Tempe Development Thread

[azsunsurfer]

Wow some news about the Rio Salado brownfield site that has seen some development recently.....

-Another hotel will go up off the entrance to the development's drive off Rio along with two parcels devoted to retail
-Two four story offices will front the recently completed water bank trail that runs to Mesa, it will face the 202.
-The residential development component is more dense than I had suspected.
-Another two story office building will go up near the 202 and 101 interchange.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by azsunsurfer

Wow some news about the Rio Salado brownfield site that has seen some development recently.....

-Another hotel will go up off the entrance to the development's drive off Rio along with two parcels devoted to retail
-Two four story offices will front the recently completed water bank trail that runs to Mesa, it will face the 202.
-The residential development component is more dense than I had suspected.
-Another two story office building will go up near the 202 and 101 interchange.

where are you getting the info? updates plans anywhere?

[muertecaza]

Just watched the wooden 'wash towers' on the Mill come down.

[LocoPhoenician]

Looks like Tempe waited too long procrastinating and now the street car may never happen.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/loca...-stall-tempe-streetcar-project/99438172/

[RichTempe]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

Just watched the wooden 'wash towers' on the Mill come down.

Is this a precursor to something happening there or is it just being done for safety reasons?

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by RichTempe

Is this a precursor to something happening there or is it just being done for safety reasons?

Tempe agreed to take down the wash tower as a precursor to the Baum Development redevelopment of the mill.

[dtnphx]

Originally Posted by muertecaza

Tempe agreed to take down the wash tower as a precursor to the Baum Development redevelopment of the mill.

That's great news. The post just up the page lamenting the possible no go on the streetcar because it took so long and new funding may not happen, could be a good thing. I'm all for streetcars, light rail, etc., but I think it could fundamentally change Mill for the worse. Just my opinion.

[ciweiss]

Going to try and post some photos




Some new equipement on the pier property. Hopefully something is happening there soon.



Some digging next to the Pier



Vela



Marina Heights



Mountain Side Fitness sign going up at Marina Heights



Backside of Salt



Salt



Salt



Forgot the name by TCA

Sorry for the giant pics. editing this stuff is a pain.

[alexico]

finally a gym in downtown tempe, now a decent grocery store and tempe will finally start to improve its true walk factor. when i live in downtown tempe 12' 13' and 14' i dislike the fact there was no grocery of any kind

[Jjs5056]

Originally Posted by Socalzonie

Have any renderings been floated for this project?

Not since the switch to 26-story multifamily was made from 20-story student housing. It will be very interesting to see if the final product is still aimed at students. If not, it + 7S would add a good balance to that part of downtown and hopefully spur development of the former Subway building as well as the Lawrence and Geyser site.

Mill+Rio has to be dead by now and will leave a major gap. I hope the Baum restoration comes through, because if not, that intersection is one major disappointment. I can't believe HFL3 doesn't have retail on the corner...

Good riddance to the Streetcar.

[Jjs5056]

Originally Posted by exit2lef

I thought I read somewhere that using battery power was considered on the Mill Avenue section of the line to avoid the need for overhead wires there. Maybe that idea proved infeasible, though. Streetcars that store electricity when connected to overhead wires and then use the power later for untethered operation are still somewhat experimental, and I suspect there is concern about how well the technology would perform in desert heat -- just as the Nissan Leaf has had battery problems during our summers.

FYI, even though it sounds like the project might be off, this is correct. The final design was to include at least portions of the track that would operate without wires.

The trees of Mill have slowly been hacked away regardless, which is unfortunate.

[ASU Diablo]

Although more jobs coming to Tempe and overall great news, sucks it comes at the expense of jobs in downtown Phoenix and the location of new campus being outside of downtown Tempe.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/...e-building-big-new-campus-landing-4.html

[MegaBass]

Originally Posted by azsunsurfer

I noticed the other day the Salt River Tribe has already started to clearing land off of McClintock and the 202. There were tractors leveling earth. So maybe the soccer complex is happening sooner rather than later?

