Smoke Tree Resort Redevelopment Clears Final Hurdle at Paradise Valley Town Council

Article originally posted on HERE on January 12, 2024

Paradise Valley Town Council has given the green light for a new look to a boutique hotel.

Scottsdale-based Walton Global Holdings LLC received unanimous approval Jan. 11 for a special-use permit to move forward with its redevelopment of the Smoke Tree Resort.

Walton will now move forward “as fast as possible” with the demolition of the 5-acre site on the southwest corner of Scottsdale Road and Lincoln Drive. Walton will rebuild the site into an 82-room resort that will include an on-site restaurant, cocktail bar and café as well as a spa and resort-style pool. The main building will have 77 of the hotel rooms while the other five will be in single-story casitas. Plans also call for an underground parking garage.

The Jan. 11 council meeting capped off a more than 18-month process since Walton Global acquired the land for $14 million in June 2022. The site, located at 7101 E. Lincoln Drive, was bought from Geneva Holdings. Walton started the process of moving on the redevelopment in late 2022.

Withey Morris Baugh PLC’s Benjamin Tate — a land-use attorney on the case — referred to the project as the “living room of Paradise Valley” during the council’s meeting. The resort was built in 1954, seven years before the town of Paradise Valley was incorporated. The hotel has been closed since mid-2020.

Tate told the Phoenix Business Journal after the vote on Jan. 11 that the development team will move quickly on getting the permits needed to start the demolition and build-out of the revamped hotel.

Jason Morris, another land-use attorney with Withey Morris Baugh, previously told the Business Journal that residents wanted the revamped hotel, which would come with adequate parking, to serve as an asset for guests and the community. They also wanted the hotel to stay away from rooftop amenities to limit noise, Morris said last March.

Some of the changes along the way included eliminating plans for a standalone restaurant and speakeasy as well as relocating the spa building within the site and reducing the guest room floor area in the project plans.

Geneva Holdings bought the hotel in 2018 and had plans to revamp Smoke Tree Resort into a hotel with 150 guest rooms. An additional 30 rooms that were characterized as resort residences were also in Geneva Holdings’ plans, which never came to fruition.

The location of Smoke Tree Resort is just to the south of the planned Ritz Carlton Paradise Valley and The Palmeraie retail center — a $2 billion, 122-acre luxury master-planned community. Developer Five Star Development said in September that it expects to open Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley and The Palmeraie in 2024. Last May, New York-based Madison Realty Capital originated a $585 million loan to Five Star Development to help finish construction of the project.