Community Feedback — Vestar should be forced to develop the property commercially.

Response —

• The trade area is confined to less than one mile to the South, hindered by the Gila River Indian Reservation, and nearly every major grocer, pharmacy, and fitness center has declined the opportunity to locate here.

• Smaller coffee shops, nail salons, fast casual restaurants and convenience stores have shown no interest in locating here, without commitment from an anchor tenant.

• It is time to convert this unused and unmarketable commercial property into a residential community.

• Vestar, the leading shopping center developer in the Phoenix MSA for over 40 years (www.vestar.com), purchased the land with the intent to develop a retail shopping center.

• Vestar has extensive relationships with the national and regional retailers, developing more shopping centers than anyone in the Valley.

• Vestar has built more shopping center space than any other developer in the Town of Gilbert, with nearly 2,000,000 square feet of retail, development delivered and millions more square feet developed in the nearby communities of Chandler and Queen Creek.

• In the past year, Vestar has completed construction on three new local shopping centers which included anchor tenants such as Sprouts, Target, Costco, Hobby Lobby, and Ashley furniture.

• Vestar is currently under construction on an additional 520,000 SF of retail, restaurants and entertainment in Buckeye which includes a Target, Safeway, Harkins, HomeGoods, Marshalls, Ross, and Ulta. 

Community Feedback — There is already enough housing in Gilbert.

Response —

• The proposed development will support the Town’s goal to broaden the mix of housing opportunities, especially the need to provide a diversity of housing types at prices that are suited to people with different lifestyles like seniors and single person households.

• The developer is seeking to bring what has been commonly referred to as “missing middle” housing to a great location in the Town of Gilbert, accessible to first-time and move-up homebuyers.

• The prevailing zoning district in this part of Gilbert, R1-6, has been firmly established at other communities in the area.

Community Feedback — You haven’t approached any anchor tenants to see if they are interested and commercial users are excited to come to this location. Vestar has never listed the property.

Response —

• Over the years, all potential anchor tenants have been approached regarding this location. The following tenants have declined to pursue a location at Cordillera Mercado:

  • Trader Joe’s

  • EOS Fitness

  • Amazon Fresh

  • Aldi 

  • Sprouts 

  • CVS 

  • Fry’s

  • Bashas

  • AJ’s Fine Foods

  • Walgreens

  • Natural Grocers

  • Walmart

  • Walmart Neighborhood Market

  • Target

  • Safeway

  • Albertsons

  • Whole Foods

• As recently as Spring of 2024, the following retailers were approached and declined the opportunity:

  • Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, Walmart Neighborhood Market, Target

• Approximately 200 smaller retailers were also contacted. A partial list includes:

  • Gracie Barra Fitness

  • The Counter

  • Hash Kitchen

  • F45

  • Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers

  • Orange Theory

  • Hi Skin

  • Eggstacy

  • Barre3

  • Black Rifle Coffee

  • Summit Coffee &. Brew House

  • Mellow Massage 

  • Tractor Supply Company

  • Herbal Nails

  • Human Bean Coffee

  • Gravity Coffee

  • Crisp & Green

  • Press Coffee

  • Pure Barre

  • RA Sushi

  • Core Power Yoga

  • Black Rock Coffee

  • Dave’s Hot Chicken

  • Dutch Bros 

  • Angela’s Seafood 

  • Alixandra Collection

• There are several reasons that these tenants passed on this area. A few of the reoccurring reasons included:

  • Needed 3-5 miles of 360-degree trade area. This is essential in commercial development. In this location, one mile to the south is reservation land that will never be developed, which does not allow for a 360 degree trade area.

  • Other locations within close proximity

  • Sales projections are too low to support a new store

• Without an anchor tenant, Vestar cannot get financing, and it is impossible to build a project of this size without an anchor.

• Below is a sample of the marketing materials prepared by Vestar to develop the property as retail:

Community Feedback — We don’t know who really owns the land.

Response —

• The land is currently held by BMFA, LLA which is an entity affiliated with Vestar.

• The land was purchased in April 2005.

·       

Community Feedback — If we don’t develop this land commercially and get the tax revenue, the Town of Gilbert will have a tax increase.

Response —

• Given the small size of the site, at 11.39 acres, and the opportunity for commercial development on the Southeast corner of Higley & Riggs, with a total of 20+ contiguous acres across three parcels, it is unlikely that the foregone revenue from the commercial development of this site will require a tax increase to offset.

• Further, under House Bill 2297 which took effect January 1st, 2025, the site may be converted to multifamily zoning by either the town or private developers without being re-zoned or otherwise constrained by local control, so long as 10% of the units are affordable to low-to-moderate income buyers.

Community Feedback — We have to travel 20 minutes to get to shops.

Response —

• There are 41.2 acres of commercial, retail and restaurant uses, including a large grocer, pharmacies, restaurants, shopping, doctors’ offices, etc. one mile immediately North at Higley and Chandler Heights on 3 commercial corners.

Community Feedback — This is a bait and switch. This was prearranged that this corner was always intended to be residential.

Response —

• This land was originally zoned residential in the late 90s and early 2000s, prior to a re-zoning to regional commercial for the larger, ~60-acre site in conjunction with Wal-Mart’s planned development of a super center there in 2004-2006.

• At the time, Wal-Mart (and others) had much more aggressive site selection criteria and so the lack of trade area to the south was not considered.

• When Wal-Mart declined to proceed with the super center, the landowner launched multiple efforts to market the property as retail without success, which would have been a far better outcome for them, before they explored returning the site to its residential zoning designation.

• Following re-zoning of the existing Cordillera community, the landowner approached nearly twenty anchor tenants—all of whom passed—and nearly 200 sub-anchor tenants that either passed or were unwilling to proceed without an anchor tenant.

• Only after that exhaustive effort was the property considered for residential re-development.

• If there is demand for commercial at the intersection, there is 20+ contiguous acres of vacant commercial land on the east side of Higley Rd.

Site Plan