Suns’ renovations include new 2-story commissary attached to TSRA

If you’ve been around downtown Phoenix lately and by Talking Stick Resort Arena specifically, you might have seen a literal new addition made to the arena.

The $150 million renovations still underway include a two-story building attached to the east side that is the arena’s new kitchen. The space was built from the ground up and is located between the arena and the transformation center, the building the Suns are using to preview the renovations that was previously the health club. It is the only structural addition via the renovations.

The commissary is over 12,000 square feet and will “significantly expand” what the arena was previously capable of in terms of providing food, per the team. The kitchen will include plenty of storage space, including two loading docks where food will be able to come in directly off Jackson Street on the south side of the arena.

The previous location of the kitchen in the arena will now open up room for more offices and serve other uses.

The total $235 million renovation project by the Suns, like anything else, has of course been impacted by the pandemic. The practice facility, accounting for $80 million of that number, first broke ground in November and is still progressing along. The initial completion target date was the end of August.

As for the arena, those fully began in late April and are also still progressing. As of the last update from the team in late May, the Suns planned on getting 60% of the total renovations done before the start of next season. President and CEO Jason Rowley said back in late May that they could tweak how much they choose to get complete based on when next season begins, and that is particularly relevant with the start date of the 2020-21 season currently in flux.

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