Medina Station is finally starting to feel like a real shopping center

 

If you haven’t been around Signal Butte and Southern lately, Medina Station finally looks less like a giant construction site and more like an actual shopping center.

Target opened in July. Boot Barn is open. Einstein Bros. is open. Handel’s is open. And there’s still a ton being built around them.

I went back through this whole project because there are enough buildings going up now that it’s getting hard to keep track of who’s actually coming.

I also spent some time looking into the Restaurant Row part of Medina Station, and that’s probably what I’m most interested in now.

Target is open. DICK’S is one of the next big pieces.

The new Target is about 148,000 square feet at 1517 S. Signal Butte Road. It has a CVS Pharmacy, Starbucks and Target Optical inside.

Boot Barn has opened nearby too.

Then there’s the huge building going up next to all of this.

That’s the new two-story DICK’S Sporting Goods, which is expected to be a little over 82,000 square feet.

So even though Medina Station is technically open now, we’re still really only seeing the first part of it.

There are a bunch of restaurants coming behind it

This list has gotten pretty good.

CAVA, Mission BBQ, Five Guys, Café Zupas, Hawaiian Bros. and Cheba Hut are all part of the mix.

Chick-fil-A is planned here too.

And now Einstein Bros. Bagels and Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream are already open, which is a good example of how fast some of these pieces can move once the buildings are finished.

Then there’s As You Wish Pottery, which is going into 1453 S. Signal Butte Road, Suite 103. They’re still targeting fall 2026, and construction is underway.

I like having something like As You Wish mixed into all of this.

It gives families something to actually do here instead of every new building being somewhere to eat or shop.

But there’s a separate restaurant piece at Medina Station that I think people are going to care about a lot more once it starts filling in.

They’re planning an actual Restaurant Row here

I knew Restaurant Row was part of Medina Station.

I didn’t realize how intentional they were being with it.

There’s roughly 39,000 square feet planned specifically for Restaurant Row, with the idea of bringing in five new upscale or casual sit-down restaurants.

Mesa has described the area as having patios and restaurants clustered together so it feels more like an actual place to hang out instead of a bunch of unrelated pads scattered around a parking lot.

I’m completely on board with that.

O.H.S.O. Brewery & Distillery is attached to the project, and Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers is also part of the Medina Station lineup.

The remaining Restaurant Row names are where this gets fun.

Cooper’s Hawk was actually one of the restaurants they were looking at

I went pretty far back through the plans and marketing for this project, and there have been some really interesting restaurant names considered for this area.

At different points, plans showed names like Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, Blue Sushi Sake Grill, Lou Malnati’s, Barrio Queen and Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers around Restaurant Row.

Cooper’s Hawk and Firebirds weren’t just random rumors either.

Mesa actually showed Cooper’s Hawk, Firebirds and O.H.S.O. together when it presented Medina Station and the five-restaurant concept.

Now, before somebody reads that and starts telling everyone Cooper’s Hawk is coming to Mesa...

I’m not saying any of those older names are coming.

I haven’t found anything current enough to say those deals actually happened.

Some of the early SimonCRE material was clearly showing restaurants they work with or wanted for the project, not necessarily signed leases.

But I think it tells you what they were trying to create here.

And personally, I’d love Cooper’s Hawk.

Something like Cooper’s Hawk or Firebirds would make Restaurant Row feel a lot different than another collection of places we already have up and down the 60.

There are still businesses we don’t know yet either

I don’t think we have the complete Medina Station lineup yet.

More than 70% of the retail space had already been pre-leased fairly early in the project, and newer investment listings are now selling some of these completed shop buildings as fully leased properties.

So I’ll keep digging as those remaining names start showing up on permits, signs and leasing material.

Restaurant Row is the part I’m especially curious about because I don’t think we know the final five yet.

There’s also a lot of housing planned behind all of this

This gets overlooked because Target and all the restaurants are what everybody sees from Signal Butte.

Medina Station itself is roughly 64 acres, with more than 300,000 square feet of commercial space and a pretty significant residential piece behind it.

The residential plans have changed a little over time, which is why you’ll see different numbers floating around.

Earlier versions of Medina Station talked about as many as 850 apartments.

More recently, we’ve seen a 276-unit project on one parcel and another 353-unit Medina Station apartment development, so there are at least 629 units tied to those two projects alone.

And current Medina Station leasing material is advertising 815+ multifamily units planned around the immediate area.

So either way, there are going to be a lot more people living right around all of this.

Then add the established neighborhoods already around Signal Butte, easy access to the US-60, and everyone coming west from Apache Junction and Gold Canyon.

You can see why there’s so much commercial going in here.

And there could eventually be a LOT more housing right across the freeway.

Lennar is trying to get its hands on nearly 500 acres across the 60

This technically isn’t part of Medina Station, but it absolutely matters if it happens.

Lennar is currently the applicant for roughly 473 acres of State Trust land south of the US-60, between Signal Butte and Meridian, for a possible future master-planned community.

The state is currently targeting a Q4 2026 auction.

Important distinction here:

That does not mean Lennar owns the property.

And it definitely does not mean a Lennar community is guaranteed to get built.

But I found something interesting while going through the newer commercial material for Medina Station.

The brokers selling some of these brand-new Medina Station buildings are already pointing to the proposed 473-acre Lennar community and 815+ planned multifamily units nearby when they're explaining why they think this retail location is so valuable.

That caught my attention.

Because now look at this whole Signal Butte/US-60 area together.

Medina Station is filling in with Target, DICK’S, restaurants and shops.

Restaurant Row still has more announcements coming.

Hundreds of apartments are planned right behind all of it.

And potentially, someday, you could have another 473 acres of new neighborhoods across the freeway.

There’s still way too much that has to happen with that land before I’d start talking about home counts or neighborhoods.

But it’s another piece I’d keep in the back of your mind if you live over here.

This whole Signal Butte area could get very busy

Convenience is definitely getting better.

Traffic probably isn’t.

You’ve got a major freeway interchange here, a Target-anchored shopping center filling in, DICK’S coming, Restaurant Row, hundreds of future apartments and potentially a massive amount of residential growth on the other side of the 60.

So I’m curious what Signal Butte and Southern feels like once all of this is actually operating at the same time.

For now, though, Restaurant Row is probably what I’ll watch closest.

Target was the business that originally got everyone’s attention at Medina Station.

Now that it’s open, I’m much more interested in everything filling in around it.

And knowing they’ve looked at names like Cooper’s Hawk and Firebirds makes me a little more interested in what those remaining restaurant announcements end up being.

I’ll keep checking.

And if Cooper’s Hawk somehow ends up being one of them, I’m taking credit for bringing it back into existence.