A sprawling community is continuing to grow with the recent Mesa City Council approval of new office spaces and shopping centers around Pecos Road and Ellsworth Road.

Much of this growing community is part of the masterplannned community of Eastmark in District 6 of east Mesa, near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and the ASU Polytechnic Campus.

“Eastmark has really become the center of District 6 now,” District 6 Councilmember Kevin Thompson said.

With all the residential population moving into the area, there have been concerns from East Valley residents about how the Mesa economy can sustain the new development.

Thompson says there is nothing for the East Valley to worry about.

“We have a lot of the proven population to man those jobs, those high paying and high wage jobs, that people are looking for,” Thompson said.

As the development continues to move forward, there is a good employee pool to pull from that resides in the East Valley for the new companies that will start to move into the area.

“It is really becoming a major employment hub for the city of Mesa. With its proximity to the airport, it’s going to be an economic engine for Mesa,” Sean Lake, real estate and land use attorney said, referring to the new developments.

This area of continuing development used to be the General Motors Proving Grounds, where vehicles were tested in the extreme climate of the Arizona summer, Thompson said.

“Now there are restaurants, entertainment, retail and what the community wants. The future is pretty bright for that part of District 6,” Thompson said.

“The income characteristics of that area rivals what is at 24th and Camelback,” said William Jabjiniak, Mesa director of economic development.

24th Street and Camelback Road is an upper middle-class neighborhood in Phoenix.

A request to allow for the development of housing, office, retail, medical, recreational, commercial or industrial space south of Warner Road and west of Ellsworth Road also was approved by the City Council at the Feb. 7 meeting.

“We love downtown and other parts of Mesa, but this is really where the growth is happening, and where the exciting new projects are happening that will take us the next 50 years in Mesa,” Lake said.

The only drawbacks to these developments are an increase in traffic in the area, with more truck traffic heading south and vehicle traffic heading to the residential side of the community, Thompson said.

“We just have a lot of catching up to do from the city’s perspective to ensure that our roadways are more set-up to accommodate the traffic that is coming with development, we are slowly doing that now,” Thompson said.

A dollar limit increase contract also was approved in the council meeting for maintenance and repair services on the scoreboard used for the Oakland Athletics at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, providing funding for replacements and upgrades.

Mesa Mayor John Giles said the sports facility is “a destination for the entire country.”

Editor’s note: Alyssa Bickle wrote the article as a journalism student at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University.