The Cascalote bloomed in October of 2025 and has been flourishing since. This senior 62+ community, with 148 apartment homes. It’s Mercy Housing Mountain Plains’ first new development in Arizona in 13 years. Residents have moved in, programming has started, and the community is starting to thrive.

The Cascalote is now 100% leased, and seniors are settling into their new homes with support from our onsite resident services and property management teams. Through activities like Thanksgiving lunches, birthday celebrations, bingo, morning coffee club, and a twice-monthly walking club, residents are building friendships and creating a vibrant community together.

Wells Fargo Welcome Home Initiative

“Our food pantry program has quickly become a vital resource,” says Diana Suquetz, Resident Services Manager overseeing the team at The Cascalote. Thanks to a generous grant from Wells Fargo’s Welcome Home initiative, volunteers helped build shelving and stock the pantry with food and cleaning supplies in October 2025. In addition, our partnership with St. Mary’s Food Bank supports monthly food box distributions, with 49 residents currently registered.

Making connection and enrichment a priority

“We’re also offering ongoing housing success education programs, including a recent Inspection 101 prep session that welcomed 70 residents. The resident services team hosted a tax prep workshop, and our Health and Community Navigator, Katherine, has led a six-week Bingocize class to promote wellness in a fun and engaging way.”

Additionally, our team continues to prioritize connection and enrichment. Residents enjoy holiday meal events, pizza parties, quarterly Coffee with a Cop safety talks, and a rotating monthly book club through our partnership with the City of Glendale Library. We’ve also begun conversations with the City of Glendale’s water conservation team to explore bringing in master gardener volunteers to help us launch our raised garden beds. It’s an exciting next step for the community!

If these walls could talk

Alexandrea Pangburn, a large-scale muralist and animal realism artist brought her unique eye and passion for art to The Cascalote. Alex moved to Colorado in 2017 where she was able to fully immerse herself in her inspiration of the west. Her work brings the beauty of wild to a large scale and her composition helps tie both land and animal together.

Inspired by nature – her realistic style focuses on expressing the details of plants, birds, and animals to bring light to the recognizable physical traits. Her hope is that we may understand and better educate ourselves on how we can conserve these species; so they can continue to be around for generations beyond us. Her vision is now proudly displayed on the walls throughout this senior community.

Level 1 Lobby: This mural is inspired by the beautiful Cascalote flower; of which the building is named. The colors and lines are inspired by color palette of the building.

Elevator Lobby: This mural depicts the Cactus Wren; the state bird of Arizona and the largest wren species in the US. These birds can be found in cacti building their nests, roosting, and using them as protection against predators and weather.
Fitness Center: I wanted to use a bird that is known for speed and be able to embody movement for the fitness center. The Roadrunner can run up to 20mph!

Level 2: The Bobcat is an incredibly adaptive species and can be found in the Arizona landscape. These big cats are illusive and symbols of power and strength. The aloe plant stands strongly behind the cat.

Level 3: The Black-Tailed Jackrabbit is the largest rabbit species in the United States and common to Arizona. These rabbits do not migrate or hibernate, so they are incredibly resilient to the harsh summers of Arizona using the shade of shrubs and brush for protection against the sun. The jackrabbit is accompanied by Cascalote flowers.

Level 4: The Coyote is incredibly social and lives in family packs or tightly knit communities of unrelated individuals. They are an important part of the ecosystem and can walk 3-10 miles per day as they hunt for food. The coyote is accompanied by poppy flowers. I wanted to use all local flora and fauna to represent the diverse and highly adaptable wildlife that the state of Arizona holds. Each of these animals is powerful, strong, adaptable, and resilient; all traits that I feel Mercy Housing encompasses so that their residents can feel protected and at home.