If you have driven north on Oracle Road through Oro Valley in the last several months, you have seen the fencing: a large portion of the Oro Valley Marketplace property, on the southeast corner of Oracle and Tangerine, is now an active construction site. This is not a cosmetic refresh. It is Phase 1 of a roughly $100 million master redevelopment approved by the Oro Valley Town Council, and the scope includes 320 new apartments, a new public park, a pedestrian tunnel, rebuilt intersections, and — in future phases — a hotel and additional retail. Here is a fully sourced picture of what is actually being built, what the timeline looks like, and why it matters for anyone considering a home in Oro Valley. 320 — Class A apartment units in Phase 1 (Encantada at Oro Valley Marketplace). ~$100M — Estimated total project cost across phases. Oct 2025 — Phase 1 groundbreaking. 2027 — Apartment community target completion (mid-to-late) What Broke Ground in October 2025 HSL Properties, with Borderlands Construction as the general contractor, began Phase 1 site work on October 6, 2025 — grading, utility relocation, and foundation preparation on the southern portion of the Oro Valley Marketplace site. The first and largest piece of Phase 1 is the apartment component, a 320-unit Class A community branded Encantada at Oro Valley Marketplace, sited south of Tangerine Road on what had previously been underutilized commercial land within the Marketplace footprint. Per coverage in KOLD News 13 and Real Estate Daily News, the apartments are targeted for completion in the mid-to-late 2027 timeframe. A New Public Park Between Walmart and Tuk Tuk Thai One of the less-reported pieces of the plan is a new public neighborhood park tucked into the Marketplace. Per a Town of Oro Valley news release, construction on the park began in November 2025, occupying the open space between the Walmart anchor and the existing Tuk Tuk Thai restaurant. When complete, the park is intended to function as both a neighborhood amenity for the new Encantada residents and a publicly accessible green space for the broader Marketplace — a change that shifts the center's character from strictly retail-and-parking to a more walkable mixed-use environment. The Pedestrian Tunnel Under Water Harvest Way Connecting the new residential side of the project to the commercial north side is a pedestrian tunnel under Water Harvest Way. Per the Town of Oro Valley, tunnel construction was scheduled for November through December 2025. The tunnel is a small piece of infrastructure with an outsized effect on how the site functions day-to-day: it means residents of the 320 apartment units will be able to walk to the Marketplace's stores, restaurants, theater, and the upcoming park without crossing Water Harvest Way at grade. Oro Valley Marketplace was originally built in 2008 as a conventional open-air retail center. The 2023 master plan reimagined it as a mixed-use district with housing, a park, and pedestrian connections — an approach consistent with how newer suburban town centers across Arizona are being redeveloped for walkability. Tangerine & Water Harvest Way: What Drivers Should Expect This Spring Intersection improvements along Water Harvest Way, adjacent to the existing In-N-Out Burger, began in January 2026 and, per the Town of Oro Valley, remain active through spring. Drivers using Oracle Road, Tangerine Road, or the Marketplace itself over the coming weeks should expect continued lane shifts, temporary signage, and short-duration closures in the construction zone. The Town has been posting updates on its Community and Economic Development page for the HSL Encantada project, which is the single best source for current traffic impacts. The Approval Path: 2023 Master Plan and a 6-0 P&Z Vote The redevelopment is not a one-off proposal. It stems from a 2023 Town Council-approved master plan for the property, and the architectural package for the Encantada apartments was recommended for approval by the Oro Valley Planning and Zoning Commission on a 6-0 vote, per Rose Law Group Reporter and the Citizen Portal AI public-meeting archive. In other words: this project has already cleared the public process — construction permits, not entitlements, are what is now being executed. Future Phases: Hotel and Additional Retail Per KGUN9 and Oro Valley News, the roughly $100 million total project cost spans multiple phases beyond the apartments, park, and infrastructure described above. Future phases contemplate a hotel and additional retail components within the Marketplace footprint. Those phases do not yet have public construction dates, and any buyer evaluating the area should treat the apartments, park, and pedestrian tunnel as the near-term realities and the hotel/retail components as longer-horizon items still subject to market timing and final design approvals. What This Means for Buyers Watching Oro Valley Oro Valley Marketplace sits at the functional gateway between Oracle Road and the Tangerine Road corridor, close to the subdivisions of Rancho Vistoso to the north and the Naranja and La Cañada corridors to the south. Redevelopment activity at a center of this scale — new housing, a new park, a rebuilt pedestrian circulation system — is the kind of infrastructure change that shows up in long-range property considerations for any nearby home: traffic patterns, walkability, and the character of the closest commercial amenity all shift when a retail center becomes a mixed-use district. None of that is a guarantee of appreciation in any direction, and every home sits in its own micro-context. But if you are actively looking at Oro Valley listings in ZIP 85737 or 85755 this spring, the Marketplace construction is part of the picture worth understanding rather than driving past. Coming Weeks: Where to Watch Through late April and May 2026, the most visible ongoing work will be the apartment foundation and framing on the southern portion of the site, continued intersection work along Water Harvest Way near the In-N-Out, and park construction between Walmart and Tuk Tuk Thai. For first-hand updates, the Town of Oro Valley's news page and the Community and Economic Development Department's Current Projects list (specifically the HSL Encantada Luxury Apartments entry) both post construction notices; local outlets KGUN9, KOLD, Real Estate Daily News, Oro Valley News, and Rose Law Group Reporter have been covering milestones as they occur. If you are relocating to Oro Valley and trying to understand how a development like this fits into a specific street or subdivision you are considering, that is a conversation worth having house-by-house. Every buyer's priorities — commute, quiet, walkability, long-term resale — weigh construction impact differently. Sources Town of Oro Valley — "Exciting development happening at the Oro Valley Marketplace" news release (orovalleyaz.gov). Town of Oro Valley — Community and Economic Development, Current Projects: HSL Encantada Luxury Apartments project page (orovalleyaz.gov). Real Estate Daily News — "Phase 1 Construction Underway at Oro Valley Marketplace Redevelopment" (realestatedaily-news.com, October 2025). KOLD News 13 — "Oro Valley Marketplace breaks ground on new construction" (kold.com, October 7, 2025). KGUN9 — "Construction begins on Oro Valley Marketplace redevelopment" (kgun9.com, October 2025). Rose Law Group Reporter — "Marketplace redevelopment underway in Oro Valley" (roselawgroupreporter.com, October 2025). Oro Valley News — "Oro Valley apartments project" (orovalleynews.com). Citizen Portal AI — Oro Valley Planning and Zoning Commission public-meeting coverage (recommendation of architectural approval on a 6-0 vote).