Maricopa City Council member AnnaMarie Knorr sits at the dais during a Jan. 21, 2025, meeting at Maricopa City Hall. On top: Sketches of the proposed Maricopa Towne Center, which advanced Tuesday. [Monica D. Spencer]
Despite pushback from nearby residents, Maricopa is moving forward with plans for a major new shopping center on the city’s southern edge.
Maricopa City Council last night unanimously approved a rezoning and land-use change for the proposed Maricopa Towne Center, a 184-acre retail and residential development at the southeast corner of John Wayne Parkway and Farrell Road. The approval marks the first formal step toward construction of what could become one of the city’s largest commercial hubs.
The developer, Phoenix-based Vestar, is known for high-profile projects including Tempe Marketplace and the Scottsdale Promenade. While no tenants have been officially announced, Vestar representatives recently told InMaricopa they intend to bring in a major grocery store or large-format retailer.
Of Vestar’s nine Arizona projects using the “Towne Center” name, six are anchored by Target stores. The other three feature retailers already anchoring existing Maricopa developments, such as Walmart, Home Depot and Ross. The developer is also behind the upcoming Vineyard Towne Center in Queen Creek and Verrado Marketplace in Buckeye, both of which will include a Target. Given Maricopa’s size — larger than seven Arizona cities that already have a Target — optimism is high that the retailer could anchor the new center.
“If Vestar is doing a development, you’ve arrived. And we know we’ve arrived,” said Councilmember AnnaMarie Knorr during the meeting. “Now we’re going to get the retail and the commercial that we see in these other areas.”
The rezoning approved yesterday changes the site’s designation from a mix of commercial, medium-density residential and master-planned community to a unified “mixed use” designation. According to city planning staff, this will allow flexible development of commercial and residential areas.
Currently, plans for the site remain conceptual. The only materials shown to council were a zoning map outlining future residential, office and retail zones, and images of Vestar’s prior projects. Tempe Marketplace, which is similar in size to the proposed Maricopa Towne Center, includes not only a large retail complex but also adjacent residential neighborhoods, hotels and office buildings.
That prospect of added housing has raised concerns among some residents of the adjacent Palo Brea subdivision.
“We all bought houses in Palo Brea because it was supposed to be edge of town, by native land,” wrote resident Evelyn Tindle in a letter to the Maricopa Planning and Zoning Commission. “We don’t want property values to decrease due to apartments.”
Councilmember Amber Liermann acknowledged those concerns during Tuesday’s meeting and said she hopes any residential constr …
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