Flour power: Vision on track for Hayden Flour Mill - Phoenix Business Journal | Changsha ClearMindset Innovations Group Co.,Ltd

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Hayden Flour Mill is arguably the most iconic building in Tempe. Developers are hard at work redeveloping the site into a powerhouse that could be "Tempe's version of Millennium Park in Chicago."

The Hayden Flour Mill was the backdrop to Lorenzo Perez's childhood. Anytime he'd visit his grandparents in Tempe and play outside, the mill stood out in Tempe's skyline. When he attended Arizona State University to study architecture, the mill was a studio project site to let imaginations run rampant.

Now, Perez is co-leading the redevelopment of the historic Hayden Flour Mill with his firm Venue Projects and project partner Sunbelt Holdings. The Valley-based firms are looking to reactivate the mill and the five acres it sits on into a community asset.

"What motivated me was this opportunity to work on a once-in-a-lifetime project, and the fact that it was personal to me," Perez said.

The Hayden Flour Mill is a relic of Tempe’s agricultural past and growth of Tempe, as well as being the namesake of the bustling Mill Avenue. The mill building was built in 1918 and remains the oldest cast-in-place, reinforced concrete building in Tempe. The mill closed in 1998 and was bought by the city in 2003. Two different private companies have previously gotten development rights for it over the years, but those rights have since expired.

This story is part of a special package celebrating Tempe Town Lake's 25th anniversary. At the quarter-century mark, a flurry of trophy projects are in the works at the lake, which has an office market that’s the envy of the Valley. The Phoenix Business Journal’s Oct. 25 print edition includes this special coverage, with stories highlighting the past, present and future of Tempe Town Lake.

Tempe Mayor Corey Woods reached out to Perez and other developers in the spring of 2021 to explore possibilities for reactivating the mill, which is a gateway to Tempe's downtown and remains under the city's ownership. The mill, located only a few hundred steps from the shores of Tempe Town Lake, is seen by city leaders as a key connector between the water and Mill Avenue.

Perez recalls walking around the mill during the daytime and evenings, pondering what he could do if he and his team and partners got their hands on it.

Tortilla Flour is commercially packaged inside Hayden Flour Mill. Caption on back reads: Shelby Scroggins works with a packing machine for commercial tortilla flour, circa 1980. Expand to read more

Tempe History Museum

"I travel and look at projects all over the U.S., especially adaptive-reuse projects. And I told [Tempe officials] ... 'This could be Tempe's version of Millennium Park in Chicago,'" Perez said. "You have everything at the doorstep of this property: urban living, transportation, you're in the heart of the epicenter of the fifth-largest city, what this should be is essentially a beautiful public park, and have a bunch of great indoor-outdoor spaces. These buildings are the backdrop, and they actually provide an amenity for people to come and have a great dining experience, an artful experience, and be entertained and get educated on the history. ... Storytelling is going to be a huge part of the vision for this project."

Tempe engaged Venue Projects and Sunbelt Holdings in 2022 to negotiate a development agreement for Hayden Flour Mill. Tempe City Council unanimously approved the agreement at its Oct. 12, 2023 meeting, giving the green light to start the work toward revitalization.

Venue Projects is behind several high-profile redevelopment and adaptive reuse projects. The firm partnered with Vintage Partners on the adaptive reuse of the Rise Hotel in uptown Phoenix, and is the developer and co-owner of the Newton, located near Third Avenue and Camelback Road, which was a former steakhouse and banquet facility that now is a mixed-use project that includes the Southern Rail restaurant, Changing Hands Bookstore and other tenants.

Sunbelt Holdings was a co-developer of Marina Heights in Tempe, the Valley’s largest office complex. The company is also developing Union Park at Norterra in north Phoenix and was chosen to lead the 10-million-square-foot expansion of Wild Horse Pass on the Gila River Indian Community.

The original Hayden Flour Mill was built in 1874 but burned down – and after being rebuilt in 1895, it burned down again. Architects and builders used techniques developed in the wake of the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 to make the building fire-proof, according to the city of Tempe. The grain elevator and silos east of the mill were constructed in 1951 and remained the tallest structures in Tempe until 2007.

Perez calls 2024 a "due diligence year" for the revitalization that involved getting clarity on constraints affecting the site; pursuing a national recognition of a historically recognized property that could lead to historic tax credits for the financing of the project; and an environmental deep-dive to get the all-clear. The additional time spent to get an understanding of how to properly develop the site is key because of its topography on Hayden Butte and the need to preserve the mill's history to incorporate it into the new vision for the site.

Conceptually, Perez said the development of the mill will be about a 10-year project schedule driven by unknowns such as capital market conditions, availability and order of financing resources, cultural and historic preservation requirements, potential archaeological and environmental unknowns, construction capabilities and regulatory approval.

The project is a public-private partnership between Tempe, Venue and Sunbelt Holdings. Perez said the site is culturally significant for the Four Southern Tribes of Ak Chin Indian Community, Gila River Indian Community, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and Tohono O'odham Nation.

"The shared vision with the city of Tempe is that this will be a legacy project that outlives us all in a very successful manner if we take the necessary time to do it right with the long view in mind, and not be pressured to rush it," Perez said. "The Town Lake is a great example of that."