Neighborhood Demographics
Most of the residential real estate is renter occupied, in fact, the percentage of rental real estate here is 87.6%, which is higher than 96.4% of the neighborhoods in America. Additionally, a greater proportion of the residents living here today did not live here five years ago. This neighborhood, more than almost any other in America, has new residents from other areas due, in large part, to Arizona State University (ASU). In fact, 30.0% of the residents of the W Rio Salado Pky / W 1st St neighborhood are currently enrolled in college.
The neighbors in the W Rio Salado Pky / W 1st St neighborhood in Tempe, given the high density of ASU students, are in the lower-to-middle income range. Average Per Capita & Median Income levels for the neighborhood are $23,499 and $38,564 respectively.
37.2% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts to working in fast food restaurants (that cater to students), with 33.2% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (17.4%), and 12.1% in manufacturing and laborer occupations.
The greatest number of commuters in W Rio Salado Pky / W 1st St neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (42.5% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans. Here most residents (69.7%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also bicycle to get to work (9.3%) and 5.8% of residents also ride the bus for their daily commute. This neighborhood has more bicycle commuters than 99.2% of all neighborhoods in the U.S.
One of the most interesting things about the W Rio Salado Pky / W 1st St neighborhood is that it has a greater concentration of residents who live alone than most all neighborhoods in Arizona and the greater US as a whole. 47.2% of neighborhood households are made up of people living alone. As a result, the neighborhood has a heavy concentration of studio, one and two bedroom unit rentals.
Tempe Economic Development - Highlights
Marina Heights
The Marina Heights project in Tempe is the largest office development in Arizona history. The “LEED Silver” design concept covers an area of more than 20 acres and encompasses 2 million square feet over five (5) office towers of varying heights, three (3) to four (4) stand-alone retail buildings and two (2) below grade parking garage levels. Total construction costs are estimated at $600 million. State Farm will lease approximately 1.9 million square feet in the development with a capacity for up to 8,000 employees. Additionally, 40,000 to 60,000 square feet of retail amenities will complement the transit-oriented development, including food service, coffee shops, restaurants, business services, and fitness facilities. The site will also feature an approximately 10-acre lakeside plaza, which will be open to the public.
Hayden Ferry Lakeside
Hayden Ferry Lakeside is one of the most prominent mixed-use office developments in Tempe and the Southwest.
The ±43-acre master planned development is located in the heart of Downtown Tempe, with excellent access to the Loop 101 and 202, and features a total of 1.6 million square feet of office, retail and residential space.
Hayden Ferry contains a total of 766,875 square feet of office space. National tenants include:
Tempe Biomedical and Technology Campus
The City of Tempe has moved forward with seeking the development of the city’s first biomedical and technology campus on 18 acres of Tempe land west of the Tempe Center for the Arts. On August 18, 2016, the City Council selected a partnership of three businesses to negotiate with the city on a development agreement. The selected development team – made up of The Boyer Company, SmithGroupJJR and Okland Construction – has proposed a phased project of five, 5 to 8story buildings totaling approximately 1 million square feet, along with two parking structures with about 2,500 spaces. It also is proposed to include a restaurant, arts-related spaces such as rehearsal space and artist workspaces, and trails connecting to the arts center and Town Lake pathways.
Tempe’s Economic Development team works to attract biomedical and technology businesses because they provide high-quality jobs and contribute to community quality of life. There are approximately 15,000 technology jobs in Tempe, paying an average of $95,000 annually.
Novus Innovation Corridor
The Rio Salado ecoDistrict repurposes 480 acres of University-owned or adjacent urban real estate. The Novus Innovation Corridor comprises 330 acres of the ecoDistrict and is being planned for private development along design guidelines that assure a high quality, known development environment.
The project’s primary goal is the creation of long-term economic viability through the development of a mixed-use built environment - emblematic of ASU’s aspirations in sustainable urbanism. Such an approach, with its emphasis on a connected walkable place that would efficiently deal with its own waste, water, power and transportation would be one of the few such integrated plans at this scale anywhere. Implementation would also advance next generation sports venue development, promote a resident creative class, and nurture district-wide corporate partnerships.
