Good morning, Eastmark. Mid-May has the temperatures into the 90s and the school year winding down.
🏟️ Turkiye picks AZAG for World Cup base camp. The national team trains just south of Eastmark during the 2026 tournament. Details.
🎓 EHS graduation Wednesday. Class of 2026 walks at 7 PM at the football stadium. Details.
🇺🇸 Memorial Day flag program starts Thursday. Volunteers place flags at neighborhood parks. Details.
🥬 Farmers Market is back Saturday. 8 AM to noon at the Great Park. Details.
🏛️ Mesa's $285M bond. Roads and public safety package advancing at council. Details.
A World Cup base camp at Ellsworth and Pecos
Arizona Athletic Grounds, the 320-acre complex just south of Eastmark at Ellsworth and Pecos, will host the Turkiye men's national soccer team during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Key facts:
Team: Turkiye Men's National Team
Facility: Arizona Athletic Grounds (AZAG), 6321 S. Ellsworth Rd
Role: Official Team Base Camp training site
Tournament window: World Cup 2026 runs June through July
Announcement: Mesa Now, May 14
AZAG is the former Bell Bank Park (later Legacy Park), repositioned in the last two years as a major Phoenix-area tournament destination. The Turkiye selection puts the facility on a different tier of visibility. It tracks with a broader pattern in the Mesa Gateway employment zone: international-scale tenants stacking onto the same corridor that landed Apple's Signal Butte campus and Meta's data center. A site ten minutes from the airport with room to grow sells to bigger players than it did five years ago.
What to watch: training dates, public access, and any community-facing events tied to the team's stay have not been announced. Mesa Now.
The week
Tuesday, May 19
- 🎨 Watercolor class with Mike Feather. 10 AM to noon at The 'Mark classroom. Third of four sessions. Details.
Thursday, May 21
Saturday, May 23
- 🥬 Eastmark Farmers Market. 8 AM to noon in the Great Park parking lot off Inspirian Pkwy, just north of Ray. Details.
- 🏊 Mesa pools open for the season. Citywide opening day, daily through July 18. Details.
- 🍷 Eastmark Wine Club. 6:30 PM at 4309 S Nano. Bring an appetizer and a bottle to share. Details.
Around Eastmark
🇺🇸 Memorial Day flag program: how it works. The HOA places about 100 American flags around the perimeter of each neighborhood park starting Memorial Day weekend. Resident volunteers do the legwork.
The flow:
Pick up flags from The 'Mark (10100 E. Ray Rd) starting Thursday, May 21
Install them at the park of choice by 7 AM on Memorial Day (Monday, May 25)
Remove and return flags to The 'Mark by 5 PM on Wednesday, May 27
Rally a family or a few neighbors to take a park. Sign-up and full details.
🏛️ Mesa's $285M bond moves toward the ballot. The Mesa City Council is advancing a $285M general obligation bond package focused on road improvements and public safety upgrades citywide. Final ballot language and the specific project list are still being negotiated by council and city staff. For Eastmark, the line items worth watching are the perimeter arterials Mesa maintains: Ellsworth, Ray, Signal Butte, and Elliot. The community's growth and the industrial expansion to the south have put steady pressure on those roads. Watch how Eastmark-area projects show up in the final list before the bond goes to voters. Mesa Tribune.
From the schools
🎓 EHS Class of 2026 graduates Wednesday. The ceremony is 7 PM at the Eastmark High School football stadium. This is the seventh class to walk since the school opened in 2019. The Firebirds program has grown alongside the community, including a 3A state football title in 2025. Expect traffic on Ray Rd around 6 PM as families head in. Calendar link.
🍽️ Free summer meals at MPS sites. Mesa Public Schools is offering free breakfast and lunch this summer at participating campuses for anyone 18 and under, no sign-up required. Eastmark kids attend Queen Creek Unified, so this is not the home-district program. But MPS sites are open to any child who shows up, which matters for families with mixed-district siblings, summer-camp friends, or non-QCUSD households in the area. Adults can buy meals for $3 breakfast or $5 lunch. Locations on the MPS site.
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.
- 🍎 Apple manufacturing on Signal Butte. Council votes on the Foreign Trade Zone agreement Monday, May 18.
- 🏢 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.
Anything brewing in the neighborhood worth flagging? Hit reply.
