TEMPE, AZ — The Arizona Coyotes envision an entertainment district along Tempe Town Lake with an arena, hotels, restaurants, stores, a sports lounge, and a theater, according to conceptual renderings released on Monday.
The renderings illustrate a large arena with large video screens along the lake, and the main plaza in the interior surrounded by stores, shops, a water feature, and other venues.
Specific details about the proposal were not released, however, in an interview with the Arizona Republic, team officials said the $1.7 billion project would mostly be financed by private investors, though those officials also want $200 million in generated city tax revenues to fund additional developments, and a property tax abatement.
At this point, the proposal is just that, a proposal.
Over the summer, Tempe put out a request for proposals, sometimes referred to ask an "RFP," to see if any developers were interested in building an arena and entertainment district on 46 acres of land near Priest Drive and Rio Salado Parkway. The submission window closed in early September and the Arizona Coyotes were the sole applicant.
There is no concrete timeline for when construction could potentially begin, or even if the proposal will come to fruition, as the city said it needs several months to study the proposal, the potential economic and environmental impacts, and, assuming that moves forward, then to begin negotiations with the team and developers.
The Coyotes will need to find a long-term home in Arizona if the team wishes to stay here, as the City of Glendale decided not to renew its operations agreement with the NHL team beyond the 2021-2022 season.
A temporary home has not been announced, but the Coyotes did confirm to ABC15 that they "have been exploring potential new arena options for several months and are confident that we will have a solution in place for the 2022-23 season."
