After purchasing the 3,200 acre, General Motors Proving Grounds site in east Mesa, DMB & Associates, developer of several high-profile projects in Arizona, last week introduced its development team and proposed uses for the key site.
The site is located directly east of the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. DMB has teamed up with some major names such as Westcor, who will be handling the retail portion of the project. They have also brought on Tom Fazio’s Florida based company to design a golf course and Gaylord Entertainment will handle the large-scale resort. Details on acreage for each use, number of hotel rooms, number of homes, and retail square footage are unknown for now, as General Motors still plans to occupy the site until summer of 2009. DMB plans to start construction soon after GM leaves to site.
As the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport has grown popularity from several aerospace and aviation companies who have invested and plan to invest in the airport, economic and development forecasters vision this area to be a major business hub in the foreseeable future. Some even claim the immediate region will turn into an aerotropolis, where the airport is at the center core of the city and everything surrounding it is very densely planned. With the major investments going into the airport, coupled by the potential growth of ASU Polytechnic Campus, DMB realized this piece of land was a great opportunity. Now that a well-known, prolific developer has announced big plans for that area, others will soon follow, and according to many planners at the city of Mesa, we could potentially see high-rises surrounding the airport in the next decade or so.
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