For years the joke around Hayden and Via de Ventura went like this: McCormick Ranch has ten lakes, twenty-five miles of paths, thirty-six holes of golf, and one lakefront restaurant. That restaurant was Chart House, and on June 30, 2025 it served its last plate of Mac Nut Mahi after forty-one years on the water.
The vacancy did not last. In the twelve months since, three separate operators have staked claims on the shoreline within roughly a mile of each other. Taken individually, each is a nice update. Taken together, they answer a question longtime residents have been asking since the last Kaiser-Aetna sales office closed: when does the lake stop being the backdrop and start being the address?
The three-block reset
The map to keep in your head is small. Draw a line from Hayden and Via de Ventura east to Scottsdale Road, then north along the water to McCormick Parkway. Every project below sits on that line.
| Project | Location | Timing | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starfish Scottsdale | 8390 E. Via de Ventura (former Okay Maguey) | Opened May 5, 2026 | Starfish Hospitality Group |
| Lakefront at Scottsdale | 7501 E. McCormick Parkway (former Forever Corporate Plaza) | Groundbreaking June 2026 | Diversified Partners |
| Former Chart House site | Camelback Lake shoreline | Fall 2026 opening target | Prime Steak Concepts |
None of these are speculative renderings on a broker's slide deck. Starfish is already taking reservations. Lakefront at Scottsdale has a filed address, a tenant mix, and a groundbreaking month. The Chart House rebuild has a demolition schedule and a family name attached to it that the neighborhood knows well.
What already opened at Hayden and Via de Ventura
Starfish Scottsdale is the first location the Orange County group has ever operated outside California, and the McConnells picked McCormick Ranch to plant the flag. The restaurant debuted May 5, 2026, at 8390 East Via de Ventura, filling roughly 5,200 square feet with indoor seating and a sizable patio, and pulling from Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, China and Japan across more than 70 shareable plates. The address sits at the northwest corner of Hayden and Via de Ventura in the former Okay Maguey space, and the parent company also runs Starfish Laguna Beach, Starfish Newport Beach, Starfish Coastal Catering, and The Cove by Starfish.
The patio is the number that matters for how residents will actually use the place. Starfish Scottsdale occupies 5,200 square feet with 1,300 of that a patio with seating for 90. That is roughly a third of the floor plan given to outdoor dining, which is a bet on shoulder-season evenings and a signal about who the operator thinks is walking in the door. Ninety patio seats is not a couple stopping in after a bike ride. It is neighborhood volume.
Two operational details are worth knowing before you go. The restaurant is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with a daily happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. offering more than 30 menu items starting at $13. That $13 happy hour floor is a deliberate contrast to the rest of the Scottsdale Road corridor and one of the reasons the patio has been full since opening.
What breaks ground in June on McCormick Parkway
A mile north of Starfish, the aging office property at 7501 E. McCormick Parkway is about to get a use change that residents have been asking for since the tower was built. Scottsdale-based Diversified Partners is transforming it into a compact lakefront shopping and dining hub called Lakefront at Scottsdale, with the developer swapping office space for restaurants and boutique retail along the shoreline, and groundbreaking targeted for June 2026.
The dining portion is the headline. 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, putting the water front and center for guests. For reference, a 4,000 square foot patio is more than double the entire Starfish patio. This is a scale of outdoor lakefront seating that has not existed inside McCormick Ranch before.
The retail plan tells you who Diversified thinks the customer is. The eastern lakefront edge will carry the retail pulse, with a merchandising plan aimed at the McCormick Ranch customer — jewelry, a high-end salon, med spa uses, wellness studios, yoga, pilates, and boutique retail suites from 1,200 to 5,500 square feet. No anchor grocer, no big-box junior. Small suites, service uses, daytime traffic.
One structural detail matters for anyone who works in the existing tower. Office space remains a major part of the plan, and existing tenants are expected to stay, which keeps continuity in the existing 100,000-square-foot building while phases roll out. This is a phased reset, not a teardown. The lease you signed last year is not in the crosshairs.
