ASU will be expanding to the Arizona Center as early as next spring due to the rising number of students on the Downtown campus, university officials said.
ASU signed a five-year lease for the 33,522-square-foot two-level space in March. The units will be reconstructed and used for classrooms and offices, said Anne Gazzaniga, director for University Space Planning.
“It gives the opportunity to gain space for the growing enrollment,” Gazzaniga said.
Downtown student enrollment for the spring semester increased approximately 15 percent from last spring, according to ASU’s Institutional Analysis report. The first spring semester enrollment in 2007 was 5,288.
“We see this as a big win for the building owner, but also for ASU, which will get great signage, great space and will connect the school even more into the surrounding area, which is great for everyone,” said Tyler Wilson, representative of CommonWealth REIT, the Massachusetts-based real-estate investment trust that purchased the Arizona Center in 2011.
He said the retail shops in the Arizona Center will also benefit from ASU’s presence in the complex.
This is not the first time ASU has expanded facilities in the Arizona Center. In 2007, ASU opened the Wells Fargo Student Center at the mixed-use complex, but it was moved to the historic U.S. Post Office building in Civic Space Park early this year.
Patrick Panetta, associate for ASU’s real estate project development office, had a hand in negotiating the lease agreement between ASU and the property owner.
The second floor space was priced at $17 per square foot and the third floor space was priced at $12.25 per square foot, which brings annual rent cost for ASU to approximately $460,000, Penetta said.
The expansion is still in the planning stages and there is no set construction timeline yet. While the lease has been signed, it won’t go into effect until ASU starts using the classrooms, Gazzaniga said.
Currently, the plan is to build larger classrooms to be used on an as-needed basis. Though the goal is to begin using the space by next spring, it is not guaranteed because no schools from the Downtown campus have been assigned to the classroom space.
“It will be good to have more classrooms over there,” journalism freshman Erin Mondt said. “That will help get more students involved in the downtown community.”
Other current ASU Downtown developments include a 75,000-square-foot expansion to the Phoenix YMCA which is expected to be completed before the fall semester, as well as plans to move the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law to the Downtown campus.
Contact the reporter at Kimberly.Garbacz@asu.edu
