IRONWOODStrategic Advisors

Insights · Development & Land Use

Have data centers ruined what made Eastmark special?

East Mesa's best land was once meant for a world-class resort, a university and a walkable town center. Today it is filling up with windowless server farms. Here is how we got here, and what the city traded away.

By Jon Willis, Founder & Designated Broker · · 7 min read

Eastmark was supposed to be the crown jewel of southeast Mesa: parks, great schools, a real town center and a sense of place you do not find in most master-planned communities. For a while, it was. Now drive north along Ellsworth and Elliot roads and you see what surrounds it: acres of beige boxes, substations and humming equipment, with more on the way.

This is an opinion piece. But it is an opinion built on 27 years of watching how East Valley land gets planned, sold and built, and on the public record.

A site that was meant for something bigger

  • 2008: a world-class resort. Gaylord Entertainment announced a resort and convention center on the old General Motors proving grounds near Ellsworth and Elliot roads, which DMB had bought from GM in 2006. It was reported as an $800 million project that would have drawn conventions and visitors from across the country. The Great Recession stalled it, and in 2012 Gaylord officially pulled the plug.
  • 2013: a university. Grand Canyon University chose Eastmark for a $150 million second campus, with rights to buy 100 acres and an option on 60 more. It would have brought thousands of students and the shops, restaurants and housing that follow them. The campus was never built.
  • The 2010s: Eastmark. DMB went on to build Eastmark into one of the most successful master-planned communities in the state, with a reputation for design, open space and community life.
  • The 2020s: the data centers. In 2021, Facebook (now Meta) announced an $800 million data center campus in Eastmark along the Elliot Road technology corridor. Others followed. By 2025, Mesa counted roughly 15 million square feet of data center projects built, approved or proposed over six years.

This land was planned for a resort, a university and a town center. It is becoming a server farm.

The latest one is in Eastmark's backyard

In March 2026, Mesa's Planning and Zoning Board approved EdgeCore's data center in Eastmark: two buildings totaling 1.2 million square feet on part of a roughly 90-acre site, plus generators and an SRP substation. EdgeCore had originally asked for 2.1 million square feet and three buildings. The approval came on the consent agenda, with conditions such as generator testing limited to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and murals on the buildings.

Here is the part that should bother every Eastmark homeowner. In 2025, the City Council adopted new rules steering future data centers to industrial land. EdgeCore did not have to follow them, because its application was filed in January 2024, before the rules took effect.

Residents have been pushing back for years. When another 1.5 million square foot data campus was proposed near Warner and Ellsworth in 2023, Eastmark neighbors asked for retail and grocery stores instead of "massive box buildings." The answer from the city was that data centers were already a permitted use, and that residents should "temper expectations."

Do data centers create jobs?

Not many. Meta's $800 million first phase in Eastmark was expected to employ roughly 100 people on campus. A 2026 Brookings study of about 1,500 data centers found that a typical large facility adds roughly 100 to 200 jobs to its county. Construction brings a temporary surge, then the crews leave.

Compare that with what the same land could have held. A resort and convention center employs hundreds or thousands. A university campus brings faculty, staff and students who spend money nearby every day. Office parks and retail centers create jobs per acre that a data center cannot touch.

Do they bring real economic development?

Supporters point to tax revenue, and it is not zero. When Mesa approved Google's $1 billion data center at Elliot and Sossaman roads, the city projected about $61 million in city taxes over 25 years, after granting Google a $16 million property tax break. But spread across 187 acres and a quarter century, that is a modest return for some of the most valuable land in the East Valley. It also skips what is lost: the restaurants, shops, offices and homes that would have generated sales tax, jobs and foot traffic year after year.

Data centers do not bring customers. They do not anchor a shopping center. Nobody goes to dinner near a data center. They use enormous amounts of power, and in a state facing deep Colorado River cuts, their water use deserves hard questions too.

A ribbon-cutting, not a vision

A billion-dollar data center announcement makes a great press release and a great ribbon-cutting photo. It is an easy win for any city hall. But growth is measured over decades, not news cycles. Southeast Mesa had a rare chance to build a true live, work and play district around Mesa Gateway Airport and Eastmark. Instead, too much of that land has been locked up in buildings that employ few people, draw no visitors and will look the same in 30 years as they do today.

What this means for property owners

  1. Land near Eastmark is still scarce and valuable. Every acre that goes to a data center is an acre that cannot become retail, office or housing. That makes the remaining commercial land more important, not less.
  2. Retail demand is underserved. Residents have asked for grocery and retail for years. Owners of retail-zoned land in southeast Mesa should understand what that unmet demand is worth.
  3. Know what can be built next to you. If you own near the technology corridor, check the zoning on surrounding parcels. "Permitted by right" means neighbors may have little say.
  4. Show up early. By the time a project reaches a consent agenda, it is usually too late. Comment when plans are first filed.

Mesa is not wrong to want investment. But not all investment is equal. The question every city should ask is simple: is this the best use of this land for the next 50 years? For too much of southeast Mesa, the answer has been no.

Sources

This article reflects the author's opinion and is general market commentary, not legal or investment advice.