SunCor Development Co.’s Marina Heights proposal on the banks of Tempe Town Lake managed to accomplish what had previously been impossible; it put Tempe officials on the same page as aviation interests out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
Both camps insisted they needed more time to review the 3 million square-foot office/ retail/condominium project after the developer and the owner of the land it hopes to buy, Arizona State University, asked that the city take no more than a month to do so.
With no logical explanation why this had to be at the state’s Board of Regents’ June meeting for approval of the $20 million land sale, SunCor and ASU put their application on hold until further notice.
This was the right thing to do — the only thing to do.
Now, we hope this change can provide a fresh start for all parties involved. We hope it doesn’t signal a return to the snail’s pace at which development of this site had been proceeding, which has left Tempe taxpayers with lake maintenance bills that building up this property is supposed to cover.
This is Lot 59N — 26 acres of overflow Arizona State University parking, sandwiched between Rio Salado Parkway and the Salt River bed, the Rural Road bridge and the condos and offices of SunCor’s Hayden Ferry.
It’s also, as Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman told then-Tribune writer Jason Emerson two years ago, “right in the middle of Town Lake. It is the most easily developable. And it’s the most visible. It’s the focus. We can’t demonstrate that the lake is viable if this property sits vacant.”
Emerson’s February 2005 story was an indepth look of how ASU and SunCor’s already protracted process had hit a stalemate over ASU’s dreams of a retail bonanza versus the more office- and residential-oriented reality SunCor was presenting to them.
Still, the school and the company, hammered out an agreement on the basic outline of the project in late 2004.
Friday’s delay is also a chance for Tempe and Phoenix to build a more cooperative relationship, based on shared interests rather than pretending they don’t have any, while Tempe ponders Marina Heights’ density and Phoenix looks at the safety implications of its tallest towers for its flight path.
Tempe needs to see this land developed within the reasonably near future —but wisely and cooperatively. It’s too important for it to be handled any other way.
Tribune Editorial
Article can be found at: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/90580
