Hayden Flour Mill project to restore buildings, add restaurants could start in 2025

Corina Vanek, Arizona Republic
·3 min read

A plan that includes preserving and adaptively reusing Tempe’s Hayden Flour Mill, the namesake of Mill Avenue, will likely begin visible construction in 2025.

The developers, Phoenix-based Venue Projects and Scottsdale-based Sunbelt Holdings, along with the city, which owns the property, will spend the next year completing environmental analysis, archaeological work, and an effort to get the site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Lorenzo Perez, co-founder of Venue Projects said.

Perez, who is from Arizona, said being able to work on the project is personal for him. When submitting the plan to the city that was ultimately selected for the redevelopment, he and the leaders of Sunbelt Holdings wanted to “approach with restraint” to keep the development complementary of the buildings and site that already exist.

The city will continue to own the land, which will be leased for 60 years, Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said.

A conceptual site plan shows some of the proposed uses for the five-acre site, which includes adding public space, like outdoor terraces and a desert park, and commercial buildings like restaurants.
A conceptual site plan shows some of the proposed uses for the five-acre site, which includes adding public space, like outdoor terraces and a desert park, and commercial buildings like restaurants.

Plans focus on food options, public spaces

In total, the plan could add about 28,000 square feet of new buildings, most of which will be one or two stories tall, to the 5-acre site, and converting 105-year-old mill building for a food and beverage, office or hospitality use. Most of the new buildings will likely be used for food and beverage concepts, but could also include arts and culture installations, retail, office space or events uses.

“It becomes a great opportunity for storytelling through restoration and reuse,” Perez said of the site. The existing mill was built in 1918 and the 10-story silos were added in the 1950s. According to the city of Tempe, there were other mill buildings on the site since 1874. As an homage to the mill’s past, which used hydro power, a water feature is planned near the mill building.

Lorenzo Perez, co-founder of Venue Projects, discusses the plans to preserve the buildings on the Hayden Flour Mill site and add buildings that will include restaurants.
Lorenzo Perez, co-founder of Venue Projects, discusses the plans to preserve the buildings on the Hayden Flour Mill site and add buildings that will include restaurants.

The development will also add trails into the Hayden Butte Preserve, which is on the eastern side of the property. The trails will mostly be building official trails on places where pedestrians have already created informal trails into the preserve.

A park space, which will focus on desert landscaping and could include informational installations about the butte and its significance to the four southern tribes of Arizona: the Ak-Chin Indian Community, the Gila River Indian Community, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Perez said he and the team meet with tribal representatives regularly to discuss plans and learn what the tribes would like to see incorporated in the project.

The developers made a commitment to the city to preserve all the buildings on the site, John Graham, president and CEO of Sunbelt Holdings said. The silos will not be repurposed but will remain on the site and could be used for projection art displays or other low intensity uses.

Train tracks that run across the site, which are no longer in use, will also be preserved.

The Hayden Flour Mill was built in 1918 and the silos were built later, in the 1950s.
The Hayden Flour Mill was built in 1918 and the silos were built later, in the 1950s.

“The existing buildings are the stars of the campus,” Perez said. “Not losing the viewshed was important, it’s an interesting site from a design standpoint.”

The plan also includes several outdoor terraces that could be used for small scale events or simply as public gathering spaces, Perez said. East of the silo building, there are some foundations still remaining of silos that have been demolished, and the group plans to keep those foundations and create an outdoor terrace there, at the edge of the butte.

Redevelopment attempts date back 30 years

There have been other attempts to redevelop the mill site and reuse the buildings, dating back to the 1990s, Woods said. Other plans have been proposed over the years, but none has come to fruition and the buildings have remained vacant.

The failure of other projects to move forward was seen as a bit of a stroke of luck for Perez and Graham, who are both based in the Valley and said they would have wanted the opportunity to work on the iconic site.

“In downtown Tempe now, the market is here at our doorstep and our big idea is actionable,” Perez said.

Reach the reporter at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @CorinaVanek.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hayden Flour Mill redevelopment could begin in 2025. A sneak peek