Eric Sorenson
Mill Avenue’s about to get a whole lot busier.
USA Basketball Chairman and Valley sports icon Jerry Colangelo believes there’s no place like home.
Wednesday it was announced USA Basketball will be relocating their headquarters from Colorado Springs to Tempe as part of an Arizona State development project which will include a luxury hotel and upscale apartments and office space.
“It’s a totally integrated, synergistic $350 million project,” Colangelo told Pros2Preps.com’s Brad Cesmat in a phone interview. “That’s very significant for our community and our state.”
The development will cover close to 11 acres at Mill Avenue and University Drive. The land is property of Arizona State University.
Colangelo, who has worked with USA Basketball the past eight years stressed this also win-win situation ASU and the local economy moving forward.
“When you look at the components,” he explained to Pros2Preps.com. “[Adding] a badly needed major hotel and a great hotel in the Omni Group. The Omni Hotel with approximately 350 rooms, a conference center and a big piece of this is about 500 residences.”
From a basketball perspective it will make Tempe and the entire state more visible from a perception standpoint housing and training the greatest players in the world. The project will have five indoor courts and Colangelo said they are working on a Hall of Fame component in the soon-to-be constructed space, as well.
The concept was well-received by ASU and Colangelo has already gotten positive feedback from other schools on the project and the model it will become.
“When you bring different components together there’s an energy, a synergy that takes place that brings that much added value,” he said. “I’m referring to properties owned by universities willing to work with developers on a land lease basis to develop this type of a project. Everyone benefits on that basis.”
The new development will be privately funded.
