Long-anticipated plans calling for the construction of two new hotels near the former Fiesta Mall have now been announced.
The Scottsdale-based Sunny Day Sports, an investment fund focusing on sports facility projects, says it wants to build the structures within what is being called the Palo District. That 80-acre district is focusing on the mixed-use site development of the legendary mall property.
Built in 1979, the Fiesta Mall was closed in 2018 and ultimately demolished in 2023.
Sunny Day Sports, which says its goal is to “unite a global audience through sports,” envisions the building of a modern lifestyle 400-room hotel with a large conference area, and an extended stay hotel with 200 rooms.
Both new hotels will be designed to support Sunny Day’s larger project at the same site of building a new women’s health and soccer stadium. That effort will also see the construction of new office and retail space.
In announcing the building of the hotels, Vicki Mayo, chief executive officer of Sunny Day Sports, said the new lodging facilities will be geared for competing athletes, tourists and sports fans, and collaborating researchers and clinicians, among others.
Ultimately the new lodging options, continued Mayor, will be designed to “enhance the experience of everyone who comes to Palo.”
An exact date for when work on the two hotels will begin has not yet been announced, but earlier reports indicate that they are expected to be open sometime in early 2028.
March 9, 2026
By Garry Boulard
