Scottsdale Arizona Real Estate Blog

Efforts are under way to develop the Desert Ridge area south of Loop 101 into a bioscience and technology hub, just days after Mayor Greg Stanton announced plans for the Desert Ridge Bioscience Technology Collaborative.

According to Dr. Wyatt Decker, chief executive of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, more concrete plans could take form within six months, although full development of the plan is likely to take much longer.

“We worked with the mayor to develop the concept,” Decker said, “and we are pleased with his support for Mayo.”

Mayo Hospital is the key medical facility in northeast Phoenix. It occupies 210 acres at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard, south of Loop 101. It opened in 1998.

Under the Desert Ridge Specific Plan, development in the area between 56th and 64th streets, Loop 101 and the Central Arizona Project canal must be related to or supportive of medical uses, including retail and residential.

Stanton’s plan, announced during his inauguration speech on Tuesday, would expand that idea west to Tatum Boulevard. Some non-medical users already are in place in the area, including American Express and Sumco, which manufactures silicon wafers for the microprocessing and computer industries.

Decker said representatives from Mayo, Arizona State University and the Mayor’s Office have begun working on the next steps. They want to develop a “clear vision” for the future, while showing “meaningful progress” as soon as they can, Decker said.

He foresees medical startups based on ideas generated at Mayo, ASU or elsewhere.

Maria Baier, who as state land commissioner controls most of the vacant property, said Stanton told her of his idea, but she does not have a lot of detail yet. “I told him I would do everything I can to be supportive,” she said. “This idea is quite visionary and positive for the community.”

She said there has been plenty of interest in the land throughout the Desert Ridge and Paradise Ridge areas — large, mostly undeveloped tracts of land along Loop 101 in northeast Phoenix.

“The question is whether we bring it out now or wait for recovery,” she said. “You typically would not dispose of property in a down market.”

The Arizona State Land Department manages the State Land Trust and controls 9.2million acres after selling or leasing 1.6 million acres. The department is required to “enhance value and optimize economic return” on the land for its beneficiaries, primarily public schools.

“We want the trust to realize the appreciation of value in a better market,” Baier said.

She said some of the land in question already has restrictions, including a ban on buildings that would block the view of the Mayo Clinic from the freeway. The department could come to an agreement with the city to determine how the land could be used.

Scottsdale is poised for another wave of resort development with three properties that could add 1,000 rooms, villas and casitas over the next four years.

The Reserve, Reata Ranch and Sereno Canyon all would be built north of the McDowell Mountains and adjacent to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

“This will broaden and deepen the resort offerings for Scottsdale on the world stage,” said Taber Anderson, who is developing Reata Ranch on 220 acres southeast of 128th Street and Rio Verde Drive/Dynamite Boulevard.

Scottsdale has not added a resort since 2000 when the Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North opened, and the northeast Valley has not seen a surge in hotel rooms like this since 2002 when the JW Marriott Desert Ridge and Westin Kierland resorts opened nearly 1,700 rooms.

The Sereno Canyon Spa & Resort is the latest resort to surface, with plans submitted last month to revise what had been conceived as a gated community of 128 homes on 350 acres. Only nine lots have been sold over the past four years, but no homes have been built.

“We have seen the market for large-lot residential (homes) fall off the edge of the world,” said Steven Voss, president of LVA Urban Design Studio, who is involved in Sereno Canyon’s design.

Crown Community Development, the property owner, is requesting rezoning to allow construction of the resort and spa on the central 222 acres.

The property is southwest of 125th Place and Ranch Gate Road (Happy Valley Road alignment) and is about a mile from the Tom’s Thumb trailhead under construction in the preserve.

Crown has invested $40million in roads, water and sewer lines, landscaping, a gatehouse and entry monuments for Sereno Canyon, Voss said.

The company, which has links to the Little Nell Hotel, in Aspen, Colo., and the Ojai Valley Inn in California, envisions the Scottsdale resort resembling Sedona’s Enchantment Resort with its access to nearby trails and canyons.

Sereno Canyon would feature 96 resort rooms, 108 casitas with two lodging units in one building, 102 single-unit villas and 44 estate homes.

Voss said construction could start by early 2014 and would take about two years to complete.

The Reserve could be the first of the resort trio to open its doors.

Developer Lyle Anderson, known for his Desert Highlands and Desert Mountain golf communities in Scottsdale, said he is putting together equity partners and investors in the project and hopes to break ground by the end of 2012.

“Getting one of these projects going is a lot of work,” said Anderson, adding that he is talking with hotel-management companies for the property.

The Reserve, positioned as an environmentally sensitive eco-resort, was approved by the Scottsdale City Council in November 2010.

Anderson has acquired 5more acres that will be added to his 213-acre site if the city approves rezoning of the new parcel.

The Reserve is adjacent to the preserve and the Golf Club Scottsdale.

The resort is approved for 325 units that will be split between rooms, villas and estate homes, Anderson said.

His son is Taber Anderson, who is developing Reata Ranch, which will tie in with the area’s equestrian roots.

“We’re still defining what a 21st-century Scottsdale guest ranch is going to be,” Taber Anderson said.

“Unfortunately, guest ranches have disappeared, and you have to go to Wickenburg or Tucson to find that now.”

Under its rezoning request, Reata Ranch has asked to build 35 lodge units, 75 cabins, 120 casitas and 100 villas at the guest ranch.

It would also include some stables for short-term horse boarding.

The plan tentatively is set for review by the Scottsdale Planning Commission on Jan.25, Taber Anderson said.

If approved by the commission and City Council, the project could get started by the middle of 2013, he said.

Reata Ranch, like the other two planned resorts, will take advantage of its proximity to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, which now includes 21,400 acres of mountain and Sonoran Desert terrain.

Scottsdale taxpayer investment in the preserve will pay dividends, with increased visitation and spending in the city and at the new resorts, Taber Anderson said.

“They’ve created their own version of the Grand Canyon,” he added.

Tourism is a key Scottsdale industry, with 8million annual visitors filling 16,000 hotel rooms and contributing an estimated $3.6billion to the local economy.