The McCormick Ranch Lake Edges Are Doing More Work This Summer Than The Fairways

For decades the shorthand for McCormick Ranch has been the golf courses. Two 18-hole layouts, mature trees, the quiet rhythm of a 1970s master plan. That shorthand still works. It just no longer describes where the neighborhood's most interesting summer 2026 activity is happening.

Three separate lake edges inside the community are being reworked at the same time. One restaurant already opened in May. One office park is being converted into a four-restaurant waterfront in June. One lakeside landmark from 1984 is a demolition site with a fall 2026 target for its replacement. Taken together, the water is quietly taking back the center of gravity from the fairways, and if you live here, the greenbelt already connects you to all three.

Camelback Lake: The Teardown You Can See From The Path

The Chart House on the southeast corner of Scottsdale and McCormick Parkway closed after 41 years in business when Houston-based Landry's sold it to Prime Steak Concepts, which plans to level the 10,000-square-foot building and introduce a new upscale steakhouse at the site. Its final service was June 30, 2025.

Prime Steak Concepts is not an outside operator. The group is run by brothers Michael and Jeffrey Mastro, Dennis Mastro, and business partner Scott Troilo, and the Mastro brothers grew up in the McCormick Ranch neighborhood. They also own Steak 44, Ocean 44, Dominick's Steakhouse, and Durant's. Chart House had been a Scottsdale mainstay since 1984 and was well known for its views of Camelback Lake and Mountain, which is why the site matters beyond its square footage. Camelback Lake is the visual anchor for the southern end of the community, and the property sat empty through the hottest months of last summer.

Timelines vary depending on which announcement you read. Representatives of the Prime Steak brand initially said the new concept was scheduled to open fall 2026, while later reporting has said the concept, which hasn't been finalized, isn't expected to open until 2027. For residents watching from the path, the practical read is that this is a multi-year build. Expect fencing, cranes, and truck traffic on McCormick Parkway well past this summer.

McCormick Lake: An Office Park Becomes A Waterfront

A mile north, a second lake edge is about to change even more dramatically. Scottsdale-based Diversified Partners is transforming an aging office property in McCormick Ranch into a compact lakefront shopping and dining hub called Lakefront at Scottsdale, focused on the water-facing site at 7501 E. McCormick Parkway, where the developer aims to swap out office space for restaurants and boutique retail along the shoreline, with groundbreaking currently targeted for June 2026.

The building being replaced is the former Forever Corporate Plaza. What is going in its place is more ambitious than a typical center refresh. Four waterfront dining spaces are planned right on the lake, with footprints ranging from roughly 5,400 to 10,400 square feet, and three of them add large patios, sized around 3,000 to 4,000 square feet, which should put the water front and center for guests. In a community that has always had lakes but rarely had lake-side restaurants that actually opened onto the water, that is the meaningful shift.

For a quick side-by-side of the three lake projects moving at once:

Vía de Ventura: The One That Already Opened

The only piece of the trio you can actually eat at right now sits on the east side of the neighborhood. Starfish Scottsdale accepted limited reservations before fully opening on May 5, and the restaurant at McCormick Ranch, 8390 E. Vía de Ventura, is the first Starfish venture outside southern California, serving food inspired by the coastal regions of Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, China and Japan along with handcrafted cocktails, sake, wine and beer. It is the first location outside California for the concept launched by husband-and-wife team Archie and Gretchen McConnell in Laguna Beach in 2011.

The details that matter for a resident, not a tourist: a lunch menu runs until 3 p.m. daily with a dinner menu from 3 p.m. until closing, and happy hour specials run from 3 to 6 p.m. daily, with over 30 food items starting at $13 and discounted beverages. The space is 5,200 square feet, including a 1,400-square-foot patio, and hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. A three-hour happy hour window is a real thing in a summer where most residents want to be back home before dark. So is a patio that size on a corridor that has not historically had much outdoor dining depth.

Why The Greenbelt Turns This Into A Ring, Not Three Errands

The reason all of this matters as one story rather than three is the path system that connects them. The neighborhood connects to Scottsdale's Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt, an 11-mile corridor of parks, lakes, paths, and golf courses with more than 24 grade-separated crossings. Inside the community itself, miles of multi-use paths sprawl throughout McCormick Ranch, and most houses are 1/2 mile or less away from the paths.

A short mental map of what that half-mile buys a resident this summer:

• South end: Camelback Lake and the Chart House rebuild sit steps off the path near Scottsdale Road and McCormick Parkway, next to McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, with train rides, a vintage 1950s carousel, model railroad museum, and two themed playgrounds.
• Central spine: The Lakefront at Scottsdale site at 7501 E. McCormick Parkway is on McCormick Lake, roughly halfway between the community's southern parks and Lake Marguerite to the north.
• North and east: Mountain View Park anchors the northern access with sports fields, courts, a playground, community center, exercise course, and direct access to the Greenbelt, and the Vía de Ventura corridor with Starfish is reachable by continuing east.

There are 10 lakes in McCormick Ranch, four of which are stocked with fish, all catch-and-release, and a fishing permit is required from the McCormick Ranch Property Owner's Association, so the loop is not only a dining loop. It is the same loop residents already use for a sunrise walk, a dog route, or an evening ride with kids before the temperature drops.

What To Watch Between Now And Labor Day

A few concrete milestones will change the texture of daily life here across the next ninety days, in the order they will likely land:

1. Weeknight patio pressure at Starfish. A 1,400-square-foot patio in a corridor that has been under-served for outdoor dining will absorb a lot of local demand, especially during the 3 to 6 p.m. happy hour window. Expect the reservations situation in July and August to look different from May.
2. Fencing and staging on McCormick Parkway. Between the Chart House teardown and the Lakefront at Scottsdale groundbreaking, both sides of the parkway near the water will feel like construction corridors for stretches of the summer. Path detours are worth checking before a long ride.
3. Tenant announcements at Lakefront at Scottsdale. Key milestones to watch include City of Scottsdale approvals, any design or zoning filings, and the first wave of restaurant and retail leases signed ahead of the June 2026 groundbreaking goal, with public announcements around anchor tenants and a formal groundbreaking ceremony likely in the lead-up to that date. The names that get announced this summer will tell you what the McCormick Lake edge is going to feel like for the next decade.

There is a version of this summer where none of it matters much, where you keep to your usual coffee routine and cut through the Indian Bend Wash on your normal loop. There is another version where you notice, three months in, that your neighborhood has quietly stopped being a golf community with lakes and started being a lake community with golf courses. The shift is not marketing. It is three cranes, one open patio, and 25 miles of paved path that already know how to get you there.

If you are thinking about how any of this reshapes what your home on the water, on the fairway, or two streets off the greenbelt is worth as the corridor matures, Shannon Pulsifer is happy to walk the path with you and talk through it. Let's Connect.