Drive Lincoln from Tatum to 56th Street on a July morning and the skyline reads like it always has. Camelback on the right, Mummy off to the north, the same low-slung walls and the same citrus. Nothing looks demolished. Nothing looks under scaffolding from the road.
That surface calm is misleading. The summer of 2026 in Paradise Valley is not a season of new arrivals. It is a season of conversions, and the two biggest properties on the map are halfway through a change of identity that will read very differently by the time the snowbirds return in November.
The 40 Acres at Lincoln and Scottsdale Road
The old Scottsdale Plaza Resort is gone. Not the buildings. The name, the operator, the food, the pools, the guest rooms, and the reason to walk in.
In its place, Kimpton Miralina Resort & Villas began accepting reservations for stays starting January 5, 2026, at introductory rates from $359 a night. The property sits on 40 acres between Camelback and Mummy, managed by Highgate, redeveloped by Trinity Investments and Partners Group, and designed by the Paris and New York firm Saguez & Dash. Phase One delivered 260 Canyon guestrooms and casitas and a restaurant called Hecho Libre, run by James Beard finalist chef Wes Avila.
For residents, this matters more than a typical resort rebrand. Miralina is IHG's first branded luxury and lifestyle property in the Paradise Valley and Scottsdale market, and its opening coincides with Scottsdale's 75th anniversary. Trinity's managing partner Greg Dickhens described the pitch as "trailheads at your doorstep and Old Town Scottsdale's vibrant scene just moments away," which is the standard resort line. The unusual part is that the operators are courting locals as hard as guests. Hecho Libre is designed to function as a neighborhood restaurant, not a lobby amenity.
Phase Two Is Where the Story Gets Interesting
On June 18, 2026, the property announced the second half of its $70 million transformation. This is the announcement the writeups on the travel wires glossed over. Read it as a resident and it is a different document.
Phase Two, unveiling in Q4 2026 into Q1 2027, adds:
| Element | What it actually is |
|---|---|
| Valley Villas | 134 renovated villas with multi-level layouts aimed at longer stays and group retreats |
| The Enclave | A hotel-within-a-hotel of 10 residence-style units, each with a kitchenette, expanded living space, and spa bath |
| Onsen Pool Complex | Private to The Enclave, with warm and hot pools, a cold plunge, and a sauna, modeled on traditional onsen rituals |
| Katsuya | sbe's modern Japanese concept making its Arizona debut, led by Culinary Director Chef Benjamin Dayag |
| Meeting Space | More than 50,000 square feet, spread across 22 indoor and outdoor event venues |
The Enclave residences are not for sale. They are hotel product. But their design, and the presence of a second chef-driven restaurant on the same 40 acres, tells you what Miralina is trying to become. Highgate principal Arash Azarbarzin, in the June release, called Katsuya "a culinary debut Scottsdale has not seen before." Sam Nazarian, sbe's founder, described the partnership as extending Katsuya's touchpoints across the property through the onsen pool and the residences, not confining it to a dining room. When the project is complete, the resort will hold 404 renovated keys, six reimagined pools, and two destination restaurants under two nationally recognized chefs. Hecho Libre and Katsuya will make Miralina one of the only Paradise Valley resorts with two distinct chef-driven programs on the property.
The Resorts That Stayed Put and Refreshed
Miralina's neighbors are not standing still. They are running summer programs designed to keep locals in the door during the quiet months, and the offers are more aggressive than they appeared last summer.
| Resort | Summer 2026 offer | Where the credit lands |
|---|---|---|
| Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort & Spa | Up to 15% off best available rates plus a $50 resort credit; summer rates from $591/night | Sanctuary Spa, Elements, or Jade Bar |
| Mountain Shadows | 5% off with resort fee waived, available for stays through September 30, 2026 | Hearth '61, plus access to the 18-hole par-3 Short Course |
| Royal Palms Resort and Spa | Tranquil Days, Summer Stays: 20% off plus $50 daily credit, from $189/night, bookable through September 9 for stays May 25 through September 10 | T. Cook's or Mix Up Bar |
Read the credit column, not the discount column. That is the operator telling you which venue they need traffic in. Sanctuary is pushing the spa. Mountain Shadows is pushing Hearth '61 and the Short Course. Royal Palms is pushing T. Cook's, the property's most protected asset.
A resident with a valid Arizona ID gets more than the published discount at several of these properties. The Sanctuary summer package waives the resort fee with Arizona ID, and the offer is stackable with complimentary self-parking. That is not marketing language. That is the operator writing you a permission slip to treat the resort like a country club without the initiation.
Just Across the Town Line
The most visible construction in the region does not sit inside Paradise Valley proper. It sits just west of the town, at Cactus Road and Tatum Boulevard, on the 100-acre former Paradise Valley Mall site the developer now calls PV. This matters because PV is the closest full-service retail and dining node to most of the town's northern half, and by the end of 2026 it will look almost nothing like the parking-lot ruin residents drove past for three years.
Already open: Whole Foods, Flower Child, Blanco Reserva Cocina + Cantina, Trevor's Liquor, The Melt, and, since March 2026, the Valley's second Velvet Taco.
Under construction or announced for 2026 openings:
- The Vig at 12780 N. Tatum Boulevard, the eighth Valley location for the Genuine Concepts tavern that opened its Arcadia flagship nearly 20 years ago. Chef Jeremy Pacheco is running the menu.
- Cala, a 6,500 square foot second location for Clive Collective's coastal European restaurant, whose original opened inside Senna House Hotel Scottsdale in 2022.
- Harry & Izzy's, an 8,300 square foot Indianapolis import slated for a summer 2026 opening, marketed as an American grill. It is the sister restaurant to St. Elmo Steak House, an Indianapolis institution since 1902, and Huse Culinary's first location outside Indiana.
- Too Sweet Cakes, a 1,700 square foot bakery from Shelbi Geyer with a walk-up coffee window.
- Life Time, a 100,000 square foot athletic club with a rooftop pool.
The non-restaurant tenants are as telling as the restaurants. Fender Musical Instruments Corp. is finishing a 77,000 square foot headquarters building on the site. A 335-unit luxury apartment community from Transwestern Development Company broke ground with first units expected late 2026, on top of the 400-unit AVE Paradise Valley already in the pipeline. This is a $2 billion redevelopment, and it is being built as if the buyers who used to shop the mall are still going to be here in ten years.
What a Resident Actually Does With This
Three practical reads.
First, if you have been dodging the Scottsdale Plaza corner since 2022 because it looked abandoned, Miralina's public spaces are open. Hecho Libre is a legitimate dinner reservation on a Wednesday. The pools and grounds are worth a walk through even if you have no intention of ever booking a room next door.
Second, the resort summer offers are structured for locals this year in a way they were not two summers ago. Sanctuary and Royal Palms are both accepting Arizona ID for meaningful concessions. A $50 daily credit at T. Cook's or a waived resort fee at Sanctuary changes the math on a Friday dinner enough that "let's just drive to the resort" becomes a defensible weeknight plan.
Third, the PV development at Cactus and Tatum is going to reshape where you drive for dinner by the end of the year. Harry & Izzy's opens this summer. The Vig and Cala follow. The block of Tatum you have been avoiding since demolition started is about to become one of the shorter drives in your week.
The through line across all of it is the same. Paradise Valley in the summer of 2026 is not adding parcels or building on empty land. It is converting existing footprints into something that reads more current than what they replaced. Old resort becomes Kimpton. Old mall becomes PV. Old menus become chef-driven programs. The town's map is not getting bigger. It is getting sharper.
That distinction matters for anyone thinking about what a home in this town is worth against the alternative of a new build in far north Scottsdale or Rio Verde. The value in Paradise Valley has always been the location and the land. What is happening this summer suggests the built environment around that land is being renewed at a scale most residents underestimate when they read a single press release.
If you are weighing what these conversions mean for your own address, or how the resort and retail changes read against a specific street or lot, Shawn Keeler is available to walk through the map with you. Let's Connect.
