The Arizona Supreme Court agreed to review the Arizona Attorney General’s lawsuit against the ASU-Omni Hotels deal before the ceremony
Photo of Kiersten Moss
| The state press
Left to right: ASU President Michael Crow, Tempe Mayor Corey Woods, Omni Hotels President Peter Strebel, Regent Bill Ridenour and ASU Vice President, Real Estate Development John Creer at the Omni Hotel’s landmark event on Friday, September 17, 2021, in temp.
from Caera learning month | 09/18/2021 1:20 PM
ASU and members of Tempe City Council broke ground for the new one Omni Tempe Hotel Friday morning, three days after the Arizona Supreme Court agreed to review the ruling of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich legal action aim at ASU’s deal with the hotel’s developers.
The $ 125,000,000 facility at 7 E. University Dr. will have 330 guest rooms and is expected to be completed in 18 months. It will have over 30,000 square meters of conference space, making it the largest conference center in Tempe.
According to ASUs website for the hotel, in addition to its primary function as a hotel, it will also be a venue for university-related events such as guest speakers and public events.
Jay Thorne, an ASU spokesman, said he hopes the Omni Hotel will be a new focus for Tempe in “downtown revitalization.”
“There are always these critics and naysayers in every project we each do,” he said. “But I believe these critics have a political agenda rather than paying attention to the mission of the universities.”
The lower courts have already ruled twice against Brnovich that the deal “wrongly exempted the hotel and the conference center from property tax”. The deal would exempt Omni Hotels and Resorts from paying property taxes as the hotel will be built on university land and the university would receive rental payments for the hotel.
The Brnovich Office did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit in time for publication.
Speaking at the event, ASU President Michael Crow said the project “further matures” ASU into one of the country’s leading centers for teaching, learning and discovery.
“It’s a community of communities, hundreds or thousands of groups that want to be here, that want to be connected with us. And we needed that partnership. We needed this hotel and we are really happy that it is finally going, ”said Crow.
Crow said he sees the Omni Hotel as an extension of the ASU campus.
“You don’t build a university with walls around it,” he said. “You don’t build a university without people here. It’s a community. “
Tempe Mayor Corey Woods believes the hotel’s location will help small businesses attract tourists and event attendees to Tempe.
“(It) will be a real game changer for all of us,” Woods said at the event. “This new Omni Hotel will help our businesses thrive and generate revenue that fund city services that benefit all of our residents.”
According to John Creer, vice president of real estate development at ASU, the partnership between the hotel and the university has been in the works for eight years, with various concepts being discarded until the final draft.
“I’ve been with ASU for nearly eight years (for) nearly eight years, and the second day I was here, I found myself in a meeting about this location,” said Creer. “It takes a lot to get a shovel in the ground.”
Woods said the city of Tempe worked for several decades to make investments that made the city what it is today, which all led to the development of the Omni Hotel.
“We have waited a long time for this moment and we look forward to welcoming the Omni to Tempe,” said Woods. “The hotel has an incredible meaning for us and we can hardly wait to make it a reality.”
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