Author name: Tom Evans

At ASU, budding entrepreneurs looking for funding are in an enviable position. The university has developed a series of support options for startup ventures — be they faculty researchers with a scientific application that can be commercialized, students promoting their own businesses, or cross-functional teams using entrepreneurship to enact social change — that provide them with the opportunity to compete for the funds they need to further their startups.

SkySong, The ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center prides itself on being everything anyone could want in a place to locate their innovative and growing business. But sometimes, the more than 50 companies and 1,000 employees want a little bit of the outside world as well.

So, to enhance the sense of community and interaction at the core of the project, the SkySong team has launched two exciting features for the enjoyment of current tenants and employees, as well as the nearby neighborhood.

After annexing miles and miles of land out as far as Cave Creek and Carefree, and buying a ranch to give all that acreage an assured water supply, the city of Scottsdale is coming back to a focus on downtown.

Like young people all over the country, local millennials are voting with their feet to be in ?downtowns and urban spaces.? ?They seem to prefer what the Valley has a reputation for destroying: history.

The new year is shaping up to be a big one for SkySong, the Arizona State University Scottsdale Innovation Center, on the McDowell Road corridor.

Construction is progressing on SkySong III, a 145,000-square-foot building that will be located along SkySong Boulevard, just southwest of the complexÂ’s signature shade structure. The $32 million building will be ready for occupancy in August.

In addition, SkySong VI, also four stories, is expected to be under construction before the end of the year.

SkySong, The ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center is off to a strong start in 2014, with a new addition and significant construction progress on its third office building.

SkySong, The ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center will kick off the holiday season on a high note. Literally. Construction of SkySong 3, the third commercial office building at the project, will reach a significant milestone in the next few days as it will be “topped out,” meaning the structural steel in the construction building will reach the building’s final height. SkySong 3 will be approximately 62 feet high at its parapet, and approximately 76 feet high at the top of the mechanical elements.