Tempe Development Thread - Page 525

CB1 · #**10481** Posted **Dec 23, 2021, 5:01 AM**

CB1 · #**10482** Posted **Dec 26, 2021, 3:19 PM**

https://www.tempe.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=79130

CB1 · #**10483** Posted **Dec 26, 2021, 3:21 PM**

Culdesac

CB1 · #**10484** Posted **Dec 26, 2021, 3:22 PM**

xymox · #**10485** Posted **Dec 26, 2021, 5:41 PM**

What’s the new crane up by the Tempe Arts building? It’s not the one for the Beam. This just went up. (I think)

skiesthelimit · #**10486** Posted **Dec 27, 2021, 1:03 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by xymox

What’s the new crane up by the Tempe Arts building? It’s not the one for the Beam. This just went up. (I think)

Was just coming here to post about this crane as well… I’m pretty sure it’s one of the I.D.E.A. campus buildings. That plot has been sitting empty precovid prepped and ready to go. I recall a hotel being proposed around there could be that or another office.

EDIT: Tracker says GNS @ IDEA… trying to find renderings

Also loads of new stuff issued building permits this month: https://www.tempe.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=86321

CB1 · #**10487** Posted **Dec 27, 2021, 2:23 PM**

Hopefully they are still building the hotel in that parcel.

xymox · #**10488** Posted **Dec 27, 2021, 6:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CB1

Hopefully they are still building the hotel in that parcel.

Based on the location of the crane that went up - that's the exact parcel they are working on. Need to drive down Rio Salado and get a better view sometime...

Tempe_Duck · #**10489** Posted **Dec 27, 2021, 6:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by xymox

Based on the location of the crane that went up - that's the exact parcel they are working on. Need to drive down Rio Salado and get a better view sometime...

Wonder if developments like this will change Tempe's mind on extending the lake. One can dream.

xymox · #**10490** Posted **Dec 27, 2021, 7:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tempe_Duck

Wonder if developments like this will change Tempe's mind on extending the lake. One can dream.

I think this was discussed earlier after the Coyotes proposed their development. The current dam is pretty permanent - extending the lake down to Priest seems unlikely w/o the city giving up on a pretty big investment already. Maybe if the developers paid for it? Even so - can't imagine it'd be easy to remove the existing dam, but I suppose anything is possible.

CB1 · #**10491** Posted **Dec 28, 2021, 12:47 AM**

https://250rio.com/

250 Rio now has its own webpage.

combusean · #**10492** Posted **Dec 28, 2021, 1:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by xymox

I think this was discussed earlier after the Coyotes proposed their development. The current dam is pretty permanent - extending the lake down to Priest seems unlikely w/o the city giving up on a pretty big investment already. Maybe if the developers paid for it? Even so - can't imagine it'd be easy to remove the existing dam, but I suppose anything is possible.

According to Tempe, the western side of the lake would have to be restarted down to Army Corps of Engineering approvals to extend it further. A funding source would have to be identified, and Tempe can't even drain the pool to the east that wrecks the lake's water quality and that should have happened like 10 years ago.

The Lake's budgets seem dodgy from an O&M perspective alone and I just don't see the appetite to rebuild the western side or even drain the eastern pool, especially with post-COVID.

The O&M budget is partially funded by private assessments in a Community Facilities District. I think all of the land the lake could be extended west to are City-owned, thereby making the City of Tempe itself responsible for the initial bulk of the costs of the lake's own extension.

I would estimate a Priestward extension as a $200 million project and Tempe simply has different priorities.

In other words, I don't see a lake extension happening again for a very long time. There's no funding, political will, or desire to build it out further.

plinko · #**10493** Posted **Dec 29, 2021, 2:35 AM**

I've been following the Town Lake project since I first heard about it in the early 90's. It's absolutely stunning what kind of transformation the City of Tempe has undergone since the construction of the lake.

In 1993 as a high school kid, I visited Tempe City Hall looking for info on the lake. They gave me a bunch of various black and white handouts with some drawings and blurbs about what might be at the lake. I think there might have also been a color informational brochure. But the prize was a postcard that had an aerial rendering, which I have shared on this forum before, but not in many many years. I would have to dig to find the other handouts, I might still have them in my archive. At one time there was to be a pedestrian only island!

tem002 by Michael Stroh, on Flickr

Spot the location of the once proposed 34 story Peabody Hotel! Isn't that where 'The Pier' is being built?

What's incredible to me is how much even the city underestimated the scale of lakefront development. It may seem slow and disjointed to some of you, but for me it's been wonderful to watch from afar. The fact that we can even debate needing to make the lake larger to accommodate ringing it in multi-use buildings is great.

I would love to get this view today. The best Google Earth has is 2019...

tem2019-lg4 by Michael Stroh, on Flickr

somethingfast · #**10494** Posted **Dec 29, 2021, 2:41 AM**

i remember driving by in '95 and '96 when they were working on it as well as the red mountain freeway...i was going to ASU so that's how old i am lol. yes, remarkable transformation.

plinko · #**10495** Posted **Dec 29, 2021, 4:25 AM**

^Which college were you in? I was in the architecture college from ‘94 to ‘99.

PyroD · #**10496** Posted **Dec 29, 2021, 5:14 AM**

^Very cool to see the comparison and how they shattered their own expectations. As for Google Earth, it seems to have "down" dated recently for some reason.

CB1 · #**10497** Posted **Dec 29, 2021, 7:30 PM**

Thanks for sharing plinko.

PHX31 · #**10498** Posted **Dec 29, 2021, 9:17 PM**

Will the power lines along Rio Salado Pkwy and the lake ever get buried? That would be a good use of money I think.

CrestedSaguaro · #**10499** Posted **Dec 29, 2021, 11:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by PHX31

Will the power lines along Rio Salado Pkwy and the lake ever get buried? That would be a good use of money I think.

I wish they would get buried along the lake and upwards into Papago Park. They really ruin the views.

I'm sounding like a NYMBY

Tempe_Duck · #**10500** Posted **Dec 31, 2021, 3:49 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean

According to Tempe, the western side of the lake would have to be restarted down to Army Corps of Engineering approvals to extend it further. A funding source would have to be identified, and Tempe can't even drain the pool to the east that wrecks the lake's water quality and that should have happened like 10 years ago.

What's the story on the eastern pool? I remember seeing it there forever.

What is the cause? Why can't they drain it? Seems like an original engineering error.