Axon no longer working with the city of Scottsdale on its HQ project

PHOENIX — Axon will no longer consult the Scottsdale City Council when planning its massive project to erect a headquarters with a housing development in the city.

Axon President Josh Isner announced the cut ties Monday following a meeting with city officials.

“The internal politics of the City Council currently make it impossible to reach an agreement,” Isner said in a statement. “I have never seen such a toxic environment in my life. We put a great deal on the table and we tried our best.”

While his project to use a 70-acre parcel near Hayden Road and the Loop 101 Pima Freeway for a new HQ as well as hundreds of residential units is moving forward, company leaders will no longer include the City Council in their planning.

“We think this is a 1,200- to 1,300-unit need in terms of apartments for our employees to make this project work moving forward on the campus,” Isner said.

What led up to falling out between Axon, Scottsdale City Council?

Previously, a zoning change to let the company include a large apartment development on the land it bought for a new headquarters faced a voter referendum next year.

Then state lawmakers blocked voter referendums on certain zoning changes, including the type in the Axon plans, by passing Senate Bill 1543, which Gov. Katie Hobbs signed into law on April 18.

However, Scottsdale officials allocated $100,000 to potentially challenge the law on May 8.

“We were willing to enter into negotiations to see if we could end up in a place with the city where we could move forward with a productive partnership,” Isner told KTAR News 92.3 FM  on Monday.

In fact, as a show of good faith, Isner said he was willing to compromise and shrink the project to please the city, which initially included nearly 2,000 residential units.

“Even though the statute allows us to build about 1,900 apartments, we were willing to reduce that number by 1,000,” Isner said.

Thank you Mayor Borowsky and appreciate your engagement and support of Axon. https://t.co/d2Z7HLJusZ

— JoshIsner (@JoshIsner) June 9, 2025

No dice, he figured after a Monday meeting with Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky, who Isner said was obstructed by three councilmembers he accused of trying “to grab power and obstruct everything.”

“In that meeting, we kind of jointly concluded that that is just not the right climate to get a deal done,” Isner said.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Balin Overstolz McNair contributed to this report.

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