Mammoth plan near Gateway Airport advances

May 2—The Mesa Planning and Zoning Board has approved a Planned Area Development (PAD) and special use permits for a 273-acre mixed-use development in the southeast corner of the Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport known as Gateway East.

The airport's master plan designated the large parcel of vacant land for non-aeronautical development.

Its proximity to the Eastmark and Cadence master-planned communities to the east as well as the 320-acre Legacy Park (formerly Bell Bank Park), could make its development significant for southeast Mesa and the nearby communities of Queen Creek and Gilbert.

For one, Gateway East provides another potential site for entertainment, dining and hospitality, something residents in the area have said is currently in short supply.

In a public comment read into the record before the planning board unanimously approved the PAD and permit requests, a resident of Queen Creek expressed hope that Gateway East would deliver high-quality commercial.

"We're really excited to be getting this development nearby. We have needed more hotel, restaurant and shopping options for a long time," the commenter wrote.

"Hopefully, there is a higher-end hotel in the mix. The hotels around here are not the best. We don't need a Four Seasons, but a Westin-level hotel would be nice."

In June, the airport's board of directors approved a 40-year agreement with the Boyer Company of Salt Lake City to serve as master developer for Gateway East.

The deal envisions a mixed-use commercial area developed in three phases at Gateway East, but the airport authority is giving Boyer freedom to hammer out the details of development.

Boyer describes itself on its website as one of the nation's largest developers in the nation and a full-service development company and manager of office, retail, industrial, medical, government, and other specialty property types, including schools and residential communities.

It has developed over 43 million square feet of commercial space since 1972 and has over $700 million of additional development in progress.

By the terms of Gateway East deal, Boyer will pay the airport 55 cents per square foot for developed lots in addition to a 10% revenue share.

The FAA allows federally funded airports to create non-aviation facilities to develop revenue streams to support the aeronautical function of the airport, which is the purpose of Gateway East, as well as to support regional economic development.

The PAD approved by P&Z last week grants Boyer a lot of flexibility in the design standards for Gateway East, which could be useful for the company in marketing the development to a wide range of users.

The deviations from the current light industrial zoning include raising the maximum allowed building height from 40 feet to 165 feet in the upper half of the parcel, and 90 feet in the bottom half which sits closer to the runway.

The council use permit approved by the planning board allows hotels and large commercial developments in Gateway East; the special use permit allows service stations and heliports.

Wendy Riddell, an attorney for Boyer, told board members that the company did not have any prospective heliport users currently.

"We simply wanted to provide that opportunity because we know there are employers out there that have those types of uses," she said.

P&Z Chairman Jeff Crockett said that even though the airport had signed off the plans, the maximum heights made him "nervous," and he asked what type of development the maximum heights were intended to accommodate.

"The thought was ... to create the best possible opportunity for hotels, for employers to come in," Riddell said. "We're hoping that height is attractive to those types of uses."

Riddell assured board members that the airport and FAA would have the final say over all designs.

The plans for Gateway East don't include a lot of details at this point beyond phasing, and a proposed road network with sidewalks, green spaces and a "potential future multi-use path" along the eastern edge of the development.

In a presentation to the PMGA board of directors, Boyer imagined 26 acres of retail, 17 acres of hospitality and the rest office and industrial uses.

In addition to the PAD and permits, Mesa planning department staff told the board that the city is working on a development agreement for Gateway East with Boyer.

The agreement would likely include restrictions on certain types of uses for the land.

Staff said the DA would be going before Mesa City Council in May, along with the PAD and permits.

Riddell told the planning and zoning board that Boyer has fielded interest in Gateway East, from "what we think would be very good employers."

One project for Gateway East has already had a pre-submittal meeting with city staff, and Riddell expected another one "very shortly."

The first project proposed for Gateway East bodes well for the development.

Montreal-based XNRGY Climate Systems proposed to build a $145 million, 250,000-square-foot manufacturing facility with office space for producing high-tech HVAC systems.

XNRGY produces specialized climate control systems for data centers, labs and producers of semiconductors and batteries, among other industries.

In June, the company submitted a proposal to put the facility at the southwest corner of Elliot and Signal Butte Roads, south of the Apple data center, but in February it resubmitted the plan for Gateway East.