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Hayden mill redevelopment begins

By: Griselda Nevarez

Published On: Friday, October 16, 2009

For almost a century, the Hayden Flour Mill has anchored Mill Avenue, and now developers are moving into the first phase of modernizing the mill while maintaining its historical significance.

The Tempe City Council approved the $500 million redevelopment of the flour mill property in 2006. City officials are excited for what the project will bring to Tempe, said Chris Messer, the city’s principal planner.

The new development will add to the entertainment atmosphere already seen on Mill Avenue, he said.

“When the mill is developed, it will enhance the connection between development downtown and along Tempe Town Lake,” Messer said.

In the beginning development stage, a five-story building will be constructed on the east side of the flour mill and will wrap onto the top of the mill. The glass building is designed to give the flour mill a modern look while preserving its history.

A boutique hotel, along with retail, restaurant and residential spaces will be added to convert the property into the newest Mill Avenue entertainment hub.

A 35,000-square-foot structure on the west side of the mill will become a wine bar and retail space, and a plaza on the east side of the flour mill will showcase the early milling equipment, while an architectural water feature will illustrate the historic significance of the Hayden Canal.

Phase two of development includes a hotel, high-rise condominiums, additional commercial space and parking across the street from the mill, behind Monti’s La Casa Vieja, the original home of the Hayden Flour Mill founder Charles T. Hayden.

Archaeologist Veronica Vargas said Avenue Communities, the project developer, recognized the mill as part of Tempe’s history and created the project that will preserve it.

“How can you take an existing building and adapt it to a new purpose … so that you have that piece of history?” she said. “Avenue Communities found a way to do that.”

In 1874, Hayden built the first adobe mill, which farmers used to mill their own grain crops, but it burned down in 1890. The second mill, also built out of adobe, suffered the same fate, burning to the ground in 1917, according to architectural history documents.

The current three- and four-story mill, built in 1918, was made out of cast-in-place concrete, according to city documents. In the 1980s, the flour mill was the larger of Arizona’s two mills at the time and operated until 1997.

It closed permanently in 1998, according to city documents.

The Hayden Flour Mill is now the oldest industrial site in the Valley and was “the most important community industry through the settlement and development periods of Tempe’s history,” the documents said.

Before new development to preserve the building could begin, Archaeological Consulting Services was hired by Tempe to evaluate the mill’s conditions from 2005 to 2007.

The investigation was funded by a $1.5 million grant from Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and included looking at the prehistoric sites at the mill, determining the architectural history of the flour mill and its surrounding buildings, learning the historic background of the site and getting an oral history from descendents of Hayden and mill employees.

“The goal of the project was to fully record all of the prehistoric and historic significant features on that property and then determine what was historically significant and should be preserved,” said Vargas, the principal investigator for the project. “[The City of Tempe] wanted to secure that when the development came, nothing would get damaged.”

The archaeologists’ most significant find was that Hayden Canal used to power the machinery in the mill before electricity was available. They also uncovered the foundations of the original flour mill buildings and the foundation of the jail, or calaboose, that was used in the 1890s, she said.

After the project was finished, archaeologists worked closely with architects to help them figure out where to place new buildings so they would mimic the historical buildings in mass and scale, Vargas said.

A historical preservation plan was also written for developers to follow when drawing out the project, she said.

“The plan was created to guide the developer so that he would understand what would have to be preserved and showed him anything that was not significant and would be OK for him to change,” Vargas said.

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