By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
Axon had planned to break ground this week on its new headquarters in north Scottsdale. The efforts of the city’s cohort of NIMBYs, CAVEs and BANANAs have led to that event being put on indefinite hold, possibly along with all the company’s future plans in Arizona.
The company said in a Jan. 8 press release, “Today, Axon is announcing the cancellation of its planned January 10 groundbreaking for its new world headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona. The decision comes amid delays caused by a ballot referendum effort led by a California-based labor union, which has created significant uncertainty about the project’s future.”
In November, the Scottsdale City Council approved plans and development agreements for a 1.6MSF corporate campus and 401KSF corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility at the NEC of Hayden Road and Mayo Blvd. near Loop 101. Along with the HQ, plans for the site include nearly 1,900 multifamily units, five retail buildings of five stories, another three-story retail building, a 435-room hotel, and seven restaurants.
Axon CEO Rick Smith said the campus will help make the company attractive to top-level employee talent and will draw significant revenue to the area. Development costs for the overall project have been projected at $1.3B, and Scottsdale Economic Development Director Teri Kilgore has been quoted as estimating the overall economic impact at $4.6B over 10 years.
Those plans and benefits are all now in limbo. Shortly after Council issued its approval, former Councilmember Bob Littlefield launched Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions to collect signatures on a referendum petition to overturn the approval and stop the project. The group’s TAAAZE acronym is a pun on Axon’s TASER non-lethal law enforcement weapon. (AZBEX; Dec. 16, 2024)
At issue is the plan’s multifamily component. Littlefield—along with his wife, current Councilmember Kathy Littlefield—is a frequent and vocal opponent of apartment development in Scottsdale. The multifamily component of the Axon plan is one of, perhaps the, largest single apartment plan in the city’s history.
Opponents correctly noted the nearly 74-acre site was originally prohibited from multifamily development under Arizona State Land Department restrictions at the time of Axon’s purchase. They allege the $49.1M sale price did not reflect the land’s true value and, as a result, shortchanged Arizona’s public education system, which is the primary beneficiary of ASLD land sales.
The proposal was also opposed by nearby residents, most notably the Stonebrook II HOA, because of its density and layout. Axon has since made multiple changes to the plan, including reducing the number of planned residential units by nearly 25% from the original count, altering the planned access and traffic flow, increasing setbacks, and reorienting the residential and hotel components. The HOA has since taken a neutral position on the development, according to representatives of the Coalition of Greater Scottsdale.
The company also agreed to numerous development stipulations with the City to secure the approval and agreements.
Referendum Drive
Opponents had to gather more than 15,000 signatures by Dec. 21 to get the referendum against the development on the ballot. Bob Littlefield, dressed in a Santa costume, delivered nearly 27,000 the day of the deadline. If enough signatures are verified, the referendum would be placed on the ballot in November 2026 unless City Council calls for a special election earlier.
TAAAZE used both volunteer and paid solicitors to collect the signatures, in addition to renting office space where residents could come in to sign.
The group also received help from Worker Power Initiative, the political arm of California-based service worker union Unite Here Local 11, in collecting the signatures.
What is unknown is the extent to which the two labor organizations helped the campaign. They have not commented on monetary contributions, and Littlefield has avoided answering any questions about TAAAZE’s funding. The group’s campaign finance report is expected next week.
It is certain, however, Unite Here attempted to establish itself as the collective bargaining agent for future employees at the Axon campus. Axon officials released a proposed agreement from the union under which it would be named as the employee representative. Any disputes would have had to be resolved by Unite Here’s preferred arbitrator, and the United States District Court for the Central District of California, not the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, would have exclusive jurisdiction. (AZBEX, Dec. 17, 2024)
Axon rejected the offer and made the proposed agreement public, referring to the union’s offer not to oppose the project in exchange for the agreement’s acceptance as a “shakedown.”
A recent local news article quoted Smith extensively about the union’s efforts and the potential of relocation.
“I hadn’t been involved in this level of local politics,” Smith said. “I naively thought of democracy as people making informed decisions, but then you see this union reaching in through discussions who’s claiming, ‘Oh we’re not involved with that at all, but if you want your project to go through, we want you to sign this agreement that we can unionize all of your employees and if there’s any disagreements, you use our arbitrator in California.’
