Near Hayden Road and Via de Ventura there are two addresses, 8260 Hayden and 8300 N. Hayden. Over 59 days this summer and fall, that corner lost two restaurants and gained one. It has had more turnover than any other stretch of McCormick Ranch this year, and the new arrivals all come from operators who already have a following elsewhere in the Valley.
The project at Scottsdale Road and McCormick Parkway, with the bigger names and the ceremonial groundbreaking, runs on a much longer timeline. For the next year, what McCormick Ranch eats will depend on a few storefronts along Hayden.
Fifty-Nine Days at Hayden and Via de Ventura
In date order:
- July 31, 2026. Campo Italian Bistro & Bar served its last dinner at 8260 Hayden Road, Suite A102, after five years.
- September 18, 2026. Vecina opened its second location at 8300 N. Hayden Road, in the space Z'Tejas used to occupy.
- September 28, 2026. Saint Urban, at 8260 Hayden Road #A-100, closed as a restaurant and became Saint Urban Private Dining Room, which hosts holiday parties and private events.
Campo and Saint Urban had neighboring suites at the same address. Vecina is in the next building over. So in about two months, one small piece of McCormick Ranch saw a five-year Italian bistro close, a well-known Latin American restaurant open, and a wine bar from chef Christopher Collins become an events room.
Campo's suite has no named tenant yet. When Campo closed, a representative said the space would be available for a new tenant, but no replacement had been announced as of the July report. The September coverage of Saint Urban doesn't name a successor either, and the Saint Urban suite is still in use for private events.
Campo's goodbye post said many of its familiar bartenders and servers would be moving "just down the road to our neighboring Genuine Concepts spots." The restaurant closed, but some of its staff are staying nearby.
What Vecina Brought North From Arcadia
Husband and wife James and Raenee Fox opened Vecina in Arcadia in 2019. Its Latin American-inspired menu made it a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2020, and Phoenix New Times named it Best New Restaurant that year. It's still on the paper's Top 50 list.
The McCormick Ranch location is about three times the size of the original. Plenty of restaurants open a second location in a smaller, cheaper space. Vecina went the other way and made the Scottsdale room its largest. "It's a really good extension of what we do in Arcadia," Raenee Fox told Phoenix New Times.
Vecina opened for dinner only, and lunch is planned for later. For now, the corner is a dinner stop. Once lunch starts, it will draw a daytime crowd as well.
Dash Is Built Around the Neighborhood Its Chef Lives In
The second piece of evidence is about a mile and a half north. Dash plans to open in November at 9619 N. Hayden Road, #101, near Hayden and Mountain View roads. It comes from chef Matt Carter and restaurateur Brian Raab, the partners behind Zinc Bistro, The Mission and Fat Ox. They hadn't added a new concept in 10 years.
Carter has been open about why he picked the spot:
"It really is kind of a mixed bag of what you would expect from a morning, noon and night type space, but it's also all these things that I either wanted to cook for myself or I wanted to eat in my neighborhood."
He told New Times the location is near where he lives.
The layout fits that description. The indoor dining room has 12 seats and the patio has 40. Most of the seating is outside, and a large share of the business is meant to leave with customers through a market and curbside pickup. The market will carry Dash's own menu along with favorites from the partners' other restaurants: Zinc's mac-and-cheese, Fat Ox's polenta and The Mission's chips and guacamole.
The menu changes through the day:
- Morning: croissants and pastries from Fat Ox pastry chef Lisa Graf, breakfast bowls, fresh-squeezed orange juice, matcha and pour-overs. Coffee drinks use house syrups made with seasonal ingredients such as fig leaves or dates.
- Lunch: deli-style chopped sandwiches, including a BLT with Nueske's bacon and salt-cured tomato, plus a folded chicken Caesar flatbread, salads, rice bowls and Roman-style pizzas.
- Evening: Portuguese-style charcoal-roasted chicken and charcoal-roasted potatoes from a custom grill. Soft serve is made with a dried Hokkaido milk base, and there's a vegan version made from fava beans.
- Drinks: beer and wine at first, with batched cocktails planned later. House sodas include a mushroom-infused cola, a root beer and a ginger-grapefruit soda.
Raab called it "our most approachable concept to date." He also said Dash is meant to be "the ultimate neighborhood hang to grab a morning coffee, catch up over lunch or share a bottle of wine at sunset and then take one home with you."
The pattern holds from Vecina to Dash. Operators with established Valley names are putting new restaurants in existing Hayden Road storefronts, and they're describing them as places for the people who live nearby.
The Lakefront Runs on a 2027 Clock
The project likely to get the most attention is the Lakefront at Scottsdale Road and McCormick Parkway. Scottsdale-based Diversified Partners bought the roughly 100,000-square-foot building in May from Forever Living Products, which had used it as its corporate headquarters. The price was $25.5 million. The ceremonial groundbreaking took place September 24.
Four tenants have been announced:
- Sushisamba: seafood with Japanese, Peruvian and Brazilian influences, opening its first Arizona location. The company started in New York City in 1999. Co-CEO Omar Gutierrez said it hadn't found anything in Scottsdale until this site came up.
- V Modern Italian: high-end pizza and pasta, also opening its first Arizona location. It already operates in Nashville, Tampa and Kansas City.
- La La Land Kind Café: going into a former bank building on the property.
- Workshop Pilates.
CEO Walt Brown Jr. said three more businesses have signed nondisclosure agreements. About 10% of the building is still available, and several businesses have submitted letters of intent.
Then there's the timeline. The first phase, with the retail and restaurants, is expected to be done by November 2027. The second phase adds office space on the upper level and is targeted for mid-2028. Counting from today, October 5, 2026, that phase one target is about 13 months out, and none of the tenants has announced its own opening date. Brown has also proposed a marina with Duffy boats for rent on the lake. That piece needs approval from the homeowners association, so it isn't a given yet.
Between now and phase one, Dash will be open more than a year, Vecina will have time to add lunch, and Campo's former suite at 8260 Hayden may get a new tenant. Whenever the Lakefront's restaurants open, they will join a Hayden Road lineup that has already been reshuffled.
Evenings Near the Corner Before Dash Opens
McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, at 7301 E. Indian Bend Road, has the most predictable after-dark plans in the area this season.
Spook-Track-Ula runs every night through October 31, from 6 to 9:30 p.m. New this year are a haunted train walk-through and a Storybook Train Ride. Admission is $15 per person, and children 2 and under get in free. Entry is timed in half-hour slots from 6 to 8 p.m.
Holiday Lights tickets go on sale October 26 at 8 a.m. The park lists the event from November 27 through December 30, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., with no event on December 24 or 25. Tickets are $15 for ages 3 and up, and entry is timed. New this year is S'more Land, with $8 kits. Santa and Grinch appearance dates are still listed as TBD. One line on the event page still shows a 2025 date, so check the park's page before you buy tickets.
In the daytime, the train, carousel and Model Railroad Building are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through December. Single ride tickets are $3. The rides close on Thanksgiving and Christmas and close at 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The railroad museum is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Pullman cars are closed through October.
Dash's November opening lands between the end of Spook-Track-Ula and the start of Holiday Lights. During those weeks, a coffee in the morning and a takeout dinner on the way home can both come from a stretch of Hayden Road that didn't offer either a year ago.
Whoever takes Campo's former suite at 8260 Hayden will shape this corner sooner than the Lakefront's phase one target of November 2027. If you own nearby and want to know how changes like these affect the way buyers see your street, The Avenue Collective can walk you through it in a white-glove consultation, one Hayden Road address at a time.
