Drive the I-10 and Verrado Way interchange most Saturdays this year and you'll catch a construction crew, a banner, or a line of cars circling for a parking spot that didn't exist eighteen months ago. Drive five miles south to 5th Street and Monroe Avenue on that same Saturday and you'll find a 25-foot fiberglass hobo statue waving at traffic, a handful of family-run restaurants, and a calendar of events that has barely changed shape in decades. Both are Buckeye. Neither is waiting on the other to catch up.
That's the part worth understanding if you already live here: the city is running two different clocks at once, and knowing which one governs your weekend saves you a wasted trip.
The Corridor Is Still Filling In
Buckeye Commons, the shopping center anchored by Costco since it opened in 2023, has spent this year adding names one at a time rather than all at once. Home Depot opened its doors on June 18, marking the retailer's first location in Buckeye. Dick's Sporting Goods followed with a public soft opening around July 1, then held its official three-day grand opening weekend from July 10 through July 12, complete with a celebrity appearance from Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride. The 50,000-square-foot store at 20660 W. Roosevelt Street includes a dedicated Golf Pro Shop with fitting technology and a Pickleball Resource Center for paddle fitting and overgrip wrapping.
Barnes & Noble and Five Below have both signed leases for space next to Dick's, but as of this summer they were still under construction, not open. That's the pattern to notice: three years after Costco opened its doors, the center is still arriving in pieces.
| Retailer | Status |
|---|---|
| Costco | Open since 2023 (original anchor) |
| Home Depot | Opened June 18, 2026 |
| Dick's Sporting Goods | Soft open July 1, grand opening weekend July 10-12, 2026 |
| Barnes & Noble | Lease signed, under construction |
| Five Below | Lease signed, under construction |
If you've been holding off on a shopping trip because you assumed the corridor was finished, it isn't. It's been finished in stages since Home Depot's arrival in June, and it'll keep finishing in stages through the rest of the year.
Five Miles South, Nobody's Announcing Anything
Old Town Buckeye doesn't run press releases for its landmarks, mostly because it doesn't need to. The Hobo Joe statue on 5th Street has stood in one form or another since the mid-1960s, when a former Walt Disney Company animator named Jim Casey designed the character as the face of a chain of Arizona coffee shops. When the chain folded in the 1980s, one of the oversized fiberglass statues ended up outside a Buckeye meat processing facility, where it stood for nearly three decades before the property changed hands and the statue needed a new home. The Buckeye Main Street Coalition took on the restoration, moving Hobo Joe offsite in 2016 and returning him to his current post downtown in 2020, repainted and structurally sound.
There's no grand opening weekend for a statue that's been part of the skyline for sixty years. That's the point. Old Town's identity doesn't depend on what gets built next to Costco.
The Calendar That Was Already Set Before the Ribbon Cuttings
While Buckeye Commons has been filling storefronts on a rolling basis, the city's downtown events calendar for the rest of 2026 and into early 2027 was locked in well before Dick's Sporting Goods held its grand opening. Some of what's already on the books:
- October 24: The Halloween Carnival, a tradition the city traces back more than 80 years, runs from 5 to 9 p.m. in downtown Buckeye.
- November 28 through December 19: Sundance Park hosts Santa on consecutive Saturdays, with dedicated photo nights on December 5 and 19 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
- December 12: The Glow on Monroe electric light parade lights up downtown from 6 to 9 p.m.
- January 9, 2027: The twelfth annual Buckeye Marathon, half marathon, 10K, 5K, and 1-mile run starts at the Buckeye Municipal Airport.
- January 23, 2027: Buckeye Days brings a parade, vendors, and food back to downtown from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the western heritage celebration traditionally including a cattle drive and rodeo weekend nearby.
None of these dates moved because a new anchor store opened at Exit 120. They're the same fixtures the city has run for years, and they'll happen whether or not Barnes & Noble finishes construction on schedule.
Where the Two Clocks Meet
There's one place in Buckeye where the corridor's growth and Old Town's routine actually intersect, and it's not a shopping center. Skyline Regional Park, an 8,700-acre mountain preserve at the southern edge of the White Tank Mountains, sits about two miles north of the I-10 and Watson Road interchange, free to enter, with trails open from sunrise to sunset. The park has grown from seven miles of trail at its 2016 opening to more than 20 miles today, including the popular four-mile Turnbuckle Loop Trail.
One detail worth knowing if you're planning a hike soon: Maricopa County's fire ban runs through September 30, so the park's dry-camping and ramada areas are under seasonal restriction right now. Once that ban lifts in October, Skyline moves into its real season, cooler mornings, clearer desert nights, and the scheduled Star Party stargazing events the park is known for. That reset comes in October, ahead of the Halloween Carnival downtown, giving Buckeye's outdoor season and its decades-old civic tradition separate milestones this fall.
What This Means If You Already Live Here
The mistake would be treating Buckeye Commons as the story and Old Town as the footnote, or the reverse. They're not competing for the same Saturday. The corridor is where you go for a Home Depot run or a new pair of running shoes, and it'll keep adding names through the rest of 2026. Old Town is where the Halloween Carnival and Buckeye Days happen on schedule, the way they have for years, regardless of what's under construction five miles north.
Knowing which clock you're checking saves you a wasted trip, whether that's driving to Buckeye Commons expecting a finished shopping center or assuming downtown's traditions are somehow secondary to what's newer and bigger.
A Note From Cathie
I spend a lot of my work life talking with people about what a neighborhood is like day to day, not just what it looks like on a listing. Buckeye's growth story gets told a lot lately, mostly through square footage and store openings. What I hear less often is how steady the other half of the city stays through all of it. If you're curious about how a specific pocket of Buckeye fits your own routine, or you're weighing a move here against somewhere else in the West Valley, I'm happy to walk through it with you.
Reach out to Catherine Abeel and let's connect.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
