For decades, the southern shore of Tempe Town Lake sat largely undeveloped — a prime stretch of Arizona waterfront with enormous potential and little to show for it. That era is coming to an end.
The Shorehaven complex, a trio of high-rise residential towers rising between 21 and 23 stories along the lake’s edge, is on track to welcome its first residents sometime in 2026. Together, the three buildings will add more than 720 luxury apartments to the Tempe market, along with tens of thousands of square feet of ground-floor retail and expansive indoor and outdoor amenity spaces designed to blur the line between private residence and resort living.
The project spans 3.3 acres and stretches to 1.3 million square feet in total, making it one of the largest residential construction efforts currently underway in the Phoenix metro. The development team includes New York-based Silverstein Properties — best known stateside for rebuilding the World Trade Center site — along with Cantor Fitzgerald, builder Clayco and architect DAVIS. The architectural vision draws heavily from the surrounding desert environment, with canyon-inspired facades, sweeping curved forms, and landscaping meant to echo the natural terrain rather than contrast with it.
But Shorehaven is only the opening act. It represents just the first phase of South Pier, a sprawling $1.8 billion master-planned development that, when fully built out over the next decade and a half, is projected to reshape the entire southern lakefront. The completed vision calls for nearly 2,600 total residential units, more than 600,000 square feet of office space, hotel accommodations, a pedestrian boardwalk, and an entertainment pier that would extend directly into the lake — along with a large observation wheel that would give the development an iconic, instantly recognizable silhouette.
The project sits less than two miles from downtown Tempe and directly adjacent to Arizona State University’s main campus, positioning it at one of the most trafficked intersections of academic, commercial and recreational life in the entire Valley. For a city that has long defined itself by its walkability and energy, South Pier represents something of a capstone — a bet that Tempe’s best days of growth are still ahead.
