Yes, a Circle K with a fuel station is coming to the northwest corner of Elliot Road and Signal Butte Road in east Mesa. The address is 10744 E Elliot Rd. A building permit has been issued, so construction authorization is in hand. The store is one of five retail pads in a larger strip that is part of the Elliot Tech Center development.
If you drive Elliot Road to work, this corner is about to change
The stretch of Elliot Road between Signal Butte and Ellsworth is lined with giant employment campuses but almost no places to grab fuel or a coffee without leaving the corridor. That gap is what this project fills. Apple, Meta, and Google all have major facilities along or near this road. So do Amazon, Boeing, and more than a dozen other employers. Thousands of workers commute through this intersection every day.
Once the Circle K opens, you will not have to detour to find gas. The five-pad retail strip around it will add a pizza restaurant, a coffee bar, a nail salon, a drink shop, and a dental office — all at a corner that today has none of those things. For residents of Eastmark and the broader 85212 ZIP code, another activated retail pad also signals that the corridor is maturing. Another retail anchor here tends to reinforce home values and reduce the “unfinished feel” that newer master-planned communities can carry for years.
Construction will create some short-term disruption at an already busy intersection. No public opposition or community conflict was found in the available records.
What’s being built: Circle K as Pad 3 in a five-pad retail strip
The Circle K sits on approximately 1.3 acres at 10744 E Elliot Rd, on the northwest corner of Elliot Road and Signal Butte Road. The building is approximately 5,220 sq ft and includes a fuel station. On the site plan it is labeled Pad 3, or P3.
The other four pads at the strip are leased to Oregano’s Pizza Bistro, Black Rock Coffee Bar, She Nail Bar, SWIG, and Pacific Dental. If you have been following the Oregano’s at Signal Butte story, this is the same project. The leasing brochure published by Phoenix Commercial Advisors listed a Q2/Q3 2025 estimated opening for the retail section. That timeline was set before the building permit was issued, so the actual opening date is not yet confirmed.
Note: a separate Circle K already operates at 1153 S Signal Butte Rd. That is a different location. The new store at 10744 E Elliot Rd is not open yet.
Permit issued: where the project stands right now
The project carries three active case numbers. Design Review case DRB23-00433 covers the landscaping and architectural review. Administrative case ADM23-00437 is the companion filing. Building permit PMT25-16712 has advanced to “Permit Issued” status, which means the city has authorized construction to proceed.
At the Mesa Design Review Board’s March 11, 2025 meeting, Mesa Staff Planner Charlotte Bridges noted that the Circle K’s perimeter landscaping is adjacent to both Elliot and Signal Butte roads. That review was one of the final steps before the permit was granted.
Two years in the making: the design review timeline
The design review file tells a long story. Case DRB23-00433 was submitted on May 30, 2023. As of May 15, 2025, it still carried a “Revision Required” task status. That is nearly two full years of back-and-forth between the applicant and Mesa’s design review staff over landscaping and architectural compliance.
That kind of timeline is not unusual for a high-visibility corridor pad with specific city design standards. But it does explain why a site that was being actively marketed in leasing brochures for a 2025 opening only recently cleared its permit hurdle. No community hearings or public protests were recorded during that period. The friction was procedural, not political.
Inside Elliot Tech Center: Thompson Thrift’s master plan
The Circle K pad is part of Elliot Tech Center, developed by Thompson Thrift. Thompson Thrift Retail Group acquired the initial 25.5-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Signal Butte and Elliot in December 2021. Phase I called for three industrial buildings and five retail pads.
At full build-out, Elliot Tech Center is planned to cover 75 acres and deliver approximately 1 million square feet of industrial and retail space across eight buildings. That scale puts the Circle K in context: it is one retail pad in a much larger campus that has been years in the making.
For more on how the corridor is growing, see our coverage of the Gateway Airport development boom and the Signal Butte Road annexation that is reshaping the same part of east Mesa.
Why this corner: Apple, Meta, Google, and the tech corridor
Mesa’s Elliot Road Technology Corridor is one of the most active high-tech zones in Arizona. Apple has a $2 billion global command center directly north of this site. Meta operates a hyperscale five-building data center campus covering 396 acres nearby. Google has a $600 million data center facility along the corridor as well.
Other employers along the corridor include Amazon, Boeing, Niagara Bottling, EdgeCore, Esurance, and Bridgestone. The corridor has direct freeway access to SR 24 and Loop 202, and sits northeast of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. That combination of major employers, freeway access, and fast-growing residential neighborhoods — including Eastmark — is exactly the demand profile that drives retail pads like this one.
Circle K is a subsidiary of Canadian multinational Alimentation Couche-Tard. Its U.S. headquarters is in Tempe. The brand operates more than 15,000 locations worldwide.
For more on data center growth and its effects on Valley neighborhoods, see our piece on the Arizona data center backlash. And if you are watching Eastmark specifically, the Eastmark Aquatic Complex vote is another milestone for that community.
When construction could wrap and what comes next
The building permit is issued. That is the clearest milestone in the file. From permit issuance, a typical convenience store build in the Phoenix Valley takes several months, though no contractor start date or completion date appears in the available city records.
The Q2/Q3 2025 estimate from the Phoenix Commercial Advisors leasing brochure was set before the permit cleared. Whether that window still holds depends on when construction starts and how the schedule runs. Until the store opens, the closest Circle K remains at 1153 S Signal Butte Rd — a different address, already operating.
If you are tracking the broader build-out at Elliot Tech Center, the 75-acre, 1-million-square-foot project is still in progress. More retail and industrial activity along this corridor is expected as Phase II — an additional 48-acre acquisition — moves forward.
