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Vistancia Has Helped Shape The Direction And Success Of Rapidly Expanding Peoria
Date Published: Jan 18, 2008

VISTANCIA HAS HELPED TO SHAPE THE DIRECTION AND SUCCESS OF RAPIDLY EXPANDING PEORIA

A few days before this year's Super Bowl, a group of 25 CEOs from around the country will board helicopters for an aerial tour of the west Valley. What they will see as they fly north over Peoria is a decidedly different landscape from what existed the last time the NFL's biggest game came to town.

When Arizona first hosted the Super Bowl in 1996, more than 74,000 people filled the stands at Sun Devil Stadium to watch the game.

The crowd on that January day came close to equaling the number of people who called Peoria their home. After 40 years of life as an incorporated city, Peoria had already experienced substantial growth and boundaries that had stretched to more than 120 square miles. But more growth, especially to the north, was on the horizon.

This year, as the Super Bowl returns to the Valley for the first time since 1996, those 74,000 fans from 1996 represent less than half of Peoria's current population.

In fact, in its current configuration, it would take almost three University of Phoenix stadiums (site of this year's game) to match the nearly 161,000 residents of Peoria today.

One major catalyst for that population explosion was the debut of north Peoria's largest community to date, Vistancia.

Opened in 2004, Vistancia is known for its organic design and integration of amenities with neighborhoods. Comprised of three distinct hubs - the family-oriented Vistancia Village, the age-qualified Trilogy at Vistancia and the new Blackstone Country Club - more than 6,000 people now call the community home.

"With Vistancia, we set out to create a truly special community that reflected the tastes and characteristics of Peoria," said Curt Smith, chief operations officer of Vistancia co-developer Sunbelt Holdings and a member of the Peoria Economic Development Council. "Looking back, the community has definitely had a positive influence on the growth of the city."

Smith will be on hand when the group of CEOs lunch at Blackstone Country Club after their tour. By then, the business leaders will have seen first hand the thousands of new rooftops that now dot the Peoria skyline. Those rooftops have brought with them additional revenue streams for the city, job opportunities for its residents and new growth for businesses, both large and small.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, more than 280 jobs are supported in a metropolitan area for each 100 homes built. Vistancia's closest commercial epicenter supports that claim.

In December the first grocery store and shopping plaza located within the community opened, bringing with it eager shoppers ready to fill the tills of the area's merchants. To the east, the bustling corridor of mixed use development at Lake Pleasant Parkway and Happy Valley Road adds more commercial ventures each month.

The community's municipal infrastructure has also matured thanks in large part to impact fees and property tax dollars. Peoria's first park, public elementary school and fire station in Vistancia have all opened within the past two years.

The boundless growth has helped to fuel sales and property tax revenue for the city and has attracted new business centers to north Peoria each year since Vistancia opened.

Since 2003, sales tax revenue in Peoria has increased 94 percent, with a projected $53.6 million expected to have been collected in 2007. Property values have also risen, with an estimated $16 million in property tax collected in 2007, up from $10.4 million in 2003.

Many corporations and large-scale businesses have also migrated to Peoria since the debut of Vistancia. Safeway, Home Depot, Northern Pipeline and the Peoria Unified School District all rank in the top 10 employers for the city and by 2007 more than 150 of the city's 2,400 businesses reported employing 50 or more people.

At Vistancia, the community begins its next phase of development this year, with a new information center and new builder models debuting in March that will stretch activity north in the 7,100-acre development, which was named the top new-home community in the Valley by national research firm Metrostudy in November.

"We've always believed that with the right planning and the proper mix of residential and commercial uses, the growth of Vistancia would provide the perfect complement to Peoria's rich history," Smith said. "We're well on our way to making that a reality."

For more information about the community, call 623-933-6233 or visit www.vistancia.com.