Dianna M. Náñez

The Republic | azcentral.com

With towering development and a thriving downtown, Tempe is in the midst of historic change

Tempe and ASU have partnered on innovative ideas for growth and development

Tempe's growth, development, transit, downtown and culture changes are catering to a trend that has more families and young people seeking urban amenities

Look up. Towering construction cranes are everywhere in downtown Tempe.

It is no accident that there are about 20 developments underway. Tempe sees itself not as another suburb of Phoenix but as a thriving small-scale metropolis.

The bustling development is eclipsing that of other Valley cities and comes as Tempe voters in May approved the city's updated General Plan. City leaders see the document as a blueprint to advance sustainable urban living, high-density development and modernize auto-centric streets by focusing on bicyclists, pedestrians and public transit.

"I think Tempe's a fascinating example," said Wellington "Duke" Reiter, chairman of the Urban Land Institute in Arizona and a senior vice president at Arizona State University.

"It's not a suburb. It's not the biggest city. But it's becoming vital and filling in in ways that we always hoped the whole region would."

Traditional suburbs have room for more subdivisions that attract families. Neighboring Mesa covers 133 square miles, Scottsdale 184.2. Tempe covers 40.1 square miles.

Tempe leaders believed they had to take risks to stay competitive.

Those risks, which included building Tempe Town Lake on the northern edge of downtown, now appear to be paying off.

High-rise projects on the horizon at the lake include the third and final office building in Town Lake's 43-acre Hayden Ferry Lakeside development.

On the northeastern edge of downtown, on ASU-owned land at Town Lake across the street from Sun Devil Stadium, construction is underway on Marina Heights. At 2.15 million square feet, the project is touted as the largest office complex in state history. The sprawling development, expected to be completed in 2017, will house an estimated 8,000 employees at a regional hub for insurance giant State Farm.

And on the southern end of downtown on another ASU-owned parcel at Mill Avenue and University Drive is USA Basketball's headquarters and training facility, next to a proposed hotel-conference center.

Tempe's growth-and-development changes reflect a push to escape the shadow of Phoenix and a pull from an ASU brain trust that challenges the conventional.

Good to be landlocked

A 2012 report by the Urban Land Institute outlined a shift in traditional suburbs. The change, according to the report, reflects an "increasing appetite — especially among Generation Y — for higher-density living patterns and for transportation options that include transit, walking and biking."

"Today, (Tempe) being landlocked is its greatest virtue," Reiter said. "If you don't have constraints, you have sprawl."

Tempe, with an estimated population of 168,000, is benefiting from the recession having reset societal priorities, sparking the trend toward shorter commutes and easy access to metropolitan amenities.

Tempe is what Urban Land Institute researchers term a first-ring or inner-ring suburb: cities near a metropolitan core that often have mature transit development, roads, infrastructure and well-established neighborhoods.

"America's first-ring suburbs … could be the sweet spot for future growth," Urban Land Institute CEO Patrick Phillips said in the 2012 report.

Phoenix is among the nation's fastest-growing cities. ASU's Tempe campus is the nation's largest by student enrollment. That positions Tempe well.

"The centrality of Tempe — and this is very unusual — its proximity to the major hubs, especially an airport, and outer suburbs, are assets," Reiter said. "It's lucky to be surrounded, especially if you're at the center of the Valley's university knowledge."

Those characteristics often provide redevelopment opportunities that aren't typically seen in outer suburbs.

Tempe's wave of towering apartments near ASU incorporate retail or office space on the ground floor. Many cater to the thousands of students who want to live in luxury units near campus.

"I think Tempe, as a big university community, definitely has a younger demographic than some of the other family suburban cities," said Michael Kuby, a professor at ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. "It makes sense that we should be building more multifamily, especially around Mill Avenue and downtown Tempe."

Innovation, diversity

Tempe's successes and struggles can be a model.

Some Tempe residents living in single-family neighborhoods have balked at the high-rise apartments. Urban Land Institute analysts have warned that bulky multiuse, high-density developments stacked vertically often are challenging for a community. They recommend cities build high-density developments horizontally, rather than vertically in isolated skyscrapers, so that residential and commercial projects are weaved in with outdoor pedestrian walkways and seating areas that become community centers.

Urban-planning consultants say that innovative cities searching for a market foothold are good at recognizing their undervalued resources and building attractions that spotlight them.

The key is to attract high-profile employers and serve populations that are rejecting suburbia for a metropolitan lifestyle, Kuby said.

Tempe officials took criticism for being an early supporter of light rail. Scottsdale rejected light rail. Mesa, now recognizing redevelopment in Tempe along the line, is investing in expanding light rail through its downtown.

Tempe's innovation may be a reflection of its diversity. Campus cities often tend to be diverse because graduates from other places often stay and build their lives. Tempe's City Council is among the Valley's most diverse and includes men and women who are White, African-Americanand Latino.

"It is a collection of diverse people and diverse economic activities and goods and services that make the very important distinction between suburban and urban," Kuby said.

Tempe was an early leader in public transportation. In 1996, its voters became Arizona's first to approve a sales-tax increase dedicated to transit.

Tempe has relied on its half-cent sales tax to build light rail from its Phoenix boundary on the west to its Mesa boundary on the east, hugging ASU's campus and cutting through downtown Tempe.

Tempe is seeking federal grants to supplement $75 million in local transit funds to build the Valley's first modern streetcar rail system, which would travel alongside the campus and on Mill. Tempe leaders believe the streetcar system will trigger redevelopment similar to the downtown renaissance in Portland, Ore.

High rents on Mill may make it difficult for community-service businesses to enter the market, but Reiter said Tempe would benefit from renewing its once-thriving music scene and developing innovative subsidies for smaller businesses that could attract a grocery store or bookstore.

The bottom line

Even Harry Mitchell, then Tempe's mayor and regarded as a visionary, considered the Town Lake plan a lofty dream.

Tempe took on $46 million in debt to build the lake, proposed by ASU students in the 1960s and opened in 1999. It quickly attracted Tempe's first high-rise office developments and two towering condos.

Critics have bemoaned taxpayers shouldering the bulk of the lake's maintenance costs as development faltered amid the recession. The lake's dam failed in 2010 and city leaders revised the lake's financing plan, shifting more from developers to taxpayers last year in a bid that they said would encourage development.

Look up. The cranes verify the turnaround in downtown Tempe.

Victor Hugo Rodriguez, a State Farm spokesman, said the company wanted to be in a city with a university pipeline for a highly educated workforce. Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell and four council members who toured the site recently marveled at the $600 million project.

"I remember this (area) in the '70s and '80s," Mark Mitchell said. "Look at it now. It's a catalyst for development."

Tempe projects taller than 100 feet, or about 10 stories, under construction as of July 1

• Marina Heights: mixed-use, office, residential; 300 E. Rio Salado Parkway. 20 acres; 2.15 million square feet; 253 feet maximum height; $600 million; Ryan Companies and Sunbelt Holdings.

• University House - phase II: mixed-use, residential, commercial; 323 E. Veterans Way. 1.67 acres; 127,930 square feet; 72 units; 195 feet maximum height; $18.5 million; Inland American Communities Group.

• Hayden Ferry Lakeside III: mixed use, office, retail; 40 E. Rio Salado Parkway. 1.8 acres; 281,720 square feet; 172 feet maximum height; $28 million; Ryan Companies and Parkway Properties.

Source: Tempe development report or project developer