High-Rise Apartment Proposed at Former Tempe College Bar Site

Article originally posted on AZ Central on May 21, 2024

A high-rise student housing tower proposed on the site of a shuttered, formerly popular college bar in Tempe could face an uphill battle for approval after an icy reception from a city commission.

Landmark Properties, a Georgia-based real estate firm that specializes in off-campus student housing, is proposing a 21-story apartment complex on 1.1 acres at the corner of Rural Road and Apache Boulevard in Tempe, across the street from Arizona State University. The site includes the vacant building that was the Vine Tavern & Eatery and a gas station.

The project will replace the Vine Tavern, a Tempe icon and beloved haunt for generations of ASU students and sports fans alike. It was famed for its dollar you-call-it well drink nights, karaoke and apple pie shots.

Developer seeks 21 stories, city prefers 15

The proposed building, called the Standard at Tempe, would include 363 units, totaling 950 bedrooms, with ground floor retail or restaurant space. Most of the units are planned to be four bedrooms, but they range in size from studios to four bedrooms.

The apartment would be oriented toward students. There is ASU-owned housing to the north and west of the proposed tower, and ASU owns some housing farther south of the site.

“This site makes all the sense in the world for student housing,” Nick Wood, attorney with Snell and Wilmer who is representing Landmark properties in the zoning case, said at a Tempe Development Review Commission meeting May 14.

Wood said adding student-oriented apartments would give students another option near campus instead of renting single-family homes nearby and could help free up some of those homes for families or non-students who want to live in Tempe.

At the meeting, Wood said the site is especially difficult to develop because it is bounded on three sides by streets, and there are power lines east of the site that must remain in place. Wood said his client had offered to buy the Someburros restaurant south of the site, but the owners were not interested in selling it for redevelopment.

The developer is in escrow to buy the 1.1 acres containing the former Vine and the gas station contingent on getting the zoning approvals, Wood said at the meeting.

City staff recommended that the Development Review Commission, which serves as an advisory body to the City Council, approve a maximum of 15 stories on the site, not the 21 the developer is requesting. At the meeting, Diana Kaminski, a senior planner for Tempe, said a 15-story building on the site would be more appropriate and compatible with neighboring properties.

Residents, commissioners concerned with compatibility

Three Tempe residents also addressed the commission, asking them to recommend the council deny the project. Residents expressed concern about taller buildings on the south side of Apache Boulevard, which they said should be a transitional area between single-family neighborhoods to the south and ASU campus to the north.

Residents also said the proposal didn’t mesh well with the recently approved general plan. However, Wood said the proposal was submitted before the new general plan was approved.

Commission Chairman Andrew Johnson asked Wood if his client would pursue the project if there was a 15-story limit, and Wood said he could not say the developer would be okay with that limit. The site, with all its constraints, he said, would be very difficult and expensive to develop, and the additional height and units would make the project more viable.

Commissioner Barbara Lloyd said she did not support the drastic change in density and height that was proposed, and Commissioner Linda Spears said the building would be out of character with ASU’s nearby buildings, none of which are nearly that tall.

Attorney: Underutilized site needs rezoning

The commission unanimously voted to recommend the council deny the project. The council is scheduled to discuss the project at its June 6 meeting, with a final vote scheduled for June 27. The Council is not bound to following the commission’s recommendation.

At the meeting, Wood said the site, with its current zoning, does not support any type of significant redevelopment, and said Rural and Apache has the chance to be a “signature corner” in Tempe and is currently being underutilized.

The restaurant building has been vacant on the site for nearly two years. The Vine, a popular bar for ASU students, had been in business for 36 years but closed in the summer of 2022.