Visionary project slow to materialize

Aug. 15—In 2019, the Mesa City Council approved plans for Gallery Park, a 58-acre mixed-use development with retail, restaurants, hotels, offices and apartments built close together at the southeast corner of Power Road and the Loop 202 Santan.

Developer VIVO Partners' announcement of the project made headlines in 2018 because the vision was something new in this rapidly growing section of Mesa, just north of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

Rather than a conventional shopping center with a few anchors surrounded by drive-thrus, Gallery Park called for a half-million square feet of upscale shopping and entertainment mixed with apartments and hotels — all built close together to create a walkable, urban-style destination.

It would be a "morning to night" destination where locals could go to work and also "have a night on the town," a Gallery Park brochure boasts.

Encouragingly, the developer, Phoenix-based VIVO Development partners, hired Nelson Partners Architects, a firm that previously worked on projects like Kierland Commons and Scottsdale Quarter.

It promised to debut in 2020, but four years later, the project is less than a quarter complete, with just a handful of retail shops on a 10-acre strip along Power Road.

VIVO partner Jose Pombo said in a statement to the Tribune that the company is making headway on Gallery Park, and the development will eventually build out according to the original plan.

Pombo didn't provide a timeline for when some of the most exciting components of the mixed-use development would go vertical, but he outlined movements happening behind-the-scenes.

Last year, Texas-based developer Trammel Crow Residential paid $24 million for 8 acres of Gallery Park approved for multifamily residential.

The residential section, on Ray Road, is planned to have 305 units spread between two four-story apartment buildings.

Following the sale, Trammel Crow requested and received a minor site plan modification from the city, but there hasn't been further progress.

Pombo said the start date of the apartments will be determined by Trammel Crow's "ability to structure favorable financing."

Pombo also said VIVO is currently "wrapping up" construction documents for a dual-brand Hilton hotel. Dual branding is a newer trend in which two separate hotels share the same property.

Following the groundbreaking for the hotels, Pombo said VIVO will turn its attention to the centerpiece of the shopping center, a walkable central plaza surrounded by boutiques, restaurants and theater called "GP Main Street."

GP Main Street features prominently in the marketing for Gallery Park.

"Will Gallery Park actually still look like this?" someone wrote recently on Gallery Park's Facebook page beneath a 5-year-old artist's rendering of a vibrant central plaza.

"Just seems like fast food and hotels."

The "hotels" probably referred to the Courtyard Marriott across the street from Gallery Park.

VIVO said the rendering will happen, but didn't say when.

The shops that have opened in the past year in Gallery Park, including most recently brunch concept Eggstacy, are adding welcome life to the east side of this prominent intersection.

Around lunchtime on a recent Friday, the first Mesa location of the Scottsdale-born Eggstacy was humming with customers and employees.

True to the proposed artistic theme of Gallery Park, the Eggstacy building has a creative flair, thanks to geometric murals by Phoenix artist Kyllan Maney painted on the side.

Gallery Park's Power Road frontage has also welcomed in the past year Black Rifle Coffee, Panera Bread and Habit Burger Grill.

Spencer's TV & Appliances, opened in 2020 on the corner of Ray and Power roads, was for a long time the only building in Gallery Park.

Pombo said a MOD Pizza is expected to open in the fall next to Eggstacy and an In 'N' Out Burger as well as a Mountain America Credit Union branch are in the pipeline.

Eggstacy's quick start came to the attention of District 6 Councilman Scott Somers, an advocate for bringing in higher quality commercial gathering spaces to Mesa as opposed to the tendency for rows of drive thrus along commercial frontages.

He said it "shows the pent-up demand for this type of dining option."

Somers has particularly advocated for "vertical mixed-use," a term mentioned a dozen times in Gallery Park's 2019 project narrative submitted to the city.

The free-standing retail buildings that have gone in at Gallery Park are attractive, constructed according to the high design standards set for the Planned Area Development in 2019.

But with the Power Road retail shops alone, Gallery Park will look similar to other commercial developments in the area.