Spring cleaning: Arizona’s big 3 universities announce renovations

Key Points: 

• All three Arizona public universities provided updates for projects across their campuses.

• ASU plans to spend $676 million on seven projects, UofA is spending $335 million on four projects and NAU has a $98 million budget for two projects. 

• The Arizona Board of Regents has approved the Annual Capital Plans for each Arizona public university. 

Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University disclosed their annual capital plans for the 2026 fiscal year on Sept. 11, revealing plans for deferred maintenance and renovations across all three campuses. 

The three public universities presented their 2026 financial budgets to the Arizona Board of Regents during a University Governance & Operations Committee meeting, where updates on thirteen various projects were approved. 

“House cleaning is never fun, and ABOR is cleaning out its attic,” Doug Goodyear, the chair of ABOR, said. “It’s all for the greater good and will make us a more modern and better institution.”

ASU’s fiscal plan stood as the largest physically and monetarily with seven projects totaling $676 million:

• The ASU Health Building will cost $200 million and will be 200,000 gross square feet. The building will serve as a headquarters for ASU Health at the Downtown Phoenix campus. The plans for the building were previously brought up to ABOR in September 2024 and were approved. It’s expected the building will be finished in June 2028. The project will be debt-financed with speed bonds and system revenue bonds. 
• The McCain Center is expected to be a $187 million project, financed through federal grants and university funds. The center will be 68,000 gross square feet, situated on top of the site where the ASU Community Service building is located, next to Papago Park. The building will have a museum, library and academic spaces. The building is scheduled to be completed in January 2028.
• The PSH Research Laboratory Complex Modernization has a $115 million budget and will renovate the Bateman Physical Sciences Center on the ASU Tempe Campus. The project will focus on renovating labs and office spaces inside the building. Planning for the project began in 2024, with construction projected to start in December 2025. ABOR originally approved the project in September 2024.
• ASU’s Polytechnic Student Union Expansion is projected to cost $66 million and will go toward renovating and expanding the Student Union on the Polytechnic campus. Planning for the project began in August 2023, and construction is expected to start in May 2026. ABOR originally approved the project in September 2024 and will be debt-financed. 
• Costing $51 million, the East Athletic Village Tennis and Track and Field Facilities will focus on moving the Tennis and Track and Field facilities to the ASU Athletic Village in Tempe. The project was submitted to ABOR in 2024, and is expected to be completed in June 2027. The project will be debt-financed with system revenue bonds. 
• MTW Partnership Renovations is a $42 million project meant to renovate equipment and lab spaces at MacroTechnology Works at the ASU Research Park in Tempe. This project was not previously pitched to ABOR. The project will be debt financed with system revenue bonds and is projected to be completed in December 2028. 
• The Central Plant Transformer and Switchgear has a budget of $15 million. The project will replace five 12,700-volt substation transformers inside the central plant at the Tempe campus. The project was approved in September 2024 and will be debt-financed. Construction is expected to begin in May 2026 and will be finished in December 2029. 

“We’re the largest producer of STEM majors in the United States,” Michael Crow, ASU president, said in the meeting. “So this is a critical contribution that we’re making to the Arizona economy.”

For the UA, its Annual Capital Plan consisted of four projects, totaling over $335 million: 

• The Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies project was presented to the board in both 2023 and 2024, costing $232 million. The project serves as an expansion of the Phoenix Bioscience Core. It will consist of a 205,000 gross square foot facility housing the Center for Molecular and Immunological Therapies and other laboratory support services. The building will be in Downtown Phoenix. Construction for the building started in 2024 and is projected to finish in May 2027. The project will be funded using system revenue bonds, ARPA funds, gifts to finance and tuition. 
• The UofA introduced the Athletics Deferred Maintenance and Infrastructure Upgrades project to the board for the first time, revealing a total cost of $50 million. The project will invest in upgrading UofA sports facilities and is expected to be finished by June 2026. The project’s budget will be financed through SPEED revenue bonds. 
• At $33.5 million, the Deferred Maintenance project will be responsible for campus-wide repairs and updates. It is expected to be finished by June 2026. $30 million of the project will be financed through system revenue bonds, with $3.5 million funded through institutional sources. 
• The Student Experience and Student Union Deferred Maintenance has a $20 million budget and had no prior action from ABOR. The money will go toward modernizing the building and promoting sustainability. Like the other deferred maintenance project from UofA, the project is projected to be finished in June 2026. The project will be funded using SPEED revenue bonds. 

“Our Student Union was constructed in 2001, which was the last time it had major systems upgrades,” said Josh Wright, the chief facilities and planning officer at the UofA. “We’re interested in looking both within the union as well as campus wide and places that our students can gather, … share experiences and really build that campus culture that we are seeking.”

Northern Arizona University, being the smallest school of the three, had two major projects to fund, totaling $98 million: 

• The New Nursing Building project will cost $50 million. The project was previously proposed to ABOR. Located at the North campus science corridor, the building will be the new location for the College of Nursing and will serve to assist NAU’s expansion into health care. The project will be debt-financed through system revenue bonds and is expected to be completed by August 2029. 
• The Cline Library project will cost $48 million, addressing critical maintenance needs and upgrades. The project was previously brought up to the board and will be finished by December 2028. The project will be debt-financed with system revenue bonds. 

“We would better optimize the space within the Cline Library and relocate from the Babbitt academic building, which would be demolished into this building,” said Bjorn Karlen Flugstad, the senior vice president and CFO of NAU. “Cline Library would be open throughout this entire process.”

University representatives at the ABOR meeting reported how federal policies have affected student enrollment and grant money. 

The three universities are facing challenges in recruiting out-of-state students for the upcoming year due to government stressors. 

“Our biggest disruption in the process is disruption of the visas because of political changes,” Crow said. “We’ll work our way through those. Those will eventually be solved.”

Correction: This story has been updated with the correct figures for the projected costs of the ASU Health Building and the Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies.