Our history

In 1956, the 320-acre Jones farm was acquired with funds from the Arizona State College Foundation — now the ASU Foundation — to serve as an experimental farm. 

After the university disbanded its agricultural program in 1979, planning began to repurpose the land. Establishing ASU Research Park required several years of collaboration with government agencies. In April 1983, legislation was authorized to issue improvement bonds for infrastructure and establish a park authority. That July, the Arizona Board of Regents authorized ASU to create a not-for-profit research park corporation. 

Under the leadership of ASU President J. Russell Nelson and College of Engineering Dean Roland Haden, the farm officially became ASU Research Park in May 1984. The city of Tempe issued municipal bonds to fund construction of the park’s infrastructure — including streets, utilities, landscaping and a lake system that remain signature features today. Revenue from long-term ground leases of parkland was used to repay the bonds.

Groundbreaking took place in December 1984. The park's first ground lease was issued to Transamerica in April 1985. 

In 2024, Arizona State University celebrated the ASU Research Park's 40th anniversary. The park has been where the university and the private sector converged to create a destination for innovation and research. Discover the park's evolution in building dynamic partnerships that have shaped numerous industries, past and present. The ASU Research Park is one of the university's Innovation Zones and is a hub of technological, medical, and entrepreneurial success. 

Today, ASU Research Park spans 26 buildings with 24 ground leases totaling 2.2 million square feet. It is home to 48 companies that employ more than 4,200 Arizonans.