Vestar and Pacific Proving are asking Mesa to rezone 196.3 acres at the northeast corner of South Ellsworth Road and East Williams Field Road. The project is called Legacy Park. If approved, it would bring upscale retail, thousands of apartments, a resort hotel, and a lakeside park to southeast Mesa — a corner of the Valley that has had little of that for decades.
If you live in southeast Mesa, Gilbert, or Queen Creek, here is what changes
Right now, driving to Scottsdale Quarter or Old Town is the price you pay for upscale dining and destination shopping. Legacy Park is designed to change that. At full build-out, it would put a 20-acre lakeside park, 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, and a luxury resort hotel within a short drive of the SR-24 and Williams Field Road interchange.
More than 20,000 jobs are projected over the life of the project. That matters to anyone with ties to ASU Polytechnic, Gateway Airport, or Arizona Athletic Grounds. All three are within view of the site.
The tradeoffs are real. Phase 1 delivery is targeted for 2029 at the earliest. Full build-out could take two decades. Construction traffic on Ellsworth and Williams Field roads will be a fact of life throughout. Home values near the site could rise as amenities arrive. But properties closest to active construction may feel pressure in the opposite direction first. Traffic impact and utility reports are already live issues in the city’s review.
One more thing: this land has been sitting vacant for roughly 20 years. That history raises a fair question — will this one actually happen?
What is Legacy Park and who is building it
Legacy Park is a planned mixed-use community on 196.3 acres at the northeast corner of South Ellsworth Road and East Williams Field Road in Mesa. Vestar is a Phoenix-based retail real estate developer. Pacific Proving LLC is the longtime owner of the land. They are co-developing the project together.
At full build-out, the project would include 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 2,500 multifamily residences, a 600-room resort hotel, and 3.4 million square feet of office space. There would also be a 20-acre urban park with a man-made lake. Total space: 9.4 million square feet. Total project value: more than $2 billion.
The design team is ABLA Studio, MVE+ Partners, and Hart Howerton. No general contractor has been announced.
Andrew Cohn is the principal of Pacific Proving. David Larcher is the president and CEO of Vestar. Plans were unveiled publicly on August 27, 2025. A formal press release followed on September 15, 2025.
The Legacy Park site sits in a southeast Mesa corridor bordered by Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport (left), Arizona Athletic Grounds (center), and suburban residential development — with roughly 196 acres of undeveloped desert at the corner of Ellsworth and Williams Field roads. (Esri World Imagery)
From GM proving grounds to urban oasis: why this land sat vacant for 20 years
The 196.3-acre Legacy Park parcel is part of a much larger former General Motors Desert Proving Grounds. Pacific Proving LLC purchased the full 1,805-acre GM site in 2004. The Legacy Park acreage is one portion of that holding.
The land sat undeveloped ever since. Pacific Proving previously pursued industrial and data center rezoning on adjacent parcels. That history matters. The shift to a mixed-use planned community is a significant change in direction for the land’s owner.
Mesa Vice Mayor Scott Somers represents District 6, which covers the Legacy Park site. He has publicly warned that the area already has more than its fair share of data centers. That political backdrop helps explain why a mixed-use rezone is being welcomed at City Hall. It also helps explain why case ZON25-00891 carries a staff recommendation of approval with conditions.
For more on the broader data center tension in this corridor, see our Arizona data center backlash coverage.
The August 26 rezone hearing: what the board will decide and what follows
The Mesa Planning and Zoning Board has a public hearing on Legacy Park scheduled for August 26, 2026. The case number is ZON25-00891. City planner Mallory Ress is the staff planner of record.
The formal request is to rezone the 196.3-acre site from Light Industrial to Planned Community District. City staff recommends approval with conditions. The Planning and Zoning Board’s role is to review the case and make a recommendation. The final decision rests with the Mesa City Council.
No board vote has been recorded. This article will be updated when the board acts and when a City Council date is set.
