A Taylor Place official said on Wednesday that the six available retail spaces on the Downtown campus remain empty despite ongoing efforts to attract tenants.
Five of the remaining available spaces, a total of 5,500 square feet, are located on the ground floor of Taylor Place, and one space remains in the Walter Cronkite School building, all of which have been unoccupied since the completion of the two buildings in 2008, said Chad Izmirian, vice president of Capstone Development, the company in charge of managing Taylor Place.
“We have had quite a bit of interest in the remaining retail space, but (no prospective tenants) that have pushed forward to any sort of a formal contract yet,” Izmirian said.
Izmirian said some of the reasons why prospective tenants have backed out is because their financing didn’t work out, they didn’t qualify for insurance and because retailers don’t want to go out and invest in more stores.
“Overall, retail is soft right now,” he said. “Retailers are having a hard time financing projects to open new stores.”
However, the lack of tenants isn’t a huge surprise, Izmirian said.
The retail space became available just as the economy went sour.
“It’s impacting our financial models a little bit,” Izmirian said. “But the slow build out of the retail spaces was incorporated into our financial calculations.”
Izmirian said Capstone Development, who recently contracted a new real estate broker, is now aggressively seeking interest in the retail space.
Nursing freshman Kerri Edwards said she moved into Taylor Place this year expecting a bustling retail scene.
“I thought that all these places would be full, but they have been empty for a long time,” Edwards said.
Edwards said she was surprised that those retail spots remain empty, because of their close proximity to students.
“(Businesses) would get a lot of kids like Starbucks does,” Edwards said.
Although there have been many prospective tenants in Taylor Place, Izmirian said Capstone Development has had to consider other possibilities outside of retail.
“We’ve investigated different approaches,” Izmirian said. “We’ve looked at a few different alternatives and designs.”
One alternative included moving ASU’s Wells Fargo Student Center from the Arizona Center into Taylor Place, Izmirian said, while another idea on the table proposed opening up the space beneath Taylor Place to create a more open dining hall area.
“Ultimately, it was decided that right now, we should focus on sticking with retail,” Izmirian said. “But something similar to that is always on the table.”
Journalism freshman Jordan Wilhelmi, who came to ASU from Minnesota, said he still doesn’t know the Phoenix area very well and relies on the food options the Downtown campus provides.
Right now, he said, “there’s not much to choose from.”
Wilhelmi also said he wonders why the retail spaces are empty.
“I think (businesses) would prosper a lot (to use those spaces) because students who do have money like to spend it,” Wilhelmi said.
Currently, the major focus of Capstone Development is to bring student-oriented retail to the available spaces in Taylor Place, Izmirian said. The primary ideas include a smoothie bar, a frozen yogurt shop, a nail salon and a tanning salon, as requested by students, he said.
“One of our goals is more food offerings to increase the dining options for students,” he said.
Izmirian said Capstone Development is encouraged by the interest it’s seeing.
“But we have to take into account where the economy is and where downtown Phoenix is,” he said, adding later: “It’s just going to be a waiting game now until we get some retailers that want to invest their money in downtown Phoenix and the ASU campus.”
Contact the reporter at jvonshe@asu.edu
