It seems like Maricopans are always playing the “will they or won’t they” game when it comes to new businesses opening in town.
That happened with The Home Depot for more than a decade, as well as Chili’s, Holiday Inn, eegee’s, Dutch Bros, the hospital campus next to Copper Sky and most recently with PHX Surf.
Now, another business can be added to the list.
Zzeek’s Pizza has officially backed out of plans to build a location at Honeycutt and Whisker Roads, owner Mark “Zzeek” Pectol told InMaricopa today. He said the decision came down to the city being “tough to work with.”
Pectol said the cost of bringing water, power and sewer service – not to mention adding a deceleration lane along Honeycutt Road — would have added nearly $1 million to the project’s construction costs.
Those expenses ultimately led the company to pull the plug on the project in November.
“I just wasn’t feeling the love,” Pectol said. “And to go and spend $4 or $5 million on something, you know, you want to feel a little love.”
The restaurant would have been the Ahwatukee-based business’s sixth location and its first in Pinal County. Zzeek’s first showed interest in coming to Maricopa in April 2024 and cleared zoning hurdles in February last year.
That made the decision to walk away especially disappointing for Pectol and his crew.
“I was really excited to be down [in Maricopa]. I think that we would have done really, really well,” he said.
For now, the company will resume growth efforts in the Phoenix area, Pectol said.
“I’m not saying that we won’t eventually get there. It just made more sense to refocus back up here in the East Valley and look for people that want us to be there,” he said.
According to a city development website and a friend of the property’s owners, a Filiberto’s Mexican Food drive-thru restaurant is now slated for the Honeycutt and Whisker site. The Valley-based chain had previously been planned for a different suite along John Wayne Parkway, a space that ultimately became Ono Hawaiian BBQ, which opened last week. Filiberto’s has since been operating a food truck along John Wayne Parkway.
![Western Pinal Justice of the Peace Patricia Glover speaks during a City of Maricopa Republican Club on May 23, 2026. [Monica D. Spencer]](https://inmaricopa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/20260529-spencer-teeple-republican-club-1-4-300x200.jpg)
15 Responses
tough to work with, not surprising.
What, you want the City to build it for you? Maybe exempt you from taxes for a decade? We want you, but make no mistake, we don’t ‘NEED’ you. All of these ‘Hurdles’ are being accomplished by other companies but you think you’re special. Freaking Filibertos is taking that spot. Come on man! You don’t rate a Red Carpet.
You don’t know the full story at all. If you did, you would realize the city is 100% the problem!!
So what is the full story? I’ve seen your style of response from different people on different platforms but nobody will say what the “full story” is, so what do you know that nobody else does?
This
You are so far off base! Go back, put your
insulting comments away and reread the article without your negative and incorrect chip on your shoulder
No need. But thank you for your emotional response.
Face it, with the people that we elect Maricopa will always be a backwater…QC and SanTan are growing like mad, new first tier stores and services are opening daily.
They added Hwy 24 in record time and after DECADES we are still fighting out of town trucks on 347 and driving into crater-sized potholes, while Phoenix ships us their trash.
I believe that ‘technically ‘ Phienix ships Goodyear their trash.
My bad. Wrong dump. Phoenix sends their trash to Mobile (again not Maricopa.)
You’re spot on. Maricopa home values will continue to slide as long as we have small town thinking city officials. The terms they set forth for Zzeeks were unheard of. Hold your breath waiting on Filibertos…Zzeeks still owns the land. Unlimited apartments, affordable housing, (aka section 8) Copa will soon top the charts in the state as a welfare community. All we need now is a Learing Center.
Phoenix will be another blue dying city. Politicians and their cabal get rich while 80% of the city will turn into a dump.
that’s OK I find that they don’t fulfill their obligations to promises that they make to their customers so I certainly don’t have any love for them after they promised to send me a coupon to make up for a terrible experience I posted in a review after sending several emails. he asked me to take it down. It’s been over five years and I still haven’t gotten it and nobody seems to know what I’m talking about at either restaurants .
We hardly need another pizza place, or *bertos.
We’re good. Last thing we need is another mediocre at best pizza place.