The Grand at Papago Center
The Grand is the final phase of Papago Park Center, a 350 acre mixed-use business park and features 3,187,000 SF of mixed-used urban development. The Grand is zoned with a Planned Area Development (PAD) overlay allowing for office, retail, and hotel uses.
The Grand is located between the North Priest Drive and North Center Parkway off-ramps with approximately one-half mile of frontage on the Red Mountain 202 Freeway. It has almost immediate access to Arizona State University and Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The I-10, 101, and 51 freeways are all within minutes of the site.
The Grand has a light rail station at its northern boundary on West Washington Street. In addition, the Center Parkway station is within walking distance to the Grand's eastern boundary.
In April of 2016, global tech company, SAP America leased the top floor, or 40,000 square feet, of the new office development currently under construction at the Grand which is being developed by Lincoln Property Company and Goldman Sachs.
SAP relocated 275 employees to the Tempe complex, from its current location inside the Scottsdale Galleria, in early 2017.
Whiting-Turner is the general contractor for the development.
HKS Architects is the architect.
The master developer of the project is Papago Park Center Inc.
ADP
Governor Doug Ducey today announced that ADP® will open a new location in Tempe, Arizona in the spring of 2017. This new office will create up to 1,500 new jobs and the company will invest more than $33.75 million in the Tempe community.
ADP is a comprehensive global provider of cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions that unite HR, payroll, talent, time, tax, and benefits administration. The company is a leader in business outsourcing services, analytics, and compliance expertise. ADP serves more than 650,000 clients of all types and sizes around the world.
“The new Tempe office is key to our overall Service Alignment strategy and supports our goal of providing an exceptional experience for our clients and associates,” said Dinora Sanchez, senior vice president, Global Business Transformation at ADP. “We look forward to welcoming approximately 1,500 Tempe-areas residents to our ADP family.”
ASU
Arizona State University, which just surpassed the 100,000 student enrollment mark, has plans to hire 3,000 faculty and staff. That's on top of the 12,000 student jobs the university needs at its four campuses in the metro Phoenix area.
With a $3 billion budget, ASU is in growth mode, and it can get pretty costly — upward of $400,000 in annual salaries for some positions — to attract top faculty from other parts of the country, said ASU President Michael Crow, who met with the Phoenix Business Journal editorial team Sept. 18.
Crow said ASU will need tenured faculty as well as support staff to keep up with enrollment growth.
Arizona State University reached a new milestone in 2017’s Fall Semester, enrolling more than 100,000 students.
Preliminary enrollment figures show ASU has 103,410 students, a 5-percent increase over last year and 40 percent more than five years ago.
The remaining 72,000 ASU students are mainly spread over five campuses in the metro Phoenix area. Outside the Valley, the smaller ASU Colleges at Lake Havasu City has operated since 2012.
The enrollment increase puts ASU on track to have 125,000 students by 2025, a goal set by the Arizona Board of Regents as part of a strategic plan to increase the percentage of Arizona residents with a college degree.
Tempe remains the largest ASU campus with an enrollment of 51,600.
Tempe Streetcar
After years of planning, construction of Tempe's $177 million streetcar project will begin in June.
The work will involve utility relocations to make way for the future track.
The streetcar project, slated for completion in fall 2020, will include three miles of track that loops around downtown Tempe, connecting riders to neighborhoods, business centers and regional destinations.
Tempe was an early adopter of the Valley's light-rail system and has seen high ridership, according to Valley Metro. Streetcars differ from light rail as they are smaller, move slower and often share lanes with traffic.
Construction is moving forward despite President Donald Trump's proposed budget, which would nix federal funding for streetcar and other transit projects.
Valley Metro and Tempe officials announced the construction schedule Wednesday. The plan is to do the work during the summer months when tourism is lighter and fewer college students are in town.
Valley Metro also unveiled three streetcar paint options that the public can weigh in on.
Mill and Ash avenues will be the focus of this year's construction, with a majority of the work on Mill taking place at night to minimize the impact on drivers.
Workers will begin construction on Mill, between Rio Salado Parkway and University Drive, in the early morning hours and end at 10 a.m., according to Valley Metro.
Ash Avenue, between Rio Salado Parkway and University Drive, will see work from July 24 to August 11. Construction should wrap up the day before students move in at Arizona State University in Fall 2017
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