Tempe poured the last of 1.5 billion gallons of water into the two-mile long lake nearly two years ago and has patiently waited for development to arrive, but it's been slow to come. A number of development projects were proposed early on but never materialized, including a 1,000-room Peabody hotel that would have been the centerpiece of the area. But now interest is on the rise.

Houston-based Camden Development Inc. is negotiating with Arizona State University to lease a nine-acre parcel on the south side of the Tempe Town Lake, where the company would build up to 500 apartment units. The project would be built east of Mill Avenue at the southeast corner of the lake. The ASU campus runs from Mill Avenue to Rural Avenue, and south of the Salt River, where the lake was built, to Apache Avenue.

Camden is working out the details of the deal and should have a final agreement to ASU within 30 days, says Steve Miller, ASU's Assistant VP for institutional advancement.

ASU also owns an 18-acre parcel at the southwest corner of the lake and Rural Road. Plans for mixed-use development has peaked the interest of two development companies, Phoenix-based SunCor Development and LCOR Inc. of Berwyn, PA. Plans call for construction of a hotel, office space, residential units, a conference center and one-acre outdoor event plaza. More meetings are planned this month with both development companies, Miller said.

Late last year, Picerne Communities, a Phoenix-based apartment and condominium developer, broke ground on the Regatta Pointe Condominiums, an $18-million, 136-unit apartment complex near the western end of Tempe Town Lake. The project, set back from the water by several hundred feet, is on a parcel on the south side of the Rio Salado Parkway, west of Ash Avenue.

In April, construction is set to begin on the Hayden Ferry Lakeside Project, a $220-million project at the southeast corner of the lake and Mill Avenue. The development will have 200,000 sf of office space, approximately 400 condominiums, a 260-room hotel, restaurants and retail space.

Tempe is also trying to land the new $335-million, 73,000-seat football stadium for the Arizona Cardinals, which would be built at the southeastern corner of Priest Drive and Washington Avenue, just north of the Tempe Town Lake. That site is in competition with four others, including another one partially in Tempe. The Cardinals currently play in Sun Devil Stadium, which is just west of Rural Road and south of the lake. A decision on where the stadium will be built is expected no later than mid-February.