Empire Group Breaks Ground on $288M Revelry Towers in Tempe

Aspirant Development, the luxury infill division of Empire Group, has broken ground on Revelry, a two-tower, 533-unit Class A high-rise in Tempe, Arizona, according to YieldPro. The project carries a $288 million cost and $229 million in financing.

Why it matters

Ground-up high-rise multifamily has been one of the hardest products to finance in the Sun Belt. A debt package covering most of the cost, on a project beside Arizona State University, shows lenders still back large campus-adjacent builds when the location is hard to replicate.

The site sits at one of Tempe’s busiest intersections with direct access to ASU. That demand anchor is the kind of feature that tends to separate financeable deals from those stuck on the sidelines in the Phoenix market.

Empire Group is a separate company from Empire State Realty Trust.

The numbers

• Total cost: $288 million for two towers, one at 15 stories and one at 17.
• Financing: $229 million, which works out to roughly 80% of cost by our math.
• Units: 533, or about $540,000 of cost per unit by our math.
• Design and build: Gensler is the designer and Layton the general contractor.

YieldPro did not name the lender, a delivery date or building height in feet, and we have not independently confirmed them.

Geoffrey Jacobs, managing partner of Aspirant Development, said Revelry “will deliver a best-in-class residential experience that raises the bar.”

What’s next

Watch for the lender’s identity and whether the debt is bank construction financing or a structured package, since that shapes how repeatable the deal is for other developers. A delivery schedule would also show how the team plans to time lease-up against ASU’s academic calendar.

Other Sun Belt college and tech submarkets will read the loan-to-cost ratio as a benchmark. If comparable terms appear on competing projects, ground-up towers near large campuses could move from exception to pipeline.