The former site of Los Arcos Mall in Scottsdale is one step closer to becoming an ASU research center.
Scottsdale City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to rezone the property, located at the intersection of Scottsdale and McDowell roads.
The ASU-Scottsdale Center for Technology and Innovation will be constructed on the former mall site, which has been designated as a Planned Community District.
The new zoning category will allow the site to include 1.2 million square feet of office space, research buildings, retail stores and restaurants.
This action also allows all parties involved to prepare for a September meeting in which Scottsdale's Development Review Board will review plans for the first phase of the project.
Work on the center is ahead of schedule, said Steve Evans, director of the ASU Foundation.
Groundbreaking for the research center will occur in the first quarter of 2006. The first phase is scheduled for completion in 2007. It will include approximately 80,000 square feet of space to house technology research facilities for ASU. But the entire project will be not completed until at least 2014.
The purpose of the project is to create an "intersection of research and business," Evans said, adding that ASU hopes to capitalize on its position as a top research university by "commercializing" its findings into products and services.
This could help provide jobs for graduate students and researchers, as well as provide money to support University services.
Several members of the Scottsdale City Council said the center could create opportunities for businesses and residents in the area. Scottsdale Mayor Mary Manross said the project could go a long way toward bringing about the revival of South Scottsdale.
"[The center] could be an enormous catalyst for the development and revitalization of southern Scottsdale," she said.
While most of the council members and Scottsdale residents who spoke out on the project were overwhelmingly supportive of it, Darlene Petersen, a longtime Scottsdale resident, said a 60-foot restriction on the heights of buildings won't stop Wal-Mart-sized stores from coming.
"We are going to get big boxes down there," she said.
Scottsdale resident Lyle Wurtz, was skeptical of the motives behind the project.
"It just seems to be another subsidy to commercial interests," he said.
Vice Mayor Betty Drake said she felt the eventual form of the project's architecture would make the center distinctive and was "disappointed" by what she thought were vague plans for the center's design. She said she hoped the project's developers would take the opportunity to "bring things into focus before the next meeting."
She also said she did not see how the open space emphasized as a key aspect of the center's construction would be created.
"I want to know how it's going to function as a gathering space," she said.
But several council members noted that while mentioning such issues at such an early stage was helpful, the gathering's purpose was to approve the rezoning amendment. Resolution of design matters should be left for the next meeting, they said.
Development of the ASU-Scottsdale Innovation Center began in August, when Scottsdale City Council purchased 42 acres of land formerly occupied by Los Arcos Mall, which closed in 1999. The city then entered into a long-term lease agreement with the ASU Foundation for 37 of those acres, land where the center itself will be constructed.
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu.
