Mesa’s Echoes Church buys a vacant Macy’s for $5 million for its new home

MESA, AZ — A growing Mesa church has found an unexpected new home: a vacant department store.

Echoes Church, a non-denominational congregation that averages 3,200 worshipers for a weekend service, paid $5 million for a former Macy’s store at Superstition Springs Mall. The store has been vacant since early 2025.

A real estate broker showed church leaders the space on a whim.

“Holy cow! Every time we walk in here,” Pastor Daniel Goulding said.

In 20 months of operation, Goulding has watched Echoes Church grow out of its offices and into the auditorium at Desert Ridge High School. The congregation has been searching for a space to call its own.

The 154,000-square-foot store will need extensive renovation to accommodate large crowds for worship services. Goulding said buying an unfinished plot of land would have cost at least $10 million. When the work is complete, plans call for the store’s escalator to stay.

“We really genuinely believe this is much more than a building that will facilitate larger Sunday morning gatherings, but it will facilitate a lot of things we want to do be a part of the redemption and restoration of the East Valley,” Goulding said.

An estimated 250,000 cars pass the Superstition Springs Mall on U.S. Route 60 every day.

Church members and staffers have grown accustomed to setting up at the high school and then breaking everything down before school activities on Mondays.

Dylan Schwarm lives nearby and has attended Echoes Church since the beginning.

“I just trusted they were making the right decision,” Schwarm said. “Just to have a home base where people can come and hang out and really make this place feel like a spot where they can grow, not only their faith, but their community.”

Echoes Church is working with city leaders to get permits for the renovation and construction. Goulding said he foresees two years of work before church services will be held at the new location.

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