By J. Graber | Daily Independent
After almost a year’s delay and a scandal involving a company employee allegedly calling a city planning commissioner’s employer, law enforcement and security technology company Axon hopes to move forward with its plans to build a new 74-acre campus in northeast Scottsdale in November.
Company officials hope to get on the Scottsdale Planning Commission’s Nov. 13 agenda to request a rezone from industrial to multi-use on the site near the intersection of Hayden Road and the Loop 101.
Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith wants to build a 401,085-square-foot ultra-modern, world headquarters (which he says will look like “a starship”), along with 1,965 (1-, 2- and 3-bedroom) apartments and condominiums, five, five-floor retail buildings, one three-story retail building and a 435-key hotel. It will also have seven restaurants on site.
In order to address concerns of residents already in the area, Smith has shifted the apartments away from their homes on the south side of the property to the north side. The hotel has also been moved away from the homes so the condominiums are now the closest part of the campus to existing homes and they are 469 feet away (the headquarters building is 856 feet away).
The project also eliminates any connection to Mayo Boulevard from the property so new traffic won’t ever use the street, thereby eliminating congestion for existing residents, Smith said.
Creating a large berm and several layers of tree barriers should block out the view of the campus from existing homes, too.
The main purpose for building the new campus is to recruit talent, Smith said.
Arizona has traditionally been seen more as a retirement area than a tech center, so a unique, first class facility with urban amenities built in should help with the recruiting process, Smith said.
“Our goal is to get ‘em young and build a bench of talent internally and that’s where having a diversity of housing options is really important,” Smith said.
“The suburban life is great if you’re at that point where you’re gonna have kids but a lot of folks to begin with are like, ‘I don’t want to live in the suburbs,’” he continued. “‘I want to live in a walkable district. I can walk to the gym and restaurants.”
At full build out, Smith is expecting to create 5,000 new jobs, but that will be ramped up slowly.
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