The old Hayden Flour Mill currently lies empty, vacant and undisturbed, but that may change soon.
The Tempe City Council will decide Thursday whether the mill should be listed in the city's historic-preservation registry during the second of two public meetings regarding the facility's future.
The move would help prevent the structure from being destroyed, although a listing offers no guarantees that all of the mill site will be preserved in its current form.
Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman said he feels placing the mill on the historical registry will help Tempe's citizens better understand its role in the city's development.
"Preservation of our history is critical to a community's sense of understanding of its place in time and culture," Hallman said.
The mill has a long history in Tempe. After being constructed by Charles Trumbull Hayden in 1874, it burned down twice. A 1918 reconstruction effort brought the mill to its current form. It has remained relatively un-changed since then, even after a 2002 fire that left the mill unsafe for public use.
The mill site has been eligible for listing on the historical registry since 1983, but has never been approved.
Joe Nucci, a historic preservation officer for the city of Tempe, said the mill's operators did not want it to become a historic site. Once the Tempe City Council took over the site from its private owners, the council directed the Tempe Historic Preservation Commission to apply for listing.
Nucci said he believes historic designation of the site will encourage redevelopment of the area near it.
"An area like that has to continuously redevelop itself and keep fresh and vibrant, or it will fade away and stop [functioning] economically," he said.
Hallman said mixed-use development likely would flank preserved mill and silo structures at the site if the historic-preservation listing is approved by the city council. New retail, entertainment, and residential facilities could be constructed.
"The goal is to see the Mill site developed into an area of energy and excitement and to connect the downtown and lake areas together," Hallman said.
Hallman added the new development would help link downtown Tempe with Tempe Town Lake, spurring further economic growth.
Subsidies formerly used to stabilize the downtown economy could then be used for maintaining public services, such as libraries and parks, and reducing the budget deficit.
Eddie Goitia, managing partner of Monti's La Casa Vieja, said construction on the Mill site "provides the missing link between downtown Tempe all the way to Tempe Town Lake...so you have a complete walking traffic and driving pattern to bring people up and down Mill Avenue."
Casey Schmitt, night manager at Mill's End, a coffee house and hookah bar, said he hopes redevelopment and historical preservation will be equally prioritized.
"If they could somehow preserve the structure while also developing it so that it was a place people would go, that would be ideal for businesses on Mill," Schmitt said.
Reach the reporter at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu.