“What are you guys going to provide if we do that?” Smith continued. “‘Well nothing, but maybe you’re project will happen.’ It felt like a protection racket.”
Unite Here and WPI have an extensive history of opposing mixed-use developments in Arizona that do not have union agreements in place. The groups were closely associated with the successful campaign to thwart the Arizona Coyotes’ planned entertainment district in Tempe (AZBEX : May 19, 2023; have undertaken repeated efforts against the VAI Resort master-planned development in Glendale (AZBEX: Aug. 15, 2023; Aug 25, 2023; July 2, 2024) and go at least as far back as the lawsuit against the South Pier development in Tempe.
WPI was formerly known as Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy. Similar to the Axon opposition, CASE attempted to place the South Pier development on the ballot for a referendum. The City of Tempe and CASE engaged in a protracted legal battle about the litigation’s validity, resulting in a complicated mix of findings by the Maricopa County Superior Court and the Arizona Court of Appeals. CASE eventually dropped the lawsuit, saying the group no longer needed to pursue the case after South Pier agreed to a union development agreement. (AZBEX; April 11, 2023)
Allegations of misinformation about the projects have been levied against all of the group’s campaigns.
Worker Power had originally been registered as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Donors to these groups can claim tax deductions for their contributions. Under IRS regulations, they are prevented from engaging in “significant” political activities. At some point in the last year, the group changed its designation to 501 (c) (4), which is the standard designation for politically oriented organizations.
A High-stakes Gamble
Axon’s announcement that it is revitalizing other options for its corporate campus locations—which have largely focused on Texas and Florida—has been viewed as exploitative by opponents. Scottsdale EDGE, an anonymous local email newsletter that frequently focuses on multifamily and other local development, sent a Jan.7 email with the subject line, “Is the Bully Backing Down?” which praised Axon’s groundbreaking event cancellation as a victory for opponents and ridiculed the company’s earlier stated intent to fight the referendum “tooth and nail.”
An earlier issue praised TAAAZE’s petition collection as “an astonishing accomplishment.”
In the article quoting Smith above, he said he had not spoken with Scottsdale leaders about the timing of the election and that he would fight for the project if the referendum were held in 2025, but that 2026 is too long to hold out. “It’s too much uncertainty for too long,” he said.
Bob Littlefield and other opponents have repeatedly said they do not oppose the headquarters component, which was originally approved four years ago. The issue is the multifamily portion and what they perceive as an erosion of Scottsdale’s traditional character by multifamily development in general.
That’s the crux of the current issue: Whether or not the building of 1,900 more apartments is worth driving out one of Arizona’s largest employers and most valuable companies. Opponents have expressed two primary views across a variety of outlets. They say Axon and Smith are bluffing and the company will not leave, or they say, yes, losing the company is worth it if it prevents the apartments from coming in.
Axon has a market capitalization of $42.86B. As of the morning of Jan. 9, its share price was $577.34. 2023 annual revenue was $1.563B. One of AZBigMedia’s “Most Admired Companies,” Axon has more than 900 employees in the state.
We have covered the impacts of NIMBYism extensively here over the years. We have also repeatedly tackled Scottsdale’s unique, and incorrect, perception of its “local character,” including a detailed refutation here, showing how Scottsdale’s expanding institutional opposition to multifamily and other forms of development harms the entire Valley community and the state.
Those opponents have now coalesced with groups that significantly contributed to the loss of a major professional sports team and its planned $3B investment, as well as tried to thwart multibillion-dollar developments in both the East and West Valley.
Some scholars believe Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince—which gave us the famous saying, “The ends justify the means,”—as a satire. Whatever the author’s intention was, there is little joking to be had at the thought of losing one of the state’s most profitable and significant employers.
We do not know if it is possible, or even if it has been considered, but one particularly ironic possibility would be if Axon were to buy the north Phoenix site the Coyotes had considered purchasing after its Tempe efforts failed. It’s 110 acres on the Phoenix side of Scottsdale Road and Loop 101, and it could serve as a perpetual reminder of what could have been when Phoenix reaps all the benefits and revenue that Scottsdale has come within millimeters of having for itself.
