Chris Janson to lead $7B Halo Vista project near TSMC plant

Business Journals

22-04-2025

A seasoned developer with over two decades of experience has stepped into a pivotal role overseeing one of Phoenix's most ambitious construction projects near the TSMC campus.
Story Highlights Chris Janson appointed president of Mack Halo Vista LLC in Phoenix
Halo Vista is expected to create 70,000 jobs
The development includes The Forge and Sonoran Oasis Research Park.
One of the biggest construction projects in Phoenix has a new leader, as Chris Janson takes over as president of Mack Halo Vista LLC, the developer behind the mega master-planned community surrounding Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's plant in North Phoenix.
Halo Vista is poised to become a city within a city and is being developed by Mack Real Estate Group and McCourt Partners.
Encompassing over 2,300 acres, the $7 billion mixed-used, master-planned community will include residential, commercial and industrial developments, and is expected to create upward of 70,000 jobs.
A senior development professional who has handled large master-planned projects throughout the state and elsewhere in the West for over two decades, Janson has led around $2 billion in land transactions and development in the West, according to an announcement. His first foray into master-planned development in the Valley began when he worked on the entitlement for Surprise's sprawling Prasada project.
Janson will lead the day-to-day execution of Halo Vista, now in focus as TSMC continues building out its enormous, $165 billion chip manufacturing plant. This month TSMC announced it finished construction on its second chip factory ahead of schedule.
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Chris Janson, president of Mack Halo Vista LLC.
Mack Real Estate Group
Halo Vista in part helped sway TSMC to Phoenix. After the city lost out on getting TSMC to come build its project in 2016, it laid out plans in 2019 for a science and technology park to be built around a proposed semiconductor campus in Phoenix. That convinced TSMC, which announced an initial investment of $12 billion for one fabrication facility in Phoenix in 2020.
Mack Real Estate paid $56M for Halo Vista land
And last May, Mack Real Estate Group won a bid for the state land where Halo Vista is being developed, for $56.28 million.
Two major districts in Halo Vista include The Forge, a 12 million-square-foot manufacturing hub, which will be set up for advanced manufacturing though could also see some data center and warehouse and distribution uses.
The other district, the Sonoran Oasis Research and Technology Park, will include 3.5 million square feet of flexible technology and office space.
'Companies that are on either side of the front end ... or the back end of the supply chain around chip manufacturing, that's super important to what we're trying to do, and then building a community that can support that industry,' said Richard Mack, CEO of Mack Real Estate Group.
As a Phoenix native, Janson is "ecstatic to jump at the opportunity to come on board and really lead the day-to-day operations of delivering a world class development,' he said.
Janson spoke to the Business Journal about the state of the project and his role in its development. His comments have been edited for clarity and brevity.
What has happened with the project since Phoenix City Council approved the development agreement for Halo Vista last December?
Janson: Since December obviously there's been progress on our side, both with the city, with the state, with all of our service providers out there, APS, and so we're still actively advancing those entitlements.
What are the different phases of this project expected to look like, and what phase is it in now?
The phase that we're in is our conceptual master plan phase, so we're still really focused on the overall conceptual master plan. We have a portion of the property that we would call phase one, which is probably a little further down the line in terms of potential users and design. And next step for us, most likely this summer, will be getting into the heavier design of phase one, and ultimately the construction documents and approval and obviously true break ground. So I can't tell you that that's happening this summer, but we're definitely working hard to bring that first phase of the project to live.'
How do you expect the project to progress in the next year or two?
I think just in general, the project's gaining a bunch of momentum and drawing a lot of interest from users, suppliers, other companies. And so right now we're really doing our best to refine a plan that ultimately serves the level of interest that we're seeing. If we focus on getting the infrastructure started sometime this year, then going into next year, hopefully we'll have some of the vertical construction happening in phase one. That's really the primary focus for me and my team, is to get the infrastructure out there and in place to where we can get some of these vertical projects started in 2026. And then depending upon momentum and interest, we'll advance it as quickly as we can, frankly.
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