Tempe Development Thread

[Forrester1998]

Honestly, I realize now that Shady Park opened in 2015 and a 10 year lease for a commercial property like this would be typical, so they probably just couldn't come to a rental agreement with the landowners. Maybe the new rent was too high, maybe the operators just wanted to focus on their other concepts (they also operate CASA and the Sunbar I believe).

Exit2Lef, I had a similar experience with the Vine. I went to a Vine Wednesday one time but before that my experience at the Vine had always been going to get wings on a Sunday or week night and my thoughts always were "this is the place people are talking about Vine Wednesdays?" You didn't even need ID to get in there most of the time.

[muertecaza]

House on wheels:

[Forrester1998]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

House on wheels:

Love to see it. Its hard to tell from the picture, have they begun the demo for the old Culdesac office or First Congregational Church portions of the site yet?

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by Forrester1998

Love to see it. Its hard to tell from the picture, have they begun the demo for the old Culdesac office or First Congregational Church portions of the site yet?

Culdesac is gone. You can see in the background of my picture that the Congregational Church is still there--it looks like they've done some demo on the interior (maybe mitigating asbestos?) but the structure itself is not demoed yet.

[builder03]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

Culdesac is gone. You can see in the background of my picture that the Congregational Church is still there--it looks like they've done some demo on the interior (maybe mitigating asbestos?) but the structure itself is not demoed yet.

They have begun detaching the "non-historic" later additions of the church for demo. Interesting to see the original exterior of the structure being revealed.

[muertecaza]

Congregational Church annex is coming down today:



And House of Tricks has been moved:



Edit: and here's a timelapse of the move, pretty cool:

https://www.12news.com/video/news/local/.../75-32671a1a-4747-4246-ba1e-0b34e8ed5132

[Phxguy]

Watched the Walker House move east on Seventh and then up College to 5th Street. Not everyday you get to see a historic home on wheels!

[builder03]

Some more angles of the Walker house in it's new home from my ride to work today.

[azcats]

Although I didn't go to ASU - I did grow up approximately 10 to 12 miles due north - so, I had plenty of family and friends that did.

We're talking roughly 50 years ago - WOW! Anyway, looking at that photo of Tempe City Hall - that upside down building - and it reminded me of going to the CO-OP (I believe that was the name - run by hippies) and they sold organic food, etc., and I would get honey - and I can't remember what else - Lima beans? - HA! I doubt that. Anyway...I remember it was close to - if not right adjacent to Tempe City Hall - that upside building. Looking at the photo above... it looks like every building surrounding city hall was built in the last 5 years. So, the co-op building (probably was located in a beat-up old building like the one above that they're now preserving!) is - no doubt - long gone. Does anyone here know the history ...or, so long gone ...gone?? I know people that ARE long gone -- and they would be turning in their grave to see how Tempe and ASU has changed so!

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by azcats

Although I didn't go to ASU - I did grow up approximately 10 to 12 miles due north - so, I had plenty of family and friends that did.

We're talking roughly 50 years ago - WOW! Anyway, looking at that photo of Tempe City Hall - that upside down building - and it reminded me of going to the CO-OP (I believe that was the name - run by hippies) and they sold organic food, etc., and I would get honey - and I can't remember what else - Lima beans? - HA! I doubt that. Anyway...I remember it was close to - if not right adjacent to Tempe City Hall - that upside building. Looking at the photo above... it looks like every building surrounding city hall was built in the last 5 years. So, the co-op building (probably was located in a beat-up old building like the one above that they're now preserving!) is - no doubt - long gone. Does anyone here know the history ...or, so long gone ...gone?? I know people that ARE long gone -- and they would be turning in their grave to see how Tempe and ASU has changed so!

The original site of the Gentle Strength Coop was on Fifth Street near City Hall. It was demolished in 1984 and the coop then moved to a location on University Drive before finally moving to down to Southern Avenue. The coop has since gone out of business and the University Drive site is now home to Whole Foods and the Local apartment building.

https://emuseum.tempe.gov/objects/12484/demolition-of-old-gentle-strength-coop

https://www.eastvalleytribune.com/news/g...f6672cc-c719-56dd-a903-4df5b3083b00.html

[azcats]

The things you remember...and the things you don't.

You notice surrounding the Coop building...nothing. Like it is downtown Seligman. Young people...people that have recently moved to Phoenix (to me - 1990 is recent) have no idea how much Phoenix has grown in the last 50 to 60 years. What it was like growing up in the 60s - 70s.

My advice to young people - one thing I always say, if they'll listen: Buy real estate then, sit on it and wait.

My parents paid $36,000 for our house on an acre in Paradise Valley in 1962! Had a tough time selling for $125,000 in 1979/1980! They just scraped it last year - to build a mansion. Who would have known 45 - 50 years ago? Who would have believed it!

