Why Valley’s tribal land is a big draw for commercial development

Why Valley’s tribal land is a big draw for commercial development

This article originally appeared in the Phoenix Business Journal.

As opportunities for large-scale developments within the city of Scottsdale have become harder to come by, developers and builders have turned their focus east, to the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which has quickly become a destination for a slew of commercial projects. 

In the past five years, nearly 1.7 million square feet of commercial space has come online on the reservation, according Newmark Knight Frank research. That slice of the Valley is home to Salt River Fields, the spring training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, as well as the Great Wolf Lodge, Medieval Times restaurant and Arizona’s only White Castle burger restaurant.

Development in the corridor has nearly doubled in the past five years, and the area now encompasses about 3.5 million square feet of developed space. The reservation is directly east of Scottsdale, and is bounded by Pima Road on its western edge. Read more