Good morning, Eastmark. An extreme heat warning runs through 8 PM Sunday with afternoon highs of 103 to 111, so anything outdoors this weekend works best before 10 AM.
- 🛣️ Elliot Road goes from two lanes to six. A $17.1 million contract covers the stretch from the floodway to Ellsworth. Council votes August 31.
- 🎧 Poolside DJ Friday at The 'Mark. Five to 8:30 PM at the community pool.
- 🥕 Eastmark Farmers Market Saturday. Seven AM to noon in the Great Park lot.
- ⚽ Two tournaments at Arizona Athletic Grounds. Arsenal preseason friendlies Friday, Phoenix Rising futsal Saturday.
- 🏡 103 acres at Hawes and Elliot headed for housing. A rezone would drop the employment-land designation.
- ⛳ Firebirds golf at home Tuesday. Volleyball travels to Prescott Wednesday.
Elliot Road is about to triple in width
The two-lane rural road along Eastmark's north edge is set to become a six-lane arterial, and the contract to build it goes to Mesa City Council on August 31.
Key facts:
- Segment: Elliot Road from the Eastern Maricopa Floodway east to Ellsworth Road, in Mesa's District 6.
- Contract: staff recommend awarding $17,143,737.55 to HEI Civil, plus a change order allowance.
- What gets built: six lanes with raised medians, curb and gutter, sidewalk, roadside retention basins, traffic signals, street lighting, and median landscaping.
- Drainage: a storm drain pipe runs from Hawes Road to an outfall into the East Maricopa Floodway.
- Next step: the council vote on August 31.
Elliot is the road most Eastmark drivers use to get anywhere west, and it is also the front door to the Elliot Road Technology Corridor. Apple's command center sits at Elliot and Signal Butte, Meta's data center opened last February, and Google's Redhawk campus is at Elliot and Sossaman. A rural two-lane road with no curb and no sidewalk has been carrying all of that.
What to watch: the August 31 council agenda. The staff report does not list a construction window, so the schedule should surface with the award. Details.
The weekend
Friday, August 21
🎧 Poolside DJ. Five to 8:30 PM at the community pool at The 'Mark, 10100 E. Ray Rd. A live DJ by the water, hosted by Eastmark Community Life. Details.
🎮 Gaming Club. Five to 8 PM in the classroom at The 'Mark. Runs every other Friday. Details.
⚽ Arsenal preseason friendlies. On the fields at Arizona Athletic Grounds, 6321 S. Ellsworth Rd, just south of Pecos. Details.
Saturday, August 22
🥕 Eastmark Farmers Market. Seven AM to noon in the Eastmark Great Park parking lot just south of the Gateway Library. Vendor applications are open at eastmarkmarketaz.com. The 7 AM start is the whole point this weekend. Details.
🥅 Phoenix Rising futsal kickoff. In Fieldhouse A at Arizona Athletic Grounds. Indoor, which is the strongest argument for it at 108 degrees. Details.
Around Eastmark
🏡 103 acres at Hawes and Elliot could flip to housing. A general plan amendment (a formal change to the city's long-range land-use map) for "Hawes Crossing Village 7" would move 29.7 acres from Urban Center and 73.2 acres from Local Employment Center to Urban Residential, at the southeast corner of Hawes and Elliot. It went to the Planning and Zoning Board on August 12 with staff recommending adoption. Same corridor as the road contract above. Details.
🏠 Homes in Mesa are taking about 55 days to sell right now. Details.
👋 New Neighbor Welcome, Tuesday at 6 PM. An intro night at The 'Mark for households that moved in recently, covering events, resources, and how things work here. Register in advance. Light refreshments, and kids are welcome. Details.
🌿 Landscape Advisory Committee meets Tuesday at 9 AM. The resident-led committee sits down with Cohere management and the Eastmark landscape vendors in the classroom at The 'Mark. Any resident can attend. Details.
🎖️ Veterans parade applications close October 9. The 19th annual East Valley Veterans Parade runs in downtown Mesa, and entries have to be submitted online by that date. Details.
🏞️ Canyon Lake is closing for four months. The reservoir northeast of Mesa, a standard summer escape for East Valley families, goes offline for SRP dam work. Details.
🎉 Mesa's America250 pledge runs through 2026. The city is asking residents to commit to hosting a block event or a service project on their own street sometime this year. Details.
From the schools
⛳ Boys varsity golf, today at 3 PM. Eastmark High School (part of Queen Creek Unified, the district Eastmark schools belong to) plays McClintock and Shadow Mountain. Details.
⛳ Firebirds golf at home Tuesday. Boys varsity takes on Crismon at 3 PM, and girls varsity travels to Seton Catholic Prep Wednesday at 3 PM. Details.
🏐 Volleyball goes to Prescott Wednesday. Freshman and sophomore at 4 PM, JV at 5 PM. That is a two-hour drive each way, so plan the evening around it. Details.
🎒 BASIS Mesa tours today and Tuesday. Middle and high school today at 1 PM, primary Tuesday at 9:15 AM, both at 5010 S. Eastmark Parkway. Details.
Still tracking
Quick check-in on stuff covered in past editions:
- 🛒 Sprouts at EastMarket (Ray and Ellsworth). Construction underway. Building wraps up around August, Sprouts opens Q4 2026.
- 🏢 Liv at Eastmark (NE corner Ellsworth and Ray). 208 apartments across 12 buildings, recently approved. Construction next.
- 🔧 Brakes Plus Mesa (Ellsworth and Elliot). Auto shop still working through council site plan tweaks.