[azsunsurfer]

Had I known they were moving the Walker House earlier at night I would've gone. We should have coordinated a parade!

[Forrester1998]

Big city council meeting for development this week, a lot of these were supposed to be covered at the August 28th meeting that got canceled for safety reasons.

1) DPR (Development Plan Review) for changes to the 16 E. University development. This is sort of a weird one because 16 East is adding a floor (25 ->26) and total bedrooms (707-856) while cutting the number of units (453->373). This is accomplished by making a big change to the unit distribution, replacing some of the Studios-2Beds with 3/4Beds that I dont think were part of the dev at all in the initial iteration. Its funny that when a lot of these now breaking ground high rises were all up for PAD review at the same time in 2023, the one that was under the most scrutiny was Skye Tempe (which was only approved of 4-3). In defense of the project, attorney for the developer Nick Wood proclaimed "Our project is geared towards working professionals like the city has stated they wanted for this area, unlike some other developments which may very well just become student housing." I think even at the time that shade seemed like it was being thrown at 16 East, and its hard to argue against that now with the proposed change.

This was also the first meeting for the Danelle Plaza mixed use rezoning. This is only rezoning so no PAD and therefore no renderings, but the rezoning density would be good for essentially 4 over 1s which seems appropriate. Looks like all of the landowners are on board except for the gas station and Mexican restaurant at the NE corner of the site, so this should have pretty good contiguity.

This was the first meeting for the Minima development at 5454 South Beck. This development has languished for years, and its nice to see another South Tempe multifamily project moving forward. This will build 72 units on the west side of Beck just south of Baseline.

This was the second meeting for the amended PAD for the Revelry development (955 E. University), this amendment popped off a floor, there was a small change in total units (539->533) but the main purpose of this amendment was to lower the on site parking from 707 to 391 (theres also a few more bike parking spaces). Great to see the parking standards reduced, happy to see more of this generally.

There are a few more small developments on the agenda here (Roosevelt 11 townhomes, Hayden Lane townhomes) that are also notable. Importantly, Tempe also adopted another measure to comply with the states recent housing measures, this is in agenda items 8C2. Agenda packet link below:

https://tempe.hylandcloud.com/AgendaOnli...tType=5&meetingId=1781&isAttachment=True

(This is a 1300 page document so it will take some time to load).

In addition to the Tempe city council meeting, this week the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) posted its agenda for its September meeting, meaning the ASU Annual Capitol Plan 2026 and Capitol Improvement Plan 2027-2030 are now available, there is some interesting stuff there too so Ill probably make a separate post about that.

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by Forrester1998

Big city council meeting for development this week, a lot of these were supposed to be covered at the August 28th meeting that got canceled for safety reasons.

1) DPR (Development Plan Review) for changes to the 16 E. University development. This is sort of a weird one because 16 East is adding a floor (25 ->26) and total bedrooms (707-856) while cutting the number of units (453->373). This is accomplished by making a big change to the unit distribution, replacing some of the Studios-2Beds with 3/4Beds that I dont think were part of the dev at all in the initial iteration. Its funny that when a lot of these now breaking ground high rises were all up for PAD review at the same time in 2023, the one that was under the most scrutiny was Skye Tempe (which was only approved of 4-3). In defense of the project, attorney for the developer Nick Wood proclaimed "Our project is geared towards working professionals like the city has stated they wanted for this area, unlike some other developments which may very well just become student housing." I think even at the time that shade seemed like it was being thrown at 16 East, and its hard to argue against that now with the proposed change.

This was also the first meeting for the Danelle Plaza mixed use rezoning. This is only rezoning so no PAD and therefore no renderings, but the rezoning density would be good for essentially 4 over 1s which seems appropriate. Looks like all of the landowners are on board except for the gas station and Mexican restaurant at the NE corner of the site, so this should have pretty good contiguity.

This was the first meeting for the Minima development at 5454 South Beck. This development has languished for years, and its nice to see another South Tempe multifamily project moving forward. This will build 72 units on the west side of Beck just south of Baseline.

This was the second meeting for the amended PAD for the Revelry development (955 E. University), this amendment popped off a floor, there was a small change in total units (539->533) but the main purpose of this amendment was to lower the on site parking from 707 to 391 (theres also a few more bike parking spaces). Great to see the parking standards reduced, happy to see more of this generally.

There are a few more small developments on the agenda here (Roosevelt 11 townhomes, Hayden Lane townhomes) that are also notable. Importantly, Tempe also adopted another measure to comply with the states recent housing measures, this is in agenda items 8C2. Agenda packet link below:

https://tempe.hylandcloud.com/AgendaOnli...tType=5&meetingId=1781&isAttachment=True

(This is a 1300 page document so it will take some time to load).

