Walmart Inc. has closed on the purchase of approximately 33.23 acres of commercial land within the Houghton Town Center in southeast Tucson, a transaction recorded July 2, 2026, that carried a $6.99 million price tag. The acquisition encompasses nine commercial parcels at 10052 E. Old Vail Road, a site just east of Walmart’s existing Supercenter at the intersection of Houghton and Old Vail roads. Public records list the sale price as equating to roughly $210,324 per acre, or about $4.83 per square foot, and show the combined parcels total about 1.45 million square feet of land area. Houghton Developers, LLC — an affiliate of Diamond Ventures — is listed as the seller on the recorded deed for the transaction.
Map showing the Walmart purchase (shaded blue) of roughly 33.23 acres at Houghton Town Center and the nearby planned Costco site (shaded red) near E. Old Vail Road in southeast Tucson.
The property lies within PAD-36, the planned area development that governs Houghton Town Center, and represents what appears to be a substantial portion of the center’s remaining undeveloped commercial acreage frequently associated with Houghton Town Center Phase 2. That Phase 2 area totals roughly 68 acres, and the parcels acquired by Walmart are positioned among several existing and proposed commercial uses in the corridor. Immediate neighbors include the existing Walmart Supercenter and The Home Depot; Houghton Dermatology sits directly adjacent to the newly acquired parcels. A planned Mountainside Fitness location appears to have been carved out of the same larger landholding but was not included in the list of parcels recorded in Walmart’s purchase.
Directly to the west of Walmart’s newly acquired tract is a separate 22.35-acre parcel at 9748 E. Old Vail Road where Costco Wholesale has submitted entitlement applications seeking approval for a new membership warehouse and fuel facility. City of Tucson records show Costco’s filings propose an approximately 162,000-square-foot warehouse, an associated fuel facility, surface parking and landscaping. The Costco project proposal would consolidate Blocks 4 through 8 of the Rita Ranch Commerce Center and is currently proceeding through the city’s review and entitlement process. The close proximity of the two purchases places more than 55 acres tied to two of the nation’s largest retail chains along the same stretch of East Old Vail Road, just west of South Houghton Road.
Walmart has not publicly announced specific plans for the recently acquired acreage. The purchase gives the retailer control of a contiguous development tract adjacent to its existing Supercenter, and the assembled land could accommodate future expansion of Walmart operations or other Walmart-related commercial uses. Any concrete development proposal or timeline for construction will depend on whether Walmart files plans or permit applications with the city; no such filings were identified in the public records tied to the July 2 closing. The character of the acquisition — the purchase of nine parcels in a single transaction rather than a single retail pad — underscores the strategic nature of the land assemblage even in the absence of a disclosed building program.
Financial and cadastral details recorded with the sale show the nine parcels total roughly 1.45 million square feet of land, translating to the 33.23-acre figure used in the deed. The buyer is listed simply as Walmart Inc. and the seller as Houghton Developers, LLC, the Diamond Ventures affiliate that has controlled sizable portions of the Houghton Town Center property. The transaction figures place the per-acre cost in the low hundreds of thousands and the per-square-foot price at under $5, figures that reflect raw land pricing within a growing southeast Tucson commercial corridor that has seen sustained residential development in recent years.
The Houghton Town Center area has been the focus of incremental retail buildout in recent years, with new commercial tenants locating near the Houghton Road corridor to serve expanding residential neighborhoods. The newly acquired Walmart parcels sit within that commercial context and are adjacent to a mix of established retail, medical and proposed fitness uses. The presence of both Walmart and a planned Costco site within close range concentrates major retail anchors in a short stretch of East Old Vail Road, a development pattern that reshapes the retail landscape of the area and that will proceed under the city’s zoning and permitting regimes.
City of Tucson documents show the Costco proposal moving through entitlement review, with project elements and site consolidation described in the submitted materials. By contrast, no comparable entitlement applications or permit filings tied to the Walmart acquisition appeared in the available city records at the time of the sale’s recording. Any eventual development by Walmart will likewise be subject to the city’s PAD-36 guidelines and the broader planning and permitting processes that apply to commercial projects in Tucson.
The scale of Walmart’s purchase — a single transaction covering nine parcels and more than 33 acres in a primary commercial growth area of southeast Tucson — is notable for its potential to influence the next phase of Houghton Town Center’s buildout. The site’s proximity to an active Costco application, its adjacency to an existing Walmart Supercenter and other big-box retailers, and its location along a corridor experiencing both residential and commercial expansion place the property at the center of forthcoming land-use activity in this part of the city. Future public filings, zoning actions and permit records will provide additional detail on any proposed redevelopment or construction that may follow the July 2 closing.
The Tucson Mayor and Council voted on Feb. 3, 2026 to move forward with a site-specific sales-tax development agreement for the proposed Costco at Old Vail and Houghton, authorizing staff to formalize a five-year reimbursement structure that would return roughly 45% of the City’s unrestricted sales tax generated by the store; the city’s analysis estimates the incentive at about $7.3 million, projects the store could support up to about 320 jobs with a combined annual payroll near $13.5 million, and forecasts roughly $22.7 million in city tax receipts over five years.
City of Tucson planning records show a completed pre-application for the Costco site (Plan TP-PRE-1025-00211) that was approved on Oct. 14, 2025; the pre-application identifies the site at 9748 E. Old Vail Road, lists Ware Malcomb among the project architects, and calls for a lot-consolidation plat to combine Blocks 4–8 of the Rita Ranch Commerce Center into a roughly 22.35-acre parcel.
Several local reports and the city-commissioned economic analysis describe the proposed Costco warehouse as about 158,000 square feet, a slightly smaller figure than the roughly 162,000-square-foot size cited in some filings and news reports, reflecting a minor discrepancy in published project-size estimates as the entitlement review proceeds.