Vestar wins unanimous Mesa approval for $3 billion Legacy Park and Gateway Crossing

Mesa's city council voted unanimously to approve Legacy Park and Gateway Crossing, clearing annexation and zoning for Vestar's planned $3 billion retail, dining, hospitality and entertainment development on 233 acres east of Ellsworth Road between State Route 24 and Williams Field Road, and creating a theme park district to enable construction. The Real Deal reported the vote, crediting AZ Big Media. The site sits near the Arizona Athletic Grounds, Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus and Mesa Gateway Airport.

The program splits across two pieces. Legacy Park carries 400,000 square feet of restaurant, retail and fitness space, a 600-room luxury resort, 3.8 million square feet of offices, 2,261 apartments, a 150-key hotel and a 20-acre park. Gateway Crossing brings a Sam's Club and smaller retail spaces, plus two 95-key hotels, with a pedestrian tunnel planned to connect the development to the Arizona Athletic Grounds. Landowner Pacific Proving LLC is party to the project alongside Vestar. The coverage names no office tenants, resort operator or retail tenants beyond Sam's Club.

An Applied Economics analysis cited in the report projects $58.8 billion in economic activity, upward of 13,500 jobs and $1.4 billion in city tax revenue across 30 years. Mayor Mark Freeman, who called it a "generational project," said the investment can shape Mesa's economy for decades to come. Local officials describe it as the biggest private investment in Mesa's history, a ranking the coverage attributes to them rather than to an outside scorecard.

The approval is three acts: annexation, zoning and the creation of a theme park district, the last of which the coverage ties to enabling construction. Under the development agreement, the developers must fund public infrastructure and meet certain requirements before collecting reimbursements, and those reimbursements come from tax revenue the development generates over time. Mesa's contribution, then, is a district and a repayment formula rather than an up-front check, which suggests the private side carries the front end of the build until the project produces the revenue that pays it back. The coverage identifies no lenders, equity partners or construction facility behind the retail, office and hotel components, and it does not say how the $3 billion gets raised.

Construction is expected to start in early 2028, with the first phase projected to open in October 2029. The approval settles what can be built on the 233 acres and how the tax revenue it generates can be routed back to the builders. It does not say who funds the work between now and the groundbreaking.