Mesa, and more than 13,500 jobs over a 30-year period, per meeting records posted on Open Publica. City officials cited the capture of lost sales tax revenue that Mesa residents currently spend in neighboring East Valley cities as a primary fiscal driver behind the proposal, particularly following Arizona's statewide elimination of municipal residential rental taxes, the meeting records show.
Mesa city leaders view the public-private partnership as a strategy to recapture sales tax dollars that residents currently spend in cities like Gilbert and Queen Creek, per the same account. While the city-commissioned analysis projects significant long-term returns and thousands of jobs, open questions remain around local utility impacts, including long-term water allocation, traffic infrastructure around Ellsworth Road and State Route 24, and the precise financial mechanics of the proposed taxing district.
Not to Be Confused With the Old Legacy Park
The name Legacy Park may ring a bell for Mesa residents for the wrong reason. It's shared with Mesa's former Legacy Park sports complex, originally known as Bell Bank Park, where two former executives were sentenced to prison in September 2025 for a $300 million municipal bond fraud scheme. That facility defaulted on its bonds in 2022 and was later sold in bankruptcy — a separate saga entirely from Vestar's new mixed-use proposal.
Vestar's push into southeast Mesa follows a string of large East Valley retail projects the company has pursued in recent months, including a mall proposal near TSMC in north Phoenix and the completed Vineyard Towne Center in Queen Creek. Mesa's own SR-24 corridor has also been ramping up with new commercial development, adding further momentum to the region's building spree ahead of Monday's council vote.
