MESA, AZ-A little more than one year after launching a search for the ideal site for expansion, Grand Canyon University has unveiled plans for – and the future of – its new location. The Christian, for-profit university is collaborating with Scottsdale, AZ-based developer DMB Associates to build and operate its second campus at Eastmark, a 3,200-acre, master-planned development.
GCU has been around for decades; its main campus is at 33rd and Camelback. It has a strong online component as well as on-campus programs. Demand led to its need to expand and, according to Colliers International's senior vice president Todd Noel, the university examined sites throughout the southwest including the Phoenix metro region and Tucson.
"There's been a need for an affordable Christian university," says Noel, who is representing GCU in its expansion. "We're planning, potentially, to open up multiple locations."
Mesa, located in the region's East Valley, appealed to the university's decision-makers for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was location. Eastmark itself is just off Loop 202, near the intersections of Ellsworth and East Ray Roads. Noel tells GlobeSt.com that one of GCU's requirements was proximity to a freeway, as well as a strong retail component. "DMB will be building, as part of its village center, some retail to support the university and its operations center," he says. Housing is also part of the plan as well.
As of now, GCU has the right to acquire 100 acres from DMB; Noel says both entities are working through that process. Depending on development and demand, the university would have the option to acquire an adjacent 60 acres. The first buildings to go north on the land will include a student union, two classroom buildings, administration space, an open green area and an intramural field. Incidentally, GCU is the first for-profit university with a Division I standing through the Western Athletic Conference.
Noel says the new campus will initially be a commuter campus. But GCU's main campus anticipated to grow up to 20,000 students physically attending during the next several years (8,500 currently are in physical attendance, with 48,000 attending online). As such, Noel estimates that the East Valley campus could end up with between 8,000 and 10,000 students attending.
"Given the trajectory of the university and its reception among the community, the churches and the high schools, this could become a residential campus," he adds.
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