Axon updates its controversial plans for Arizona campus

Axon, a maker of stun guns and body cameras for law enforcement, is preparing for a second attempt to win Scottsdale approval to build a new campus near Loop 101 and Hayden Road.

After Axon’s first proposal was met with an icy reception. from the Scottsdale Planning Commission and Airport Advisory Commission, the company put the brakes on the process in early 2024. The company recently unveiled an updated design that executives say addresses concerns raised by neighbors and provides greater benefit to the community.

“We believe the option we’re providing people is significantly better than what it’s zoned for,” said Charles Huelmantel, a zoning attorney representing Axon in the case.

The approximately 74-acre site is zoned for industrial development, but Axon is seeking to change the zoning to allow mixed uses, including condominiums, apartments, hotels and restaurants.

The project includes Axon’s world headquarters, which will be built on the eastern part of the site. The western portion will include a hotel, residences and restaurants. The new plan expands the restaurant space and will include seven restaurants in the complex, up from five in the first plan.

“I want this to be where I want to be,” said Rick Smith, CEO of Axon. He said that in the process of modernization, the company had addressed the reasons why the old proposal was unpopular.

The proposal changes the traffic structure and adds apartments

The new proposal also includes road realignments to redirect traffic flow and prevent development-related traffic from flowing into the nearby residential area.

The plan also reduced the number of proposed residential units to 1,965 from the originally proposed 2,552. Of those residential units, 365 would be owner-occupied condominiums rather than rentals. The condominiums will be located in a building on the farthest southern portion of the site, closest to the adjacent residential subdivision.

The updated plan also includes a shaded, landscaped walkway from the office building to the restaurants, so Axon employees can easily walk to lunch. Smith said he expects between a quarter and half of the housing units will be occupied by Axon employees who want to live close to their jobs.

Smith said the new development’s offerings, such as restaurants, will also benefit surrounding neighbors. But for restaurants to stay open, there needs to be a “critical mass” of people in the area to eat there, he said, so apartments and condominiums will help support business.

The headquarters building will have event space, which will require a nearby hotel to accommodate business travel, he said.

The closest building to existing homes would be more than 420 feet away, which is more than required, Smith said.

If the site had not been rezoned and turned into industrial buildings, Smith says, there could have been much less space between the area and the new buildings, and there would likely have been a significant increase in truck traffic to service the industrial buildings.

“People say they want industrial, and that sounds great until you understand what industrial actually means,” he said.

Land uses may change over time, Axon leaders say

The site is part of the Crossroads East Development Plan, which governs the area. Under the plan, residential development would be prohibited on the Axon-owned site.

Smith said he remains optimistic about the project’s feasibility in Scottsdale.

“When I first made body cameras, they were illegal in six states,” he said. “We changed the law.”

Huelmantel said the plans were structured so they could change as the world changed. He said Axon’s proposed plan would benefit the community more than an industrial project.

“Things change over time,” Smith said. “If we don’t build there, manufacturing and distribution will be built there.”

The search for the headquarters took almost a decade

The process of building the new headquarters has taken nearly a decade, Smith said, and he’s starting to feel a sense of urgency.

The company had planned to build a new headquarters in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Scottsdale, but Smith said Scottsdale leaders reached out to him and asked him to reconsider the decision to leave the city.

When Axon bought the site at an Arizona Department of Lands auction in September 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic put any development plans on hold, he said.

Smith said the possibility of moving Axon to another city remains, but said he doesn’t want to dwell on the idea and remains optimistic that a deal can be done in Scottsdale.

“Jobs like these are what every city and every state wants,” he said.

However, according to Smith, he is not the only decision-maker at the publicly traded company, which is governed by a board of directors. The board told him they were not interested in building a headquarters in Scottsdale without the opportunity to develop a mixed-use project with it.

“It’s not easy to do something iconic when you’re a big public company,” he said. “I want to do something great.”

Creating recognizable and distinct buildings can help build a company’s brand, and the proposed campus pays homage to the design of sci-fi films, including a walkway reminiscent of an iconic scene from Star Wars.

Huelmantel said the significant changes to the plan show commitment to the city.

“We wouldn’t have made these changes if we didn’t want to be here,” he said.

Huellmantel said the company and Scottsdale are in talks to schedule a public hearing. Smith said he wants to begin construction on the new site in the next two to two and a half years.