Business owners haven't yet felt the impact of the thousands of students attending the Downtown campus, but the city hopes to change that.
Students don't seem to frequent downtown businesses because they're not aware of what's down there, said Brian Kearney, president and CEO of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership.
About 2,800 students are taking classes downtown this semester.
"It's a different kind of campus," he said. "It's going to take a little bit of getting used to."
The partnership, which provides security, marketing and other services to the Downtown campus, plans to step up its efforts to attract ASU students to businesses, Kearney said.
These efforts will include taking students out for a night on the town and staffing an information table at the Residential Commons.
The partnership will also help businesses target students by installing equipment that will accept Sun Cards and encouraging them to offer discounts, Kearney said.
Coach & Willie's, a bar and restaurant located near US Airways Center, isn't planning to let students use their Sun Cards yet because they aren't impacting sales, said Ben Sanders, a manager.
"I have seen an increase in people coming down there from that age group," Sanders said. "[But] we haven't seen it hit us significantly yet though."
Alex Anagnopoulos, co-owner of Matador Mexican Food Restaurant, located near First and Adams streets, said she has seen a slight increase in business from students eating there.
"We'd love to see a lot more of them," she said. "I'm excited because I see college students downtown and that's very refreshing."
Kearney said he's not discouraged by the campus' lack of impact on businesses because it's still relatively new.
The campus could make business more consistent because more students would be taking classes and also living downtown, said David Cavazos, deputy city manager.
The need for hundreds of new students to get their laundry done has driven up business by about 10 orders a week at Downtown Laundry & Dry Cleaning, said owner Mary Ann Avila.
"The campus is right across the street from me, so it's convenient as hell," said Avila, whose business is located at First and Taylor streets.
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu
