“People will come from all over the country to see how
it’s done,” he predicted.
Smith and other elected officials, including Phoenix
City Councilman
Daniel Valenzuela
,
whose district
includes the University, and Mesa City Councilman
Scott Somers
,
praised GCU for being a fine neighbor
whose good works now will illuminate a suburban
region that also includes the cities of Tempe, Chandler,
Gilbert and Queen Creek.
“GCU’s heart is in the community,” Valenzuela said.
The University has revitalized west Phoenix, even filling
a financial void created when federal grant money
assisting law enforcement in reducing crime dried up,
Valenzuela said. As a result, the crime rate in a wide
swath of the city – much larger than GCU’s immediate
neighborhood – has slowed, he said.
“This is extraordinary what you’re getting,” Valenzuela
said, addressing Mesa officials at the July 30 news
conference. “When it comes to GCU, it’s not just a
higher learning institution, it’s an opportunity to get
our kids a private, Christian education, and it gives
many students opportunities that they otherwise
might not have.”
‘Palette of opportunity’
Drew M. Brown
, founding partner and chairman of
the board of DMB Associates, praised
Brian Mueller
,
GCU’s president and CEO, for being able to see
the Eastmark acreage not as a brown expanse of
tumbleweeds but as a “palette of opportunity.”
“We had a vision of a truly complex, integrated place
that is not just more urban sprawl but is a special place
in Mesa,” Brown said. “It was the budding relationship
with GCU that allowed us to start the complex weave
that makes a place.”
That connection began in January 2013, when DMB
learned of GCU’s interest in the East Valley and
responded to the University’s request for proposal,
said
Dea McDonald
,
DMB’s senior vice president
and general manager. DMB was impressed by the
University’s growth and performance over the past
five years, its goals and vision for the future, and its
educational programming, he said.
“We worked diligently to get in front of Brian and the
GCU team to let them know what Eastmark is about
and DMB’s long-term commitment to the region,”
McDonald said. “It was pretty clear that the light
went on, and they saw this was a huge opportunity
to develop in a place that was much more than a
university campus.”
But the idea of building a master-planned community
anchored by a university, a notion that McDonald
called “a groundbreaking move,” was percolating at
DMB as early as 2007.
“We were working on a vision for a community that
we knew would be much different from anything
else DMB had done before,” he said. “We haven’t
done a university per se, but we always develop
partnerships in health care and education in all our
communities in some sense – elementary schools,
high schools, research centers – and given the
location of this property, the likelihood that we
could attract a university was greater here than in
any of our other projects.”
McDonald said GCU’s excellent nursing and education
programs and its planned entry into the biosciences
and engineering also caught DMB’s eye.
“We were enamored and intrigued with the nursing
program and how it would fit with our health care
partners,” he said.
Brown said DMB will deliver a home for GCU, and “in
turn, Grand Canyon is going to bring its wonderful
students and faculty, who will give vibrancy to our
community, and a windfall that will allow jobs to be
created in the East Valley.”
Mark Bistricky
, principal of Valley Christian High
School in Chandler, said the GCU expansion will
strengthen an already solid partnership between the
two institutions and provide additional opportunities
to more students.
More than one-third of Valley Christian’s past two
graduating classes have gone on to GCU, he noted.
“Grand Canyon University opening a campus in the East
Valley will offer even more ways for both schools to
serve Christian students,” he said. “Our staff also takes
advantage of the many professional development
opportunities GCU extends to us.
“(GCU is) helping make Christian education in the
Valley better at every level.”
Somers said GCU has the right mix of aesthetics,
ambiance and educational quality to complement
the Eastmark development, where housing, retail and
open space will thrive.
“
This will be more than a college campus, this will be a little village.
People will come from all over the country to see how it’s done.
”
Photos by Darryl Webb
“
We had a vision of a truly complex, integrated place that is not just
more urban sprawl but is a special place in Mesa.
”
Drew M. Brown, founding partner and chairman of the board of
DMB Associate
Mesa Mayor Scott Smith on Grand Canyon University’s
Mesa site