From Scottsdale thread

Originally Posted by airomero83

Hopefully the Phoenix market gets chosen for new MLS expansion team.

http://www.phxrisingfc.com/news_article/...nsion-application-to-major-league-soccer

Originally Posted by muertecaza

More or less. They've described it as a "pop-up stadium." Pictures look pretty neat though.

[ciweiss]

Originally Posted by Spitfiredude

They have a second base structure for a tower crane at the Univ Square development. It's in middle of the site which is good news because it means this one should be for the 20 story tower and will be taller than the current one.

I walked by this morning and i believe the 2nd tower crane going up today. Not sure how long that proceas takes.

[muertecaza]

I didn't have time to stop, so the picture is shit, but riding by The Pier site, it looks like there are sections for a tower crane:

[muertecaza]

Tempe updated their development projects page with a pretty handy map:

http://tempegov.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Shortlist/index.html?appid=e2b8a9338e3948c0ab6abf93b858f508

It doesn't appear to be fully updated (for instance The University/Ash Whole Foods projects doesn't show), but it seems to have most things current.

It also has a small 707 Forest rendering:

[ciweiss]

Next street car meeting. April 19th. Tempe Transportation Center. That could be interesting.

[ASUSunDevil]

Originally Posted by ciweiss

Next street car meeting. April 19th. Tempe Transportation Center. That could be interesting.

I received a flyer for that today. They seem dead set on getting it built, probably due to time/money invested. Personally, I think it's unnecessary and would prefer that it doesn't happen.

[Spitfiredude]

Originally Posted by ASUSunDevil

I received a flyer for that today. They seem dead set on getting it built, probably due to time/money invested. Personally, I think it's unnecessary and would prefer that it doesn't happen.

Agreed. It seems most people on the thread are not big fans anymore. The fact that they may destroy Mill for 2 years really frustates me. Especially the fact that they would get rid of those trees. I think at this point, possibly the most efficient route would be Mill/3rd to Cubs Stadium / Riverview. Or backside Ash with a slot to Mill 5th. Regardless, it's been moving slow. It's frustrating that government works so slow. Also, at $50 million a mile, maybe they should consider expanding / adding more trolleys to the lunch time trolley service.

Also interesting to see tower crane sections. Is this site staging for another site. Doesn't look like much site work has been done. Then again the site is already pretty well excavated as is; they could probably fast track it. The tower crane at Univ Square is as high as Tower 1 at W6. Pretty impressive. That building is going to make a powerful impact in the Tempe skyline coming east on 202.

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by Spitfiredude

Agreed. It seems most people on the thread are not big fans anymore. The fact that they may destroy Mill for 2 years really frustates me. Especially the fact that they would get rid of those trees. I think at this point, possibly the most efficient route would be Mill/3rd to Cubs Stadium / Riverview. Or backside Ash with a slot to Mill 5th. Regardless, it's been moving slow. It's frustrating that government works so slow. Also, at $50 million a mile, maybe they should consider expanding / adding more trolleys to the lunch time trolley service.

Also interesting to see tower crane sections. Is this site staging for another site. Doesn't look like much site work has been done. Then again the site is already pretty well excavated as is; they could probably fast track it. The tower crane at Univ Square is as high as Tower 1 at W6. Pretty impressive. That building is going to make a powerful impact in the Tempe skyline coming east on 202.

I had a similar thought the other day re: running street car from Mill/3rd to the Cubs stadium. That way it actually serves a purpose of bringing transit to the length of the lake, Marina Heights, future Pier 202/Athletic District development, TMP, the soccer stadium, and the Cubs stadium. Unfortunately, the reason they chose the current route in the first place is because the population density would make them score higher on federal funding priority. Maybe someday a Rio Salado line would be dense enough to score well, but not currently.

Apparently the meeting on the 17th is to discuss (1) going wireless on Mill and/or on Ash, and (2) running the street car on the south side of Rio Salado rather than through the median. Both seem like good ideas to me.

http://documents.tempe.gov/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=1239&doctype=AGENDA