In addition to the Tempe city council meeting, this week the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) posted its agenda for its September meeting, meaning the ASU Annual Capitol Plan 2026 and Capitol Improvement Plan 2027-2030 are now available, there is some interesting stuff there too so Ill probably make a separate post about that.

Thanks for the rundown!

[Forrester1998]

Last week the Arizona Board of Regents released the documentation for their September meeting, which includes the ASU Annual Capital Plan (ACP), Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), and Novus Annual Report.

The ACP covers projects that ASU plans to begin in FY2026. There are four projects listed for the Tempe campus; like most years, some of these constitute work that is important but not very interesting from an urban development standpoint (this year that includes facilities renovations to the PSH building and switchgear updates for the central plant). There are two projects of note though, one of which is the construction of new tennis and track facilities near the new athletic village (south of Rio Salado and east of Rural, away from the arterials) in anticipation of the demolition of the current facilities (on the west side of Rural between 6th street and Rio Salado) in anticipation of the eventual Novus Phase VII. The other is the construction of the McCain Center (a planned presidential style library dedicated to the former Senator) to be built in place of the old community services building on Washington Street next to Papago Park. This is an interesting one because it doesnt compete with other projects for funding as its planned funding source is via a federal grant, I guess I am surprised they are still angling for this considering the federal funding situation but I guess theres no reason not to ask.

The CIP is technically two plans, one for the year after the ACP (so FY2027) and one for the longer term (in this case FY2028-2030). These are presented as priority lists. In the FY2027 plan the top 2 priorities are renovations to some athletic facilities, but the 3rd priority is the replacement of the Arcadia dorms (Irish/Best/Hayden halls, near Mill and Apache) with a new 2000-2500 bed student housing facility. Im not sure how many beds the current dorms are but I imagine this would be ~7 stories in line with other recently built ASU dorms, but the current ones here are 2-3 stories. This is definitely needed as these are definitely the worst condition dorms on the Tempe campus. On the longer term list, there are two items of note including plans to build a ~800 bed dorm on the SE corner of Rural and Terrace right next to the GLV (this would presumably be a public-private partnership w/ American Campus Communities who own this parcel I believe). This bed count seems low since this parcel was previously approved for a 22 story multifamily building, I sincerely hope they dont down zone it. One additional interesting item on the longer term plan is the planned ISTB9 building on the SE corner of University and McAllister, but this has been on previous CIPs.

Not too much of interest in the Novus Report, most of the stuff is already known but they did say that the preliminary takedown notice (PTN) for the NW corner of Rio Salado/Rural was for a Class A office development. This plot was previously planned to be mixed use including multifamily but I am not sure of the current PTN applies to the whole parcel or just the eastern half, so not sure if plans have changed.

[Forrester1998]

Forgot to attach the meeting agenda with all these details, this document can be found under the September 25th-26th meeting tab on the ABOR website.

https://azregents.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/A...iuhLtLonB4GMD32qkBGuKPhzDlm7LlyKlHF-0z_w

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by Forrester1998

Not too much of interest in the Novus Report, most of the stuff is already known but they did say that the preliminary takedown notice (PTN) for the NW corner of Rio Salado/Rural was for a Class A office development. This plot was previously planned to be mixed use including multifamily but I am not sure of the current PTN applies to the whole parcel or just the eastern half, so not sure if plans have changed.

The office at Rio/Rural is also apparently a "corporate headquarters," which is cool, and it says they signed an LOI in April 2025.

I also was interested in the information about the hotel on Rural. I've seen it described as a 12-story hotel, but the ABOR agenda says 13 stories. Not sure which is correct.

The 13-story, approximately 184-key, high-end boutique hotel will include a restaurant and a rooftop pool with spectacular views of the Valley. The project was submitted to the Joint Review Committee for review and approval of the project’s relocation from Parcel 3A to Parcel 3DN in July 2025. The developer is targeting a Q2 2026 closing with a Q3 2026 construction start.

[Forrester1998]

New building permit application for the demolition of the Food City building on Apache Blvd, which is part of a planned mixed use affordable housing development. I guess I assumed we would see this project go through the PAD process before they begun demolition but I guess that may not be the case. City of Tempe owns this land.

https://epermits.tempe.gov/CitizenAccess...EJZ&agencyCode=TEMPE&IsToShowInspection=

[builder03]

As someone who generally supports infill development and dense residential development, this one kind of breaks my heart.

Saw the 1934 home being torn down today. Feels like a massive loss of character for this corner.

IMO it feels like a home like this should have been preserved.

What do you guys think?





https://webuildres.com/portfolio/599-w-5th-st/

https://www.tempe.gov/Home/Components/FacilityDirectory/FacilityDirectory/378/20780

[combusean]

Those lots in that area are huge and should be urbanized. I don't value the character they provide.