Resorts, transportation key projects for Glendale, Surprise in 2026

Article originally posted on AZ Central on December 30, 2025

Economic and housing opportunities, as well as entertainment attractions, are sprawling across the northwest Valley.

Cities like Glendale and Surprise are working to keep up with the growth and meet the needs of residents through constructing new builds and revamping old ones.

Many of the projects have been in development for years, such as the long-awaited VAI Resort, which continues to be developed. One year ago, it had targeted a late 2025 opening.

Here are some of the most anticipated and significant projects residents should be keeping an eye on in Glendale and Surprise in 2026.

VAI Resort and Mattel Adventure Park in Glendale

VAI, the hotel and entertainment complex near Loop 101 and Cardinals Way, continues to delay its opening date.

It has been under construction for more than four years and was first expected to open in 2023, then 2024, then 2025. The date was pushed as the construction timeline was altered numerous times.

Now, the company’s website says it will announce its opening date about nine months in advance.

One of the resort’s latest updates was in September, when Glendale leaders voted to allow the company to purchase treated wastewater to fill its two large pools that are about an acre each.

If and when it’s completed, the resort would sit on 60 acres and offer 1,100 rooms across four hotel towers, a dozen restaurants and retail shops.

Other amenities include sandy beaches with temperature-controlled water, a 50,000-square-foot, European-inspired “party island,” a bar that offers food and drinks at 130 feet in the air and tethered hot-air balloon rides. It will also have an 11,000-seat amphitheater, where VAI intends to put on more than 100 shows each year.

Grant Fisher, developer and CEO, has said he wants the resort to rival Las Vegas for music residencies.Next to the resort will be Mattel Adventure Park, which is “coming soon,” according to its website. It will be a 9-acre indoor and outdoor theme park with attractions like the Barbie Beach House with a Barbie Dream Closet Experience, and two Hot Wheels-themed roller coasters, the Hot Wheels Bone Shaker and the Hot Wheels Twin Mill Racer.

Transportation projects in Surprise to relieve congestion

New interchanges, freeway ramps and access points to U.S. 60 and Loop 303 in Surprise are being built, planned for and recommended in long-term phases to take pressure off heavy traffic.

The problem area spans 18 miles of U.S. 60, or Grand Avenue, in the northwest Valley, from Loop 303 near Sun City West to State Route 74 north of Wittmann. But the most dire need is along 163rd Avenue merging onto U.S. 60, where, in 2023, people sat in traffic for an average of nearly 10 minutes.

The Maricopa Association of Governments is addressing the challenges in a three-step process that could take at least a decade. The first phase, which includes improvements along Grand Avenue, is already underway and will continue through the second half of 2026.

The remaining phases include an interchange that connects 155th Avenue to Loop 303 and two elevated interchanges at 163rd Avenue and U.S. 60, and another between U.S. 60 and Loop 303. Designing for those two phases begins in 2026.

The entire project will take years to complete. The Maricopa Association of Governments, in partnership with Surprise, Peoria, Maricopa County and the Arizona Department of Transportation, has been studying the U.S. 60, Loop 303 and State Route 74 corridors to assess current and future traffic demands and identify where investments should be made.

A final report of recommendations was expected to be released by early 2026.

Tiny homes to support veterans in Glendale

Construction continues on tiny homes near 63rd and Grand avenues, which will support homeless veterans.

The $14 million project broke ground in February to build 50 homes that will provide transitional housing and support services to help veterans find stability.

The homes will range from 240 to 320 square feet and have a full kitchen, bathroom and living space, according to the nonprofit Veterans Community Project, which worked with the city on the project.

Each unit will be fully furnished with a new bed, linens, a television, pots, pans, a recliner and other personal items, the nonprofit’s co-founder and CEO Bryan Meyer said. Tenants will be assigned case managers, who are tasked with helping the veterans find stable, long-term housing, which Meyer said takes an average of 15 to 18 months.

The “village” will also have a center for case management, classrooms and a fellowship hall. There will be other gathering areas outside as well as a dog park.

Veterans Community Project, which is based in Missouri, has carried out similar projects across the United States. In December 2024, Glendale leaders unanimously voted to sell the roughly 8 acres of city-owned land to the nonprofit for $10.

The project is expected to be completed by 2027, but veterans in need of housing won’t have to wait for all homes to be built. The community will open in two phases, starting with the completion of the first 25 units.

Community service center in Surprise’s original site

A $26 million community and resource center in Surprise is slated to open by 2026 and will provide residents of all ages and backgrounds with access to a range of services.

The 35,000-square-foot building will be located off Grand Avenue and Greenway Road, in what’s known as “the Original Townsite” of the city, between Dysart and El Mirage roads and Bell and Greenway roads.

The center will offer health and wellness programs, Head Start classrooms, workforce development, housing and homeless assistance, benefits assistance, veteran services, senior services, after-school youth programs, summer youth programs and expanded library services.

The project is being developed through a 2022 agreement between Surprise and Maricopa County. The county dedicated $18 million in American Rescue Plan Act money, while the city committed $8 million in ARPA funds, health and services administration funds and city general money. Construction began in January 2025.

Downtown Glendale renovations closing in

Glendale’s over $95 million reinvestment project is slated to open in 2026, which city leaders hope will bring in more attractions around the downtown area.

It is composed of a renovated City Hall complex, including City Hall, a parking garage, Murphy Park and the E. Lowell Rogers amphitheater. City staff and services are expected to return to the campus by the spring, according to a timeline from the city’s website.

Some of the construction is being planned around the Velma Teague Library, a building waiting on its fate.

Glendale was teed up to demolish and relocate the downtown library to a city-owned space about two blocks away, but city leaders scrapped the controversial plan after pushback from residents who wanted to preserve its place in the historic Murphy Park.

The library is not designated a historic site, but it has maintained its location in the park for over a century. It has been rebuilt twice, first in 1938 and again in 1971.

The city’s Library Advisory Board was tasked with recommending how the city should proceed with improving the library and its services. In March, the board recommended that the City Council obtain renderings and estimate costs for both remodeling the existing building and reconstructing it at its original relocation spot.

The council approved the recommendation, but also requested renderings and costs for reconstructing the library elsewhere in the park. The renderings are still being worked on.

The library is going to be temporarily closed from Jan. 5 to March 2 due to walkway improvements at the park.

The future of BNSF’s transportation facility in Wittmann

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, or BNSF, has been working to build a $3.2 billion rail hub in Wittmann ― but the project has been met with fierce opposition from residents and a couple of setbacks in 2025.

BNSF wants to build its project on more than 4,300 acres of property it owns in the rural, unincorporated community in the far northwest Valley. It would include an intermodal facility, a logistics park and a logistics center. It would be BNSF’s first facility to integrate all three components in one place.

The development requires both a comprehensive plan amendment and a zoning change. The company was working with Surprise on the project, but switched gears in June 2024, when it decided to work with Maricopa County to bring it to life.

In the fall, the project hit a couple of roadblocks. Surprise leaders in October voted against the rail hub plans, with councilmembers calling out BNSF for a lack of communication and unwillingness to cooperate.

A few weeks later, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to deny the company’s amendment request, which addressed a portion of the site that was designated as “rural residential” in 2023.

Company officials said the decision did not kill the project.

Residents in Wittmann have said the project would destroy their rural way of life. BNSF and others in the business community argue that the development would meet the region’s growing demands and have a significant impact on the economy.