UA Tech Parks mark 30th year as Tucson tech hub with new housing plan

The University of Arizona celebrated the 30th anniversary of Tech Parks Arizona on Wednesday with a new tree, proclamations, breakfast noshes — and a look forward to a new apartment development and child day care center at the UA Tech Park on South Rita Road.

The planned development on the park’s northwest side is an example of the UA’s focus on future growth, Carol Stewart, vice president of Tech Parks Arizona, said at a small gathering at the tech park’s Building 9070.

“As Tech Parks Arizona enters a new era of growth, we have big plans,” said Stewart, who has headed the UA tech-park enterprise since 2018. “We only look forward, we don’t look backwards. And we’re going to enhance that live, learn, work, play and stay environment through exciting development — commercial, residential, hospitality and amenities offered for the UA Tech Park and the community.”

The new housing will be developed by The Boyer Company, which developed the four-story The Refinery building at the UA Tech Park at The Bridges, a second tech park site at East 36th Street and South Kino Parkway.

In the project’s first phase, the company plans to build a 315-unit apartment complex on a 15.5-acre parcel just east of Interstate 10 and northwest of Vail Academy and High School.

Boyer hopes to break ground on the apartments within the next year, after some necessary utility infrastructure work is completed, said Matt Jensen, project manager with Salt Lake City-based Boyer.

The day care center is still in the planning stages and construction will start after the apartments are completed, Jensen said.

A plan for up to 100 townhomes on a roughly 10-acre parcel adjacent to the apartment site will come later and likely be built in phases, he said.

Supporting workers

Jensen said the housing project grew out of conversations he had with Stewart about the kinds of new development that would help the tech parks grow.

“As you look at most of the tech parks really around the country, they’re places where not only do businesses come together, but their support services support employees that make that an attractive location,” Jensen said.

“Those amenities — housing, retail, day care, those types of things — will only help enhance the offering, so now the Tech Park has 100-plus companies that are actively engaged here and we’ll be having those additional amenities that will help attract companies.”

Stewart said the UA has been working to upgrade amenities at the park, citing a recently opened fitness center for tenants, but nearby child care is an exciting and much-needed addition.

“People have asked about day care since the day I got here,” she said, adding that she and other park officials have sought advice from the Vail School District and toured some of its day care facilities.

Looking forward, Stewart said new hotel development at the UA Tech Park also is being considered, citing a Hampton Inn & Suites opened across the street from the UA Tech Park on South Rita Road that has been doing very well.

Making an impact

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Elliott Cheu, UA interim vice president for research and innovation, said the tech parks are a key part of the UA’s effort to turn its faculty research into technology that can impact lives.

He cited a treatment for the fungal lung disease Valley Fever that was developed at the UA and, after successful trials in dog subjects, recently won funding from the National Institutes of Health to develop the drug for human trials.

“The ecosystem that we have created, including the tech parks, it’s an amazing opportunity for us to bring together companies from outside, have them collaborate with the University of Arizona and then bring those ideas to fruition,” said Cheu, a UA distinguished professor of physics.

The small anniversary celebration featured proclamations from Gov. Katie Hobbs and Rep. Juan Ciscomani, and attendees overlooked a crepe-myrtle tree planted on the UA Tech Park grounds to commemorate the milestone.

Tech Parks Arizona was formed following the UA’s landmark acquisition of the sprawling IBM Corp. campus on Rita Road in 1994, after the computing giant moved its storage-device manufacturing operations out of Tucson in 1990.

IBM’s storage research and development operations stayed on as an anchor tenant and remains today, along with major employer Raytheon, Citi and more than 100 other smaller tech companies.

The UA Tech Park, which is supported by rents and is 89% occupied, hosts about 6,000 workers and has an estimated $2 billion annual economic impact, including $359 million in direct wages.

Beside the two tech parks, Tech Parks Arizona includes the UA Center for Innovation, a business incubator based at the Rita Road tech park, with offices at The Refinery and outposts in Oro Valley, Vail, Sahuarita and Biosphere 2.

More than 50 startups, including UA technology spinoffs, are UACI client companies that use the UA Tech Park as their corporate headquarters.

The tech parks and UACI also work closely with Tech Launch Arizona, the UA’s technology commercialization arm now based at The Refinery.

High-tech tenants

The UA Tech Park is the longtime home to several tech companies, including Darling Geomatics, a 15-year tenant that specializes in high-tech land surveying, and NP Photonics, a UA faculty tech spinoff and 20-year tech park tenant that makes fiber-based laser devices.

The Rita Road park also has been home to the UA’s renowned Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory for the past five years.

Other tenant arrivals in recent years include:

• Immersion Labs, a Phoenix-based company that specializes in spatial computing using artificial intelligence for defense systems, industrial automation and smart infrastructure;
• UA optics spinoff iCRx, which has developed one-minute eye exams;
• Germany-based MicroHybird, an international innovator in microelectronics and infrared sensors;
• Applied Energetics, which develops directed energy systems for defense;
• GEOST, a Tucson-based provider of optical sensors and collector systems that set up a test site at the park last year;
• Dimensional Energy Home, a startup developing a process to produce fuels from airborne carbon dioxide;
• Semiconductor maker Strike Photonics.