By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
The Wolff Company is proposing a mixed-use multifamily and commercial development on a 12.45-acre portion of an existing 1,327-acre planned area development.
The request before the Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission would amend the Circle Cross PAD overlay district to remove the subject site and establish the Homestead Mixed-Use PAD at Gantzel and Algarve for the development property at the NEC of Gantzel Road and Algarve Place in San Tan Valley.
The Circle Cross PAD was established for 1,409 acres in 2000 and saw three amendments in 2006. The property in the current request is covered by general business commercial zoning established under one of the 2006 amendments, which changed the zoning from mixed-use residential.
No interest has ever been expressed in developing the site for commercial uses. The current requests would sever the property from Circle Cross and rezone it under its own PAD for multifamily residential and commercial use.
Current uses on the existing greater PAD include a hospital, single-family and multifamily residential, and commercial. Immediate uses around the Homestead site include a medical office plaza and a commercial center with permits pending for a gas station, medical offices and drive-thru commercial pads.
The submittal states, “This proposed severance request will allow for immediate development of a parcel of land that has sat dormant and zoned for commercial in San Tan Valley for nearly 20 years. Reinstating multi-family will bring a new housing option to this active area of Pinal County and has already triggered discussion of future development interest for the commercial retail on the immediate corner of Gantzel and Algarve. As we have seen over the years, commercial projects have strategically reduced in size or “right sized” to stir development and this is clearly the case for this project. Wolff is excited to bring the Homestead mixed-use project to fruition in San Tan Valley and truly intends to stir neighborhood-friendly uses with the development of the much needed multi-family housing component.”
Project Details
The development will feature 10 three-story, 24-unit apartment buildings totaling 250KSF of building area on 10.9 acres. The proposed building heights are 34 feet, and density is listed at 22.01 units/acre.
The 240 units will be divided equally between one- and two-bedroom floor plans. Planned amenities include a 4.4KSF multiuse building with a leasing office/clubhouse/fitness center, a pool, a dog park and 3.1 acres of open space/retention areas.
Parking for the multifamily portion will have 446 stalls, divided between 356 standard spaces, five ADA-accessible spaces, four electric vehicle charging stalls, 80 carports and one ADA-accessible carport.
The commercial portion, currently envisioned as a 68KSF daycare facility, will consist of a single building and a play area on 1.56 acres. The commercial portion will have 37 standard and one ADA-accessible stall.
An open house neighborhood meeting was held last August to present the proposal to area residents. Twenty-four people attended. Comments and concerns included worries about increased traffic, building heights, apartments not fitting in with the neighborhood character, and the perception apartments would negatively impact property values.
The original plan had been entirely multifamily. As a result of input from the meeting, the daycare commercial component was added at the hard corner, buildings were deleted to decrease the rentable area from 302.6KSF to 214.8KSF, unit counts were reduced and building lengths were shortened from 170 feet to 149 feet.
The development team has continued to interact with the community since the original neighborhood meeting. The submittal says, “The Applicant team has continued to reach out to local residents as well as local workers in the surrounding area to gather additional perspectives on the proposed Homestead Mixed Use project. There has been a lot of new retail businesses that have opened directly north of this site at the intersection of Gantzel Road and Combs Road. The Applicant team visited each of the businesses on May 1 and May 2, 2025 to inform them of the proposed Mixed Use project and gain new perspectives from those who work in the area.
“A lot of the local workers do not live in the immediate area due to financial constraints. Many expressed that they cannot afford to buy a single-family home and even the for-rent communities are too expensive (for context, many nearby for-rent properties are “Build to rent” communities which is more expensive than the proposed multi-family community). A lot of the local workers are young adults and some have young children not yet school age. This demographic was very excited to hear about a more affordable housing option along with childcare facility as this would be a great opportunity to live close to their place of employment.”
The project has also encountered opposition from the Town of Queen Creek. As part of its April 16 consent agenda, the Queen Creek Town Council approved sending a letter to Pinal County expressing its opposition and claiming the development was not in keeping with the area’s character, according to a local news report.
The County Planning and Zoning Commission will hear the requests June 19.
The Wolff Company is the developer and will purchase the property from the current owner, 93rd Street Crane, LLC. The design firm is Studio 15 Architecture, Inc. Summit Land Group is the traffic engineer. Civil engineering services are provided by EPS Group. Rose Law Group is the land use attorney.
