Culdesac Tempe

Culdesac Tempe will be a car free neighborhood in the U.S. consisting of 1000 residents and 0 cars or parking spaces, aside from a few for visitors.[1] Culdesac Tempe is located in Tempe, Arizona, which is just 20 minutes from the center of downtown Phoenix.[1] Culdesac Tempe is the first project for the startup Culdesac originally based out of San Francisco, California and now relocated to Tempe, Arizona.[2] Ryan Johnson is the founder and chief executive of Culdesac.[2] His primary motivations for starting up the company are that he believes the future of American cities will be walkable in the way that San Francisco and New York are and that the future of cities exists in the Sun Belt because sprawl heavy areas have seen the most drastic population increases in the last ten years.

Construction for Culdesac Tempe began in 2019.[3] The project is estimated to cost $140 million, span 16 acres, and include 636 apartment units and 24,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.[3] The Phoenix metro area is commonly known as the capital of Urban sprawl due to its status as the second-worst big city in America for walkers.[2] In most areas of Phoenix, residents rely heavily on personal vehicles for transportation. Culdesac aims to eliminate the need for cars by providing all of the necessary services within the neighborhood. Plans are already in place for a grocery store, coffee shop, co-working space, market hall and shops on site at Culdesac Tempe.[3] Another benefit of a ban on parking spaces is that there are more opportunities for green space including courtyards, gardens, and places to gather in community within the Culdesac Tempe neighborhood.[3]

Units in Culdesac Tempe will range from $1,000/month for a studio to $2,200/month for a three bedroom apartment, which is in line with average rent in the area.[2] The architect working on design plans, Dan Parolek, coined the term missing middle housing to describe this type of walkable, sustainable housing.[3] Looking ahead, if the Culdesac model is successful in Tempe, the company plans to expand to other locations with the ultimate goal of creating the first car-free city in the United States.[2]