The 196.3-acre Legacy Park site sits at the northeast corner of S Ellsworth Rd and E Williams Field Rd in Mesa, Arizona 85212. (Esri World Imagery)
Phase 1 details: the $1-billion first step and the 2029 delivery target
Phase 1 is estimated to cost more than $1 billion. It would include a 300,000-square-foot shopping complex with upscale retailers and restaurants. It would also include roughly 700 residential units built above the retail.
Groundbreaking is targeted for 2027. But the delivery target for Phase 1 is 2029. That distinction matters. Vestar VP of Development Ryan Ash said in a September 2025 CoStar interview: “So we will deliver phase one in 2029.” He added that later phases — including corporate campuses, more housing, and a boutique hotel — will be driven by economic conditions and demand.
The site’s location helps explain the confidence. It sits next to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Arizona Athletic Grounds, and ASU’s Polytechnic Campus. All are accessible via State Route 24 at Williams Field Road.
The resort hotel: who The Athens Group is and what is planned
The 600-room resort hotel at Legacy Park will be curated by The Athens Group. The firm was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Phoenix. It has developed Four Seasons Hualalai in Hawaii, Montage Laguna Beach, Montage Beverly Hills, Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch, and Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay.
Current Athens Group projects include Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Costa Rica, and the Naples Beach Club — a 125-acre Four Seasons Resort on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. That track record is what “curated by The Athens Group” actually means. This is not a flag-and-franchise hotel deal. It is a developer with a specific luxury pedigree.
For comparison, a similar hospitality-anchored mixed-use effort is underway at the Novus Corridor near ASU in Tempe.
Gateway Crossing: Vestar’s second project directly across Williams Field Road
Vestar is also developing a separate project on 40 acres directly south of Legacy Park, across Williams Field Road. Originally called Legacy Towne Center, it is now named Gateway Crossing.
Gateway Crossing is planned as a single-phase project. Its program includes a 166,000-square-foot anchor tenant with a service station. It also includes 25,000 square feet of additional retail and restaurant space in two buildings, four drive-through locations along Williams Field Road, and two hotels aimed at visitors to Arizona Athletic Grounds and Mesa Gateway Airport.
The two projects share a developer but are separate in scope, phasing, and planning track. Together, they would significantly reshape the Williams Field Road corridor.
Scott Somers, the ASU Innovation Zone, and the dual-project vision for District 6
Mesa Vice Mayor Scott Somers has publicly called Legacy Park a top priority for the city. He has described it as one of two transformational projects in District 6. The other is the 300-acre ASU Polytechnic Innovation Zone.
That zone covers 300 acres of developable land on the south side of the ASU Polytechnic Campus. It sits adjacent to Gateway Airport and focuses on aviation, alternate energy, health solutions, and advanced manufacturing. In December 2025, Somers spoke to the Mesa Economic Development Advisory Board. He named ASU Polytechnic as a critical partner in the same presentation where he addressed Legacy Park.
The two projects are not formally linked. But city leadership is treating them as a paired vision for the Gateway area.
How Legacy Park compares to Scottsdale Quarter — and what it would mean for the East Valley
Commercial Property Executive reported that Legacy Park’s size and design will be comparable to Scottsdale Quarter, where Vestar is already a partner. Scottsdale Quarter is a walkable, open-air mixed-use district in north Scottsdale with retail, restaurants, office space, and residential. Legacy Park is being positioned as that kind of destination — but in the East Valley, where nothing quite like it currently exists.
Vestar projects roughly $56 billion in economic output and more than 20,000 jobs over the 20-year build-out period. Those are the developer’s own numbers. Independent analysis has not been published.
The August 26 board hearing, and what follows it
The next formal milestone is the Planning and Zoning Board public hearing on August 26, 2026. Case ZON25-00891 is on the agenda. The board will hear the case and make a recommendation to the City Council. If the board recommends approval, the Council would then schedule its own vote.
If the rezone is approved, the development timeline targets a 2027 groundbreaking and a 2029 Phase 1 delivery. Full build-out is expected to span roughly two decades.
The hearing is open to the public. No date for a City Council vote has been announced. We will update this page when the board acts.
