After years, huge redevelopment of Phoenix Central Station nears opening

Article originally posted on AZ Central on September 4, 2025

The first tenants have begun to move in at the student housing tower at Central Station, a 2.6-acre development in the heart of downtown Phoenix, as construction activity nears completion on the remainder of the project.

Central Station, which totals about 1 million square feet, is under construction south of Civic Space Park in downtown Phoenix at Central Avenue north of Van Buren Street. The project includes two residential towers, one for student housing and one for traditional apartments, two floors of office space, ground floor retail and restaurants, and a new transit station. The project was designed to integrate the light rail stops and bus routes that go through the site.

The redevelopment of Central Station, which is on land owned by the city, has been in the works for more than a decade. For years, cranes and construction crews dominated the area, while drivers and bus or rail passengers had to contend with disruptive detours.

The city tried to bring the site forward for redevelopment more than a decade ago, but the plan was shelved when the chosen developer died. In 2018, the city again released a request for proposals for redeveloping the site and selected the proposal for the project that is now nearly complete.

The project included the demolition of a former transit station, which was razed in late 2021. At the time construction began, the development was estimated to cost about $300 million.

The buses will begin running through the site again on Oct. 27, said Krista Shepherd, principal of the Phoenix office of Multistudio, the architecture firm behind the project.

“This is a really complex site,” Shepherd said of the location. “A lot of things had to come together to make this work.”

The transit station, named after former Phoenix mayor and current U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton, was subject to controversy over the namesake. Phoenix Councilwoman Laura Pastor, who ended up voting in favor of naming the station after Stanton, advocated that the station be named after her father, the late U.S. Congressman Ed Pastor, who was a major advocate for light rail.

The site represents one of the largest recent redevelopment projects in downtown Phoenix, requiring collaboration among the developers, GMH Communities and Medistar, the city, Valley Metro and the federal government.

The project was designed to have a pedestrian breezeway through the middle, allowing pedestrians and transit passengers to easily cross the site without having to walk in the sun to get to their train or walk into downtown.

Shepherd said the project team is preparing for hiccups as people adjust back to using the site for transit. The routes were altered during construction to nearby stops.

“Whenever you open essentially a whole city block, whenever you turn over something this public and massive, there will be bugs,” she said

The student housing tower reaches 22 stories and has 655 beds, which are rented by the bedroom rather than rented by the unit, and come furnished. The first students began to move into the building, with about 80 people already residing there.

Both towers will share a pool and barbecue area, which has outdoor TV, grills and pizza ovens. The pool deck is part of the traditional apartment tower, but residents of the student tower have access through a separate entry.

The 33-story apartment tower, which is still under construction, will have 338 units, ranging from studios to a two-bedroom penthouse. Rents at the tower range from about $1,700 per month to $8,500 per month.

The tower will also dedicate 7% of the units as “workforce housing,” meaning the rents will be lower and the tenants will be income-qualified to live there.

The development also includes 70,000 square feet of office space and 30,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. Shepherd said no tenants have been announced for any of that space yet.

The official opening for the development is planned for November, when all construction should be completed.