Did you hear the one about the project doing an expansion before it’s even completed?
That, in a nutshell, is the story of ASM at the Scottsdale Development Review Board Dec. 11 meeting.
According to the Dutch-based tech giant’s 2024 application, “ASM (Advanced Semiconductor Materials) submitted a pre-application to the city of Scottsdale in support of ASM’s proposal to develop the ASM America Scottsdale, which is a planned as an office and fabrication facility located on approximately 23 acres south of the State Route Loop 101 and east of Scottsdale Road.”
Nicknamed “Development Row,” this area is bookended by the under-construction Optima McDowell Mountain Village luxury apartments (rooftop pool, anyone?) and planned Axon apartments-hotel-office development.
In between are the ASM project and a Banner “Healthcare Plus” office, both of which began construction earlier this year.
Banner also plans a hospital next to the medical office, but that’s another story.
Back to ASM, a news release last year crowed, “ASM, a semiconductor supplier with local customers like Intel and TSMC, is investing $300 million in its new Scottsdale facility and plans to add 500 new high-paying jobs as part of the expansion.”
With 800 employees already at its current Phoenix headquarters, the additional staff would bump ASM’s Scottsdale payroll to 1,300.
ASM’s new North American headquarters will cover 250,000 square feet – double the size of its Phoenix facility. ASM has research and development centers in Arizona, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Japan, South Korea and Italy and manufacturing sites in Singapore, South Korea, Italy and the Netherlands.
In the fall of 2024, Scottsdale City Council unanimously approved $7 million in water and sewer line reimbursements to a trio of developers: ASM, healthcare giant Banner Health and “retail development specialist” De Rito.
Also last fall, Council unanimously approved a separate development agreement with ASM.
The ASM development deal calls for the city to reimburse the tech company for up to $6.3 million “for a portion of public infrastructure costs.”
A major part of the development agreement covered water.
In early 2024, former city Water Executive Brian Biesemeyer expressed concerns over the Dutch company’s plans to recycle 80% of its wastewater. In an internal email, Biesemeyer warned it was crucial for ASM to understand “they cannot dump to our sewer if their recycle plant is down.”
Near the beginning of 2024, Paul Crothers, ASM’s vice president of operations, projected the company’s North Scottsdale water use: Just under 90,000 gallons per day during Phase 1 of development, shooting up to about 234,000 gallons per day in Phase 2.
That would mean from 30 to 80 million gallons per year.
In the development agreement, ASM agreed to provide 600 acre-feet of water – nearly 200 million gallons – to Scottsdale over 20 years.
When it first unveiled its plan, ASM said it would “move its headquarters to Scottsdale in 2026.”
Plan change approved
According to last year’s submission to the Scottsdale Planning Department, “The proposed ASM America Scottsdale facility will include a state-of-the-art fabrication and testing laboratories, ancillary fabrication uses, engineering offices, and other related uses to support the function of the facility.”
The company specializes in the design, manufacturing and service of semiconductor fabrication equipment.
It creates “wafer deposition tools” to support a crucial semiconductor manufacturing step that applies ultra-thin layers of materials onto a silicon wafer to build electronic circuits
Why Scottsdale, 5,400 miles from the Netherlands?
“ASM has carefully chosen this site for its flagship facility to be in the heart of a growing technology and research hub around the city of Scottsdale Airport community,” last year’s application noted.
“ASM plans to bring the latest developments and innovative processes to the region’s growing technology sector.”
At the Dec. 11 DRB meeting, ASM requested approval of a site plan and building elevations for the expansion of the service yard and associated screening on its 21-acre parcel at the future intersection of East Mayo Boulevard and the N. 76th Street/Miller Road alignment.
The new request rationale: “To support the operations of ASM’s facility, a bulk gas production/storage system and water reclamation system have been designed.
“These systems are required to be close to the lab building and service yard due to the unique characteristics of each system and will contain a range of pad mounted tanks, pumps, and equipment.”
ASM wants to use masonry walls and metal panels as screens.
“Each material matches the existing building palette previously approved for the office, lab, and parking garage scope for this project.”
The DRB unanimously approved the request.