Mesa City Council approves agreement for historic mixed-use project near Gateway Airport

A $3 billion mixed-use development, the largest in Mesa’s history, got the green light from leaders in the East Valley suburb on Monday.

The Mesa City Council unanimously approved a development agreement with real estate firm Vestar and took other actions related to the project east of Mesa Gateway Airport known as Legacy Park and Gateway Crossing.

The City Council in Arizona’s third-largest city by population also passed annexation and zoning ordinances, created a theme park district and entered into a retail development tax incentive agreement.

Legacy Park and Gateway Crossing will be built on about 200 acres east of Ellsworth Road between State Route 24 and Williams Field Road, just north of the Arizona Athletics Grounds.

City Manager Scott Butler said that while the project is located in the Eastmark community in southeast Mesa, it will benefit all of the city’s residents through the taxes it generates.

“It will have ramifications across every square mile of Mesa, as that additional revenue will go back to fund essential services, parks, all of the things that we look at through our general fund and secondary property tax,” Butler said during Monday’s City Council meeting.

Developer calls Legacy Park and Gateway Crossing ‘a generational project’ for Mesa

The plans include hotels, a public lake and park, retail shops, restaurants, office space and multifamily housing.

At full build-out, the development is projected to create nearly $60 billion in total economic output and more than 13,000 jobs over 30 years, according to city officials.

“Rarely does an opportunity arise to develop a generational project that can really define a community’s identity, and that opportunity is what we have with Legacy Park. … It’s the right location, it’s the right time, and we’ve got the right project to accomplish this,” David Larcher, Vestar president and CEO, said during Monday’s meeting.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2028, with the first phase opening in October 2029, according to the Phoenix Business Journal.

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