Gardner City Council Approves Rezoning for Velocity Arts Entertainment District

Posted September 23, 2026

The Gardner City Council is moving forward with Velocity Arts LLC’s plans to build a $1.55 billion entertainment campus.

Councilmembers at the Gardner City Council meeting on Monday decided to vote in favor of a request to rezone nearly 215 acres of agricultural land into mixed-use. The site would be used to develop an entertainment campus located along the I-35 corridor near 175th Street.

City documents say the campus is expected to feature an amphitheater with year-round events, commercial uses, a hotel and villas, and a for-profit college with dormitories, with approximately 2.5 million gross square feet of building area.

During the Monday meeting, members also reviewed and approved the first design plan for the project.

The development will consist of nine districts:

District 1 – a majority of the commercial uses arranged along a “Main Street” with on-street parking, a 2,500-seat performing arts center, a covered outdoor plaza with commercial uses on 2-3 sides, a 750-vehicle parking structure, and more than 2,500 surface parking spaces
District 2 – a 15,000-seat indoor/outdoor concert pavilion, commercial uses, a 500-vehicle parking structure, and surface parking
District 3 – a 10-acre recreational lagoon with associated clubhouses and 600+ surface parking spaces
Districts 4 and 5 – vacation villas consisting of 4 units per building, with each unit containing 2-3 bedrooms
District 6 – a 5-story, 300-key hotel and surface parking
District 7 – for-profit college uses, including a 3-story, 300-bed dormitory and surface parking
District 8 – a 6,000-seat Esports arena and surface parking
District 9 – campus operations and maintenance uses

The entertainment campus to the public by summer 2029.

The developer first released renderings for the project in early August before the Gardner City Planning Commission voted to approve the plans for City Council review.

Populous is the master planner & designer, McCownGordon is the construction manager and Kimley-Horn will serve as the civil engineer for the project.