ASU, home to the country's largest single campus in Tempe and a newly opened Phoenix campus, will grow into Scottsdale next year when SkySong, a $400 million international technology-research center, opens.
ASU is at the center of the project, which also goes by ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center and will function as a combination between
academia and private enterprise, said Michele Irwin, a SkySong spokeswoman.
The few ASU classes that will be held in the new building will be programs specific to technology and innovation, Irwin said.
The 1.2-million-square-foot center will serve as an international hub for research and technology. It will house research facilities, offices, retail space, a hotel and conference center and a residential area.
SkySong will be located two miles away from ASU's Tempe campus at the intersection of Scottsdale and McDowell roads.
Groundbreaking was last January, but construction on the first phase of the center, which includes all of ASU's space, will begin this month and is expected to be completed by next summer.
The designs for phase two, a commercial building, and phase three, an apartment-housing unit, were recently approved and construction is expected to begin soon.
ASU will occupy 80,000 square feet at the center, which Irvin said they would use to conduct business related to engineering research, entrepreneurship, education technology and innovation.
Skysong is anticipated to draw companies from around the world that want to be associated with the ASU units that will locate there, Irwin said.
But the ASU community isn't the only part of the state hoping to grow when Skysong opens.
The city of Scottsdale is planning to play a major role in Skysong's operation, said Pat Dodds, information officer for the city of Scottsdale.
The city owns the site where Skysong is being built and leased 37 acres of the land to the ASU Foundation to build a four-story building.
"The redevelopment of the area will revitalize the southern Scottsdale community," Irwin said.
Scottsdale also offered its assistance in financing the project, and agreed to invest $45 million in public facilities, such as water and sewer lines and streets, Dodds said.
Reach the reporter at: natalie.i.hayes@asu.edu.
