Vestar JV to Develop $130M Phoenix Retail Center

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Vestar has announced the intention to develop Laveen Towne Center, a 375,000-square-foot retail-oriented project in Laveen, Ariz., that would also include the repurposing of a historic farm property.

According to The Phoenix Business Journal, the developer is working alongside BRIO Investment Group on the $130 million project. Groundbreaking is expected in the summer of 2024, with opening slated for the fall of 2025.

Laveen Towne Center is only one of the numerous high-profile projects that were recently planned in the Valley of the Sun, involving both existing space redevelopments and new ground-up construction. In November, a $510 million mixed-use master-planned development moved forward in Peoria; that same month, the Phoenix City Council gave the green light for the full reconstruction of the iconic Metrocenter Mall.

Honoring the Hudson

Laveen Towne Center is being planned on 40 acres at 59th Avenue and Dobbins Road, around the site of the historic Hudson Farmhouse, built in 1926. The development site is part of a 90-acre lot that BRIO acquired in 2020.

Upon completion, the retail center would comprise a shopping center with a high-profile anchor tenant alongside several smaller retail sites and vacant development pads, as well as entertainment and community gathering spaces. The restored farmhouse offers the potential conversion into a restaurant or winery. The development is expected to create hundreds of jobs and generate more than $35 million in gross sales tax revenue.

The City of Phoenix is also considering the reimbursement of up to $25 million for the project’s improvements to the area’s public infrastructure, paid through funds acquired from transaction privilege taxes and development impact fees. The developer will be repaid for upgrades such as building out the roads along which the project will be constructed, as well as the preservation and restoration of the Hudson Farmstead house. The city’s approvals of the project’s more minute specifications, such as zoning and infrastructure, are expected to take place in the summer of 2023.

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Laveen Towne Center marks BRIO’s first development on the site, on which the firm is planning a full build-out. Future phases could also include residential units and commercial space.

Situated to the east of the South Mountain Freeway, the project will be within 10 miles of downtown Phoenix, having highway access to much of Maricopa County. The development will be near numerous projects under construction along Loop 202, such as the 270-acre Gila Foothills.