The Grand at Papago Park Center, the final parcel still to be developed within one of the largest business parks in Arizona, was unveiled Monday at an opening celebration hosted by Salt River Project.
The total project, a 58-acre, high-profile, urban mixed-use property on the last developable parcel within the 350-acre Papago Park Center in the heart of the Tempe-Phoenix metropolitan area, will add an additional 8,000 employees and residents to an existing base of more than 10,000 employees and residents within the park.
At build-out, The Grand will total more than 3.2 million square feet of commercial development, with more than 2 million square feet of mixed-use office, including up to six 10-story Class A office buildings; two hotels; 550 apartment units; retail and restaurant space. When combined with Papago Park Center’s existing 3.3 million square feet of mixed-use projects, there will be more than 6.5 million square feet of urban development and approximately 18,000 employees and residents.
It is anticipated that the project will take between 15 and 20 years to complete, though it could be shorter or longer based on market conditions.
The Grand at Papago Park Center is named after the Grand Canal, a waterway developed in the 1870s to bring water from the Salt and Verde rivers to the arid Salt River Valley region. The Grand Canal is the oldest remaining pioneer canal on the north side of the Salt River.
Mitch Rosen, development manager of Papago Park Center Inc., said the Grand Canal has now been redirected as the focal point of the project and will include a legacy water feature with a simulated water release as a tribute to Theodore Roosevelt Dam and the dam’s place in Arizona history.
“The Grand Canal and Roosevelt Dam were vitally important to the initial growth of the Salt River Valley, just as they are to the sustainability today of our more than 4 million residents,” he said. “Without a reliable water supply that came from investments made more than a century ago, Phoenix would not have the kind of economic development that we enjoy today.”
Construction of The Grand started in 2014 with the relocation of the canal, creating a water feature to run through the development followed by multi-use path improvements along the north and south side of the canal. Developer Lincoln Property Company and Goldman Sachs have partnered to build the first office building totaling 220,000 square feet, in which SAP Software leased 40,000 square feet of the fourth floor with occupancy anticipated in January 2017. The first 300-unit apartment complex is scheduled to begin sometime during the first quarter of 2017, with completion anticipated in early 2019.
Papago Park Center Inc., The Grand project’s master developer and a subsidiary of SRP, selected Lincoln Property Company and Goldman Sachs in 2015 after an extensive RFP process to develop the first four-story Class A office building.
SAP, a German multinational software company with regional offices in 130 countries, makes enterprise software to manage business operations and will bring approximately 275 employees to The Grand.
The Grand is part of Papago Park Center, which was started in 1988, and is home to the corporate offices of SRP as well as First Solar, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Towers Watson, Union Bank, Sonora Quest Labs, State Farm Insurance, Western Refining and Parsons Brinckerhoff, among others. Papago Park Center today includes more than 3.5 million square feet of office, industrial, retail and multi-family property.
Located along a half-mile of frontage on the Loop 202/Red Mountain Freeway between Priest Road and Center Parkway, The Grand offers pedestrian access to two light rail stations as well as immediate vehicle access to the Loop 202, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Arizona State University. In addition, restaurants, shopping and entertainment are all nearby at Tempe’s Mill Avenue District. The Grand is also close to Papago Park, Tempe Town Lake, the Phoenix Zoo, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix Municipal Stadium and Papago Golf Course.
