By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
Worker Power—the Arizona political arm of the California-based Unite Here Local 11 labor union—is maintaining its efforts to derail the $1B-plus VAI Resort development in Glendale. Its latest campaign will result in a special election May 20 for a pair of ballot measures on the project’s land use.
The VAI Resort master plan includes multiple components already under construction. With its opening targeted for this year, the development will include 1,100 hotel rooms in four towers, more than a dozen restaurants and retail spaces, and an amphitheater.
The resort is expected to become Arizona’s largest, generating nearly $2B in economic activity.
Worker Power has consistently and persistently opposed the development, raising a variety of different arguments that have, so far, proven unsuccessful. VAI supporters and others familiar with the group say the opposition is part of an attempt to force the owners into accepting labor unionization.
Earlier efforts included a potential referendum opposing the City of Glendale’s approval of a development agreement with VAI’s owners that would have implemented a Government Property Lease Excise Tax incentive structure under which Glendale would have owned the land and leased it to VAI for a 25-year term. The resort would save on property taxes in exchange for other considerations as a result.
Worker Power pursued the referendum claiming the GPLET did not provide sufficient public benefit to justify the incentive.
To avoid the referendum, Glendale withdrew the GPLET and reverted to a previously approved development agreement from 2020 that was too old to challenge.
VAI’s Latest Requests and Worker Power’s Opposition
In the latest salvo, the group is targeting the resort’s plan to build parking and office facilities on 10 acres to serve the overall development.
The Arizona Republic reports Worker Power claims the plan for office space and the parking infringes on green space and would have negative environmental impacts.
Glendale City Council approved VAI’s request to incorporate the site and redesignate it from Parks and Open Space to Corporate Commerce Center in November. VAI also requested an amendment to the Centerpoint Planned Area Development approved in 2020 to guide development standards.
Worker Power representatives alleged the modifications would increase the urban heat island effect by reducing landscaping islands, increasing parking density and reducing setbacks.
Council’s approval of the amendment formalized the change and set the standards to develop the overall 66-acre property near State Farm Stadium within the Sports and Entertainment District.
Following Council’s approval, Worker Power started a petition signature drive to force the two items to a referendum vote. The group ultimately procured enough valid signatures, and the measure will appear on a special election ballot May 20.
The latest article quoted project representative Adam Baugh of the law firm Withey Morris Baugh as saying the development would come to a “screeching halt,” if voters overturn the approval for the 10 acres’ redesignation. He said the location is needed to support VAI employees and provide circulation and complex access.
The Republic reported Worker Power representatives did not respond to requests for comment before the deadline.
A Unique Array of Targets
VAI Resort is far from unique in becoming a Worker Power target, although its difficulties with the group have taken more turns than most.
While the group always presents its reasons for opposition in terms of lofty public benefits, such as opposing excessive public spending, misuse of incentives or protecting the environment for the benefit of the greater community, every development it has targeted has been a mixed-use project with a significant hospitality component that either did not have a union agreement in place or rejected attempts to mandate one.
Originally called Central Arizona for a Sustainable Economy, or CASE, Worker Power tried forcing the South Pier development in Tempe into a referendum, opposing the development incentives and alleging it did not contain affordable housing, even though the developer had an agreement in place to make a $10M contribution to Tempe’s affordable housing program. CASE and the City of Tempe battled in the courts over the referendum attempt, resulting in mixed decisions.
However, CASE withdrew its petition in April 2023 after deciding “it was not in their interest to pursue it,” according to group representatives. (AZBEX: April 11, 2023; July 18, 2023)
While no party has directly stated on the record the reason for the withdrawal, that reevaluation came about shortly after the project’s owners agreed not to oppose union representation for workers on site.
Worker Power was also a primary driver of the opposition campaign and referendum that scuttled the Arizona Coyotes’ planned Tempe Entertainment District (AZBEX; May 19, 2023) and has contributed its support and made in-kind contributions to a Scottsdale group looking to overturn approvals for Axon’s planned corporate headquarters and campus. (AZBEX: Dec. 16, 2024; Dec. 17, 2024; Jan 10, 2025; Jan. 22, 2025)
Both the Tempe Entertainment District ownership and Axon’s leaders rejected proposed preliminary unionization agreements quite publicly before Worker Power launched direct opposition efforts.
In addition to its development of opposition campaigns, Worker Power was also the primary driver behind a failed campaign in the November 2024 election to impose a $20/hour minimum wage for service workers in Glendale.