Buckeye approves ‘essential’ 900-unit apartment complex south of Verrado

Buckeye City Council approved rezoning 46 acres of Buckeye Union High School District land yesterday, paving the way for constructing 900 apartment units to support Verrado.

At the northeast corner of Verrado Way and Van Buren Street, Scottsdale-based Greenlight plans to build three residential complexes, one commercial and one 6⅔-acre water campus expansion within the rezoning, according to the city council agenda narrative.

Floorplans for "Greenlight Verrado" start with studio units and one-bedroom units, with two and three-bedroom options available.

The target demographic for Greenlight Verrado's community is "essential workers, including teachers, firefighters [and] police officers" who may be priced out of Verrado proper, according to the project narrative.

Buckeye Union High School District is donating the site in kind. However, the developer is notably negotiating with Liberty Elementary School District in Buckeye for some free school expansions, according to city council officials yesterday.

Most Arizona school districts face teacher shortages. However, Liberty is facing an overcrowding issue as well, according to reports.

Before LESD’s school bond failure in 2023, Blue Horizon and Las Brisas schools were projected to be at or over 100% in 2025 and 2026.

Mayor Eric Orsborn said the height profile of the apartments provides a nice aesthetic heading north into Verrado, on the community’s main entrance, Verrado Way.

“Love the concept, the location, the densities,” he said. “The more scale we can get, the more vertical we can get, I think the more special it makes us look. That scale is pretty impressive when you're driving up and down the road, or it's just a kind of a sense of arrival, I think that we're trying to create in this area.”