Arizona Fresh

Arizona Fresh is an agri-food innovation center: a single district that holds the whole chain, from the wholesale produce market that moves the region’s harvest to the diner where a family eats on a Sunday.

The site runs along the south bank of the Salt River between 7th and 16th Streets, minutes from Sky Harbor and from the freeway network that carries produce north and west. That location is the argument: growers, distributors and buyers in one place, on the corridor they already use.

The plan is built to be delivered in pieces, because a district of this size is never financed at once. Phase IA is the parkway that opens the land. Phase IB brings the wholesale market and the first three industrial buildings. Phases II through IV add offices, a conference center, business park and research and development, each one able to stand on its own if the next never comes.

Twenty acres are held as park — Verde Fresco and Río Camino — facing the river. In a district of trucks and loading docks, that is what makes it a place people will walk through.