What comes back to Camelback Lake this fall
The Chart House site is the emotional center of the story. Chart House was a Scottsdale mainstay since 1984 and was well known for its one-of-kind views of Camelback Lake and Mountain. When it closed, the shoreline lost its most visible restaurant.
Who took over is the local color. Prime Steak Concepts co-owner Jeff Mastro noted that he and his brother Mike grew up just a few blocks away in McCormick Ranch and called it the perfect place for something special that fits the location, with the new restaurant scheduled to be completed in fall 2026. The Mastro name carries weight in the Valley. Prime Steak Concepts is owned by James Beard-nominated brothers Michael and Jeffrey Mastro, Dennis Mastro, and business partner Scott Troilo, who together own and operate Dominick's Steakhouse, Steak 44, Ocean 44, and Durant's Steakhouse in the Valley, plus Steak 48 and Ocean 48 in Chicago, Houston, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Del Mar, Beverly Hills, and Newport Beach.
Two things about the new build are worth flagging. First, it is not a copy-paste. The team has made one thing clear: this will not be a replica of their existing concepts, and the project will be a ground-up creation designed to bring something entirely new to Scottsdale's culinary scene. Second, the building itself is going. Demolition of the original Chart House structure is expected to begin soon, followed by a full-scale buildout of the new restaurant. If you drive past this summer and see the old A-frame gone, that is why.
Working the new map into a weekend
If you already live here, the practical question is not whether these projects happen. It is how they change the way you use the neighborhood on a Saturday. A rough sequence that works with what is open now and what is coming:
- Start on the Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt path. The system connects the lakes to the parks with no street crossings for long stretches, and Mountain View Park anchors the north end while Comanche and Shoshone sit south.
- Detour to McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park mid-morning if you have kids or grandkids visiting. It stays a reliable Saturday stop even in summer heat because most of it runs on shade and water.
- Grab a fishing rod if you have an MRPOA permit. There are 10 lakes in McCormick Ranch, four of which are stocked with bass, bluegill, and even catfish, with bass and bluegill stocked twice a year, and all lakes are catch and release only with a fishing permit required from the McCormick Ranch Property Owners' Association.
- Roll into Starfish for the 3 p.m. happy hour if you want a patio seat without a reservation drama. The $13 floor makes it a low-friction stop rather than a special-occasion one.
- Once Lakefront at Scottsdale opens in phases, use the McCormick Parkway edge as your evening loop. The retail suites will hold the daytime hours, the four restaurants will hold the night.
The neighborhood infrastructure the plan leans on is already in place. The development has two championship 18-hole golf courses at McCormick Ranch Golf Club's Palm and Pine Courses, more than 25 miles of bicycle paths, parks, public tennis courts, and 130 acres of man-made lakes. The dining row is not being built into an empty field. It is being fit into a system that already moves foot and bike traffic through it every day.
What to watch between now and next spring
Three signals will tell you whether the row lands the way it looks like it will.
The first is the Lakefront at Scottsdale tenant roster. Groundbreaking is set for June 2026, and the operator names on the four restaurant pads will do more to define the district than any rendering. Watch for lease announcements over the summer and fall.
The second is the Prime Steak concept reveal. The Mastros have said the new restaurant will not be a copy of Steak 44, Ocean 44, Dominick's, or Durant's. Whatever they announce will set the price ceiling for the entire shoreline and shape what Lakefront's operators are willing to sign for.
The third is Starfish's second-quarter performance. Ninety patio seats is a lot of chairs to fill on a Tuesday in August. If the group announces expanded hours, private dining volume, or a second Valley location, take it as evidence that the McCormick Ranch bet is working and that more California operators will look at 85258 addresses.
The lake has been sitting there since Kaiser-Aetna dug it in the early 1970s. For the first time in a long time, the buildings on the edge of it are catching up to the water.
If you own a home along the Greenbelt, on a lake lot, or in one of the pocket subdivisions off Hayden or Via de Ventura, this dining row is going to show up in how buyers value your street over the next two years. When you are ready to see what that looks like on paper, the DiBiase Team can put a number on it. Get Your Home Estimate.
