After SkySong’s first three buildings reached 100 percent capacity, leasing interest led to the construction of SkySong’s fourth building.
The SkySong complex, facing Scottsdale Road, is a commercial real estate property that houses companies and ASU entities including the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center, an incubator for startup ventures. It is located on the corner of Scottsdale Road and McDowell Road.
SkySong spokesman Tom Evans said SkySong 4’s construction began “in earnest” last week. The new building will be about 145,000 square feet, the same size as the other buildings, and located next to SkySong 3. It is expected to be open in about a year.
The SkySong project, a large commercial real estate development, began with just two buildings in 2008.
“It was a challenging time for any real estate to open up, but in the course of the next few years, it got leased out to the point that we built SkySong 3 earlier this year,” Evans said. “Already, SkySong 3 is full.”
Because of the substantial amount of leasing interest seen at SkySong, Evans said project leaders made the decision to build SkySong 4.
SkySong is a partnership between the ASU Foundation, the city of Scottsdale and Plaza Companies.
Evans said the goal of SkySong is to provide a sense of collaboration and innovation for the ASU entities housed in the buildings and the other companies.
“The companies can take advantage of ASU resources and provide ASU students with opportunities to work in the private sector,” Evans said.
Don Couvillion, ASU Foundation's real estate vice president, said SkySong 4 will be a “mirror image” of the third building because both buildings were approved at the same time.
“We now have space available for some of our smaller tenants who have shown a tremendous amount of interest in SkySong that we had to turn away,” Couvillion said.
Couvillion said ASU provides SkySong’s tenants with a high quality workforce including both undergraduate and graduate students and that the tenants can also use ASU facilities to hold meetings for "reasonable fees."
Sharon Harper, Plaza Companies' CEO and president, said SkySong is an excellent partnership that brings benefits and opportunities together for tenants, which results in the successful recruitment of companies into SkySong.
“We broke ground a couple weeks ago,” she said. “(SkySong 4) is right at the front of the project … it’ll be the first building that visitors will see when they come to the property.”
The construction period will be about 10 months, Harper said, and then tenant build outs of the space will begin.
Planning out SkySong involved working with Scottsdale on zoning processes and design, Harper said.
“Within that context and the partnership with Scottsdale, ultimately we needed to (plan) 1.2 million square feet of commercial office space,” Harper said.
Plaza Companies considered cars, parking and open space designs when planning out the project.
“When the building was in the design process, we knew it would work well but (each building) had to have some variety in how they look,” Harper said.
Harper also said SkySong has helped to revitalize south Scottsdale.
"Out in the market, when we let prospective companies know about this building, (it's) because the other buildings are full," Harper said.
Related Links:
US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker visits SkySong, talks entrepreneurship
New SkySong accelerator turns research to business
Reach the reporter at jenny.ung@asu.edu or follow @Jenny__Ung on Twitter.
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