The Developer Rebuilding Foothills Mall Bought 333 Acres in Oro Valley
Venture West Group sold 333 acres inside Oro Valley's Innovation Park to Bourn Companies for $21.25 million. The per-acre math, and what the zoning allows next.
Bourn Companies paid $21.25 million — about $63,705 an acre — for the roughly 30 parcels around Roche's headquarters. What it can build there runs through the Rancho Vistoso planned area development, not a blank sheet.
Roughly 30 parcels of Oro Valley land — wrapped around a cancer-diagnostics headquarters, a hospital and a university startup incubator — now answer to one owner. BP Innovation Partners, an affiliate of Tucson's Bourn Companies, paid $21.25 million for 333.57 acres at Innovation Park. The sale closed July 22 and reached the commercial trade press the week of August 25.
- $21.25M
- Price paid for Innovation Park, Oro Valley
- 333.57
- Acres in the sale, across roughly 30 parcels
- $63,705
- Price per acre
- ~3%
- Per acre versus the park's 2023 building sale
What Changed Hands, and What Didn't
The seller was VWI / Vistoso Investment, an affiliate of Venture West Group, the firm that assembled and marketed the park. Innovation Park sits at the northwest corner of Oracle and Tangerine roads, and its tenant roster is why the name carries weight locally: Roche Tissue Diagnostics, the University of Arizona Center for Innovation at Oro Valley, and Oro Valley Hospital. A park being home to those tenants is not the same thing as one buyer acquiring their buildings, and the price is the clearest evidence of the difference.
Divide $21.25 million by 333.57 acres and you get $63,705 an acre. Set that against the most recent comparable transaction inside the park that has been publicly reported. In December 2023, Ventana Medical Systems — Roche's tissue-diagnostics arm — paid a reported $25 million for a single 112,500-square-foot research building at 2090 E. Innovation Park Drive, sitting on 11.54 acres. That is $222 per square foot of building, and roughly $2.17 million per acre of ground. A buyer paying just under three percent of that per acre is buying land and entitlements, not finished laboratory buildings.
The Buyer's Local Track Record Is a Shopping Mall
Bourn Companies is not a newcomer here. Its Tucson portfolio includes buildings at Williams Centre, The Bridges, The Landing, and Uptown — the redevelopment of the former Foothills Mall at Ina and La Cholla. Uptown is the useful reference point, because it shows what this developer does with a large site under single ownership: an approximately 2.5-million-square-foot project of apartments, townhomes, retail, offices and a hotel, phased across years rather than delivered at once. Its first residential building, the Astrie, opened to residents on June 26 of this year, and much of the rest of the site is still under construction.
Don Bourn has said the company sees "an opportunity to create a world-class mixed-use business park that expands on everything Innovation Park was established to be." That is a statement of direction, not a filed plan, and the company has said it will work with the Town of Oro Valley and community stakeholders to refine the vision as plans progress.
Mixed-Use Is a Zoning Question First
Two documents decide what can go up there. Innovation Park sits inside the Rancho Vistoso Planned Area Development, which gives each of its numbered neighborhoods a different land-use mix and requires all development to comply with the PAD development plan; the park is its office and research campus. Much of that land carries Technological Park zoning. On top of it, Oro Valley layered an Economic Expansion Zone overlay — section 24.9 of the town code — available to development proposing permitted uses that already comply with existing zoning and development standards. It trims some of the public-outreach steps in section 22.15, though an open house is still required when a site sits within 150 feet of residential property.
That overlay is the fast path, and section 24.9 closes it to exactly the kind of application a mixed-use conversion would need: its provisions do not apply to requests to amend zoning or planned area development standards, or to conditional use permits. So anything mixed-use in the residential sense goes the long way instead — a PAD amendment or a rezoning, with Planning and Zoning Commission review, neighborhood meetings, and a town council vote. As of late August 2026 no such application for the site has been publicly announced, and the buyer says its planning is still in the early stages.
- What Is There Now (Technological Park zoning, ~30 parcels, Oracle & Tangerine): A master-planned business park inside the Rancho Vistoso PAD, anchored by Roche Tissue Diagnostics' headquarters and also home to Oro Valley Hospital and the University of Arizona Center for Innovation. Roche has separately bought buildings inside the park in its own name, including the 112,500-square-foot research facility on Innovation Park Drive in December 2023.
- What a Change Would Require (PAD amendment, Public hearings, Council vote): The Economic Expansion Zone overlay is available to development that already complies with existing zoning, and section 24.9 says its provisions do not apply to applications to amend zoning or planned area development standards, or to conditional use permits. A shift toward housing or hotel space would go through a PAD amendment or rezoning instead, which carries Planning and Zoning Commission review, neighborhood meetings and a vote of the Oro Valley Town Council.
- What to Watch (Town agendas, Rezoning filings, Development plans): Oro Valley publishes its Planning and Zoning Commission and town council agendas, and its planning and zoning applications, on the town website. An application covering a site this size would appear there well before any construction begins.
The Deed Changed, Not the Zoning
For anyone who lives on the north end of Oro Valley, this month changes nothing physical. No zoning moved, no rooftop was added, no employer relocated. What changed is who holds the land and what they say they intend to do with it: acreage that was being marketed to employers parcel by parcel is now held by a developer whose signature local project is a mixed-use village. The parcels sit within a short drive of Rancho Vistoso, Stone Canyon and Tangerine Crossing, so any future application will land in front of those neighbors first.
The practical move is to read agendas rather than press releases: Oro Valley posts Planning and Zoning Commission and town council agendas at orovalleyaz.gov ahead of each meeting. For anyone buying nearby this fall, a land sale is not by itself a reason to change a number — it is a reason to know what the ground next door is zoned for, and who now owns it.
Quick reference (August 29, 2026): BP Innovation Partners, LLC, an affiliate of Bourn Companies, bought 333.57 acres at Innovation Park in Oro Valley from VWI / Vistoso Investment, LLC, an affiliate of Venture West Group, for $21,250,000 — about $63,705 per acre — in a sale that closed July 22, 2026 and was reported in the trade press the week of August 25. Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR represented the seller. Much of the park carries Technological Park zoning inside the Rancho Vistoso Planned Area Development; Oro Valley's Economic Expansion Zone overlay (zoning code section 24.9) is available to development proposing permitted uses that comply with existing zoning and development standards, and by its own terms does not apply to applications to amend zoning or planned area development standards, or to conditional use permits. As of late August 2026, no rezoning or PAD amendment application for the site has been publicly announced. General information only, not legal, tax or investment advice — confirm zoning and entitlement questions with the Town of Oro Valley Planning and Development Services.
Sources
Real Estate Daily News — "Bourn Companies Acquires 335 Acres at Innovation Park for $21.25 Million" — realestatedaily-news.com/bourn-companies-acquires-335-acres-at-innovation-park-for-21-25-million — accessed August 29, 2026 (for the buyer BP Innovation Partners, LLC, the seller VWI / Vistoso Investment, LLC, the $21.25 million price, the 333.57 acres, the $63,705 per-acre figure, the July 22, 2026 closing date, the Don Bourn quote about a world-class mixed-use business park, and the statement that planning remains preliminary pending work with the Town of Oro Valley; note that this source's headline rounds the area to 335 acres while its body gives 333.57, and the per-acre figures above are computed from 333.57). Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR — "Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR Represents Sale of Innovation Park for $21.25 Million" — picor.com/cushman-wakefield-picor-represents-sale-of-innovation-park-for-21-25-million — accessed August 29, 2026 (for the $21.25 million sale of the 333-acre park at the northwest corner of Oracle and Tangerine roads, the seller Venture West Group, the buyer Bourn Companies, the tenants Roche Tissue Diagnostics, the University of Arizona Center for Innovation at Oro Valley and Oro Valley Hospital, the PICOR brokerage team, and Bourn's Tucson portfolio of The Bridges, The Landing and Uptown). Connect CRE — "Bourn Cos. Acquires Oro Valley's Innovation Park for $21.2M" — connectcre.com/stories/bourn-cos-acquires-oro-valleys-innovation-park-for-21-2m — accessed August 29, 2026 (for the approximately 30 parcels within the Innovation Corporate Center Business Park, the mixed-use business park intent, and Bourn's portfolio including Williams Centre and Uptown, the former Foothills Mall). Real Estate Daily News — "Ventana Medical Systems / Roche Buys Expansion R&D Facility for $25 Million" — realestatedaily-news.com/ventana-medical-systems-roche-buys-expansion-rd-facility-for-25-million — accessed August 29, 2026 (for the December 15, 2023 purchase of the 112,500-square-foot research facility at 2090 E. Innovation Park Drive on 11.54 acres for a reported $25 million, or $222 per square foot; the price is single-sourced to this outlet, which is why it is described above as reported). Tucson Local Media / Explorer News — "Roche buys large vacant facility in Oro Valley" — tucsonlocalmedia.com/explorernews/news/roche-buys-large-vacant-facility-in-oro-valley — accessed August 29, 2026 (for the building having sat idle since 2020 and been bought vacant for Roche's own expansion, which is why the comparison above is to finished laboratory buildings rather than to occupied ones, and for Roche not disclosing the sale terms). Town of Oro Valley Zoning Code — "24.9 Economic Expansion Zone" — orovalley.town.codes/ZC/24.9 — accessed August 29, 2026 (for the overlay covering the Innovation Park and surrounding Rancho Vistoso areas and technology park zoned land, its availability to development proposing permitted uses that comply with existing zoning and development standards, its exemption from the public outreach requirements of section 22.15 except for an open house within 150 feet of residential property, and its provision that the section does not apply to applications for amendments to zoning or planned area development standards or to conditional use permits). Town of Oro Valley — "Rancho Vistoso Planned Area Development District #5" — orovalley.town.codes/AreaPlans/RanchoVistosoPAD — accessed August 29, 2026 (for the division of the plan into numbered neighborhoods each with its own land-use focus, the office and research park designation covering Innovation Park, and the requirement that all development comply with the PAD development plan; the number of neighborhoods is not given above because the 1987 volume and a later amendment analysis state different counts). KOLD News 13 — "Phase one of Uptown redevelopment opens at former Foothills Mall site" — kold.com/2026/06/26/phase-one-uptown-redevelopment-opens-former-foothills-mall-site — accessed August 29, 2026 (for the June 26, 2026 opening of the Astrie apartments, the approximately 2.5-million-square-foot scope of Uptown, Bourn Companies as its developer, and much of the project remaining under construction with no announced completion date). Per-acre and per-square-foot figures above are arithmetic from the reported prices and areas, not appraisals. Zoning, entitlements and development plans change; confirm anything you intend to rely on with the Town of Oro Valley. This post is for informational purposes only and is not legal, tax or financial advice, nor an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase real estate. Kyle Berglund and Tierra Antigua Realty fully support and comply with the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act.
Topics
- Local Real Estate News
- Oro Valley
- Innovation Park
- Bourn Companies
- Land Sales
- Zoning
- Rancho Vistoso
- Northwest Tucson