Plant nursery transforming into agritainment destination

A new agritainment destination is coming to Queen Creek following action by the town council.

At its Wednesday meeting, the Queen Creek Town Council unanimously approved rezoning 10.5 acres of land generally located at the northwest corner of Ellsworth and Ryan roads near Mesa from rural to agritainment to allow Desert Horizon Nursery to build a restaurant and bakery/café at the plant nursery site.

With this action, the nursery will operate by right rather than through a conditional use permit as it has since 2003.

The site will include landscaped areas, buildings, parking and site access. The restaurant building will be approximately 7,527 square feet and the bakery/cafe building will be about 2,046 square feet, according to a staff report. The site will also include pedestrian access, walking paths and shared outdoor spaces that will connect Desert Horizon Nursery’s different uses.

“This truly is the definition of agritainment. This is what we as a council, as a town, truly envision and I was grateful to be included when the conception (of this) was first being discussed,” Mayor Julia Wheatley said. “We really want to support those that are bringing something that our residents are asking for and this really fits that mold.”

The first phase of the redevelopment will include the restaurant building, open space, landscaping and parking. The second phase will see the development of the bakery/cafe building. Desert Horizon Nursery owners and operators Billy Stevenson and Michael LaPidus filed the application for the rezoning.

A restaurateur, LaPidus explained his plans for the eatery.

“What we’re proposing is a breathtaking experience in a breathtaking ambiance and that’s only going to happen at a place like Desert Horizon Nursery,” he said. “You’ll walk up, you’ll be greeted with — not large commercial lighting or very dark and hot asphalt — you’ll be greeted with the landscape that’s already there and then enhanced. Our whole goal is to maintain that soft desert feel so you can feel that as you dine.”

He said the restaurant would feature an “American menu” with woodfired burgers, “we will also have kimchi fried rice.”

“We’ll make sure that we hit tacos because this town loves their tacos,” LaPidus said. “The menu will change frequently throughout the year.”

Before the vote, the council held a public hearing on the agritainment venture in which the only speaker voiced his support.

“Not only do the residents like me want something like this we need something like this,” Austin Baillio told the council. “We have some beautiful jewels already in the agritainment space here in Queen Creek and this is just going to highlight that trend. We need more of this kind of thing in Queen Creek.”

At its Aug. 14 meeting, the town’s Planning & Zoning Commission voted to recommend the conditional use permit for Desert Horizon Nursery, adding an amendment to allow for the creation of a decomposed granite parking lot and the use of box planters as dividing walls. The amendment also requires the developer to work with town staff to ensure a multiuse trail along Ellsworth Road is incorporated into the design.

The owners estimate that when the restaurant and bakery/cafe are completed and open, the development will have 66 employees in the low season and 91 employees in the high season.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org.