Negotiations are ongoing between ASU and fraternity landowners to work out the kinks in a several-hundred-million-dollar project to demolish and rebuild fraternity housing on Alpha Drive in Tempe.
ASU has been working with property owners since 2004 on the Threshold Project, which would drastically change the Alpha Drive area, said Steven Nielsen, Assistant Vice President of University Real Estate Development.
While negotiations are still underway about the specifics of the project, the reconstruction would likely involve student housing, fraternity housing and commercial establishments in place of the current Alpha Drive setup, Nielsen said.
The cost estimate for the original proposal in 2004 was $500 million.
The Interfraternity Council, the governing body for 21 ASU fraternities, said in an e-mail statement that it has no official stance on the project.
Alpha Drive properties are owned by eight different fraternity landowners. Seven of the landowners have formed a private group, Threshold, LLC.
The Sigma Nu fraternity landowner has yet to sign on but has expressed interest in doing so, said Jeff Abraham, Threshold’s executive director.
Because the fraternity properties are spread out in a checkerboard-like way, land would have to be consolidated for the redevelopment to take place, Abraham said.
Nielsen and Abraham said it was difficult to estimate when negotiations would be complete. Abraham said the project may be finalized this semester, and it would be approximately 18 months before construction would begin in the area.
“The Alpha Drive fraternity property owners have been working on this for quite some time and are anxious to actually do something on the site,” Abraham said. “It’s to everybody’s advantage to make something happen there in the short time.”
Eminent domain had been considered as a way for ASU to use its power as a part of state government to take control of the property, but this option was taken off the table over the summer, Nielsen said.
“It was hurting our negotiations,” he said.
Many components of the project have complicated negotiations and have elongated the process for breaking ground, Abraham and Nielsen said.
ASU and the landowners have to come to a consensus about whether the fraternities will own or lease the land, what commercial businesses will be placed in the area and what rules will apply to the fraternity houses, along with other details.
A redeveloped Alpha Drive could possibly include a hotel and conference center, parking, an athletic field and other features.
Tony Bradley, who graduated from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in May, said he has been trying to raise awareness about the project among students.
Bradley, who belonged to Sigma Pi Epsilon during his undergraduate years at ASU, created a Facebook group in early July titled “Save Alpha Drive” that had more than 1,600 members on Wednesday.
Bradley said he created the group to raise awareness and disseminate information about the project.
Because the project’s details have not been worked out, Bradley said he has found that many students do not know enough about the Threshold Project to make a decision.
“It’s a moving target at this point,” he said of the project.
Bradley said he has seen a pattern at ASU of the University trying to control fraternities since he completed his undergraduate degree in 1997. Ideally, he said he does not want Alpha Drive demolished and rebuilt, but he supports Abraham’s plan as the best possible course of action.
“I’m a realist,” he said. “They’re forcing the fraternities to negotiate.”
He added that he wants to see the fraternities own and govern their own land rather than sell land to ASU and lease it back.
ASU’s proposal to exert more control over the Alpha Drive fraternities bothers Bradley, he said.
“You buy property so that you can have secure self-governing entities,” he said. “Self-governance is always best.”
Reach the reporter at matt.culbertson@asu.edu.
