Hayden Flour Mill to be transformed into amphitheater, hotel and restaurants
Dec 1, 2014, 7:05 PM | Updated: 9:07 pm
The site of the old Hayden Flour Mill in Tempe has been desolate and empty for years, but it will soon become a shiny, new mixed-use development.
Phoenix Business Journal reports that if a Tempe City Council action to negotiate a contract to redevelop the site goes through on Dec. 4, the abandoned building will be demolished to make way for the new project.
Chicago-based Baum Development has plans to completely redevelop the historic site on Mill Avenue and Rio Salado Parkway. The team along with Aparium Hotel Group, SmithGroupJJR and Sundt Construction will transform the ruins of the mill into a first-class amphitheater, hotel, restaurants and retail stores. The urban development will wrap around “A” Mountain and should be completed in a few years.
The city of Tempe says Hayden Flour Mill is the oldest cast-in-place, reinforced concrete building in Tempe. It was built in 1918, closed for good in 1998 and has been empty every since.
But history lovers and Arizona natives, don’t worry.
The five-acre project is a lease-purchase and will preserve the existing grain elevator and four-story building, adapting it to a new use.
According to Phoenix Business Journal reporter Eric Jay Troll, this is the most unique aspect of the project.
“You’re going to have a hotel with a really unique characteristic being in a historic building, but beyond being in a historic building, being an actual grain elevator,” Troll said.
