http://www.azcentral.com/community/s...ng0201-ON.html
SkySong beaming with addition of 2 tenants
Jane Larson
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 1, 2007 12:45 PM
The first office building at SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center, was topped off with more than its final steel beam Thursday.
Arizona State University officials announced that the high-tech project has signed two more global tenants, and developers said they have enough tenant interest to start the second building.
The newest tenants will be Ubidyne GmbH, a German startup specializing in wireless technology, and Sebit, a Turkish e-learning company. Both are expanding to the United States and will locate their U.S. headquarters at SkySong. Both are opening offices in Tempe until their SkySong space is ready.
Ubidyne will lease 5,000 square feet at SkySong and already is seeking 10 software engineers and chip developers for its Valley office. It expects to have 20 U.S. employees within 18 months and up to 50 as the company grows, chief executive officer Ken Hawk told the Arizona Republic before Thursday's event.
"There is nothing like proximity," he said. "You end up having opportunities to work together on huge problems, and having access to (the researchers) and the labs will save time and money."
Sebit has not determined its space needs yet.
They are the first European and Eurasian tenants signed, joining a Singaporean firm and two Chinese firms that committed last year.
The SkySong project, being built at Scottsdale and McDowell roads, is designed to bring together university researchers, entrepreneurial services and high-tech businesses from around the world.
The foreign firms were attracted by the opportunity to work closely with researchers and to hire skilled graduates, said Julia Rosen, assistant vice president for economic affairs at ASU.
"The main point is really that a global community is being constructed that will benefit Phoenix, Arizona and ASU," she said. "It complements the economic development goals and provides a physical infrastructure for global companies."
The second building is planned as a twin of the four-story, 157,000-square-foot structure topped off Thursday. Both will house offices, research space and retail shops.
The start of the second building also will trigger construction of apartments and a parking garage, filling the southeastern quadrant of the 37-acre site. Plans were approved by the city of Scottsdale last year.
The announcements came at a "topping off" ceremony, a construction milestone that marks the completion of structural framing and the beginning of work on the building's interior and exterior.
Most of the space in the first building has been committed to ASU and corporate operations. It is due to open this summer, in time for ASU's fall semester.
The day's news was a major highlight of SkySong's sometimes rocky history so far.
The project began in 2004 after years of disagreements doomed plans to turn the former Los Arcos Mall site into a hockey arena or big-box stores. The city and ASU worked out a deal to create a high-tech center, with the city committing more than $80 million for land and infrastructure.
Along the way, SkySong has endured criticism of its initial designs, apartment component and global ambitions.
The project would eventually include 1.2 million square feet of office/retail buildings, a hotel, apartments and a parking garage.
The two latest tenants add new sectors of high tech to SkySong.
Ubidyne, a spin-off from the German electronics giant Siemens AG, is developing a compact, efficient digital amplifier to fit in the antennas of wireless networks. It would consume less power and take up less space than current analog technology, CEO Hawk said.
It is working with ASU's Connection One research center, a relationship that helped Ubidyne choose Scottsdale for its U.S. headquarters over Austin, Texas; Silicon Valley and Cambridge, England, Hawk said.
The company was attracted by the ASU research and the pool of semiconductor talent in the area, he said.
"It's a great time to recruit people from the big companies and use their experience to make an impact on an entrepreneurial company," he said. "We see a lot of interest from top engineers because we're on the cutting edge, and the best get excited about that."
Ubidyne contacted Connection One after seeing publications of its research, center director Sayfe Kiaei said. Both are working on using digital technology to transmit and amplify radio signals, he said.
Local companies and cell-phone manufacturers are already showing interest in the work.
"If they grow and we grow, I could see some manufacturing done here or companies that want to be close to us would put people here," Kiaei said.
Sebit, founded in 1988, develops interactive education materials and lists Siemens and Coca-Cola Inc. among its corporate clients. It is working with ASU's Applied Learning Technologies Institute on a project to improve math and science education in the Turkish middle grades, with future use in other cultures.
The two came together when both were looking to expand internationally, said Samuel DiGangi, associate vice president of university technology at ASU. The ASU institute has expertise in math and science education and distance learning, while Sebit has experience in software design and data collection, he said.
"At SkySong, we'll bring them the ability to rapidly assemble groups of researchers and faculty members to apply their skills," DiGangi said. "Sebit brings us direct access to companies and developers, which would be difficult for the individual faculty member to seek out."