On the northwest corner of College Avenue and Seventh Street near the Tempe campus, sits a vacant lot that ASU has owned for a few years but has yet to develop on.
Neil Calfee, director of University Real Estate Development, said officials are looking at options and going through proposals very carefully before they decide to build on the lot, called “Block 12.”
“We’re gathering information. We don’t want to rush, there’s no urgency or time table,” he said. “We are going to take the right amount of time to make a decision.”
According to official development plans, also known as the master plan, “Block 12” has been subjected to different building proposals. The proposals ranged from student life and support buildings to a collection of offices.
The plans are dated to 2005 and 2006, but have changed over the years and are not yet finalized.
Patrick Panetta, associate director of University Real Estate Development, said it is a matter of getting licensing and approval to build.
“There isn’t a project identified now,” he said.
A request for proposals was sent out in July, and about 30 firms submitted development ideas for the building of Block 12, he said.
Once teams are elected, development will move forward. Panetta said this is expected to happen in the near future, but an exact time frame is not yet available.
The land is likely to be used for office space, he said.
Chris Messer, principal planner for Tempe, said ASU and Tempe reached an agreement that if ASU decides to develop any building strictly for the University, it’s up to the University to handle zoning and inspections.
If the building is used by both ASU and Tempe, they would work to together to keep it up to code, he said.
ASU has multiple off-campus offices located around Tempe, meaning ASU pays separate leases for each location. It is more beneficial for the University to concentrate into one central building, Panetta said.
It does seem like things are moving slowly, but the University would like to start developing in the near future, Panetta said.
Reach the reporter at mmbarke1@asu.edu
