High-rise digs deep foundation, prepares to go vertical
Mike Padgett
The Business Journal of Phoenix
March 31, 2006
If you've experienced the traffic bottleneck in downtown Phoenix, you should know the work under way at First Avenue and Monroe Street is just a warm-up for the main event.
Much of the work at that intersection has been below street level and behind a construction screen, so many motorists are unaware what workers have been doing at 44 Monroe, site of a future 34-story building with 202 condominiums, including six penthouses.
The foundation work consisted of drilling 49 caissons, or underground columns, with a giant crane said to be one of only three in the United States.
The crane and its front-end attachment were used to drill the deep holes, using steel casings ranging from four to eight feet in diameter. The holes range from 30 to more than 60 feet deep.
Most drilling rigs of this type can exert 500,000 pounds of downward pressure. This one is four times as powerful.
"It's called an oscillator, and it puts 2 million pounds of pressure down on that steel tube, which has big carbide teeth, and turns it," said project manager Rick Fria. "It will go right through rock."
As each steel casing is pushed into the ground, workers bolt another casing to it and keep forcing them down until they reach the depth they want.
Today, after nearly two months of work, the drilling is finished. Workers have dismantled the heavy-duty crane with its equipment to prepare for another project elsewhere.
The residential tower is the work of Grace Communities, made up architect Jonathon Vento and the father-son team of Don and Ryan Zeleznak.
The next step for the Phoenix high-rise is going straight up 34 stories, and April 6 is the date for the "going vertical" party for the luxury condo building. The guest list for the party, headed by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, totals several hundred. Monroe Street will be closed for the party.
By May, workers should be at the first-floor level with vertical concrete columns, Fria says.
The building's six penthouses range in size from 2,700 to 4,400 square feet, with prices from $2 million to $3.5 million. The remaining 196 condos range from 743 to 2,121 square feet, with prices from $400,000 to more than $1.2 million.
Of the 202 condos, Grace Communities has signed contracts for 54 units and potential buyers who have expressed serious interest in another 47, Ryan Zeleznak said.
Fria is on hand during sales presentations, in case buyers have questions about the construction. He is owner and president of The Fria Co., which provides project and construction management services on large developments. He has high hopes for downtown Phoenix, based on his work on similar redevelopments in Seattle and Denver.
"I think Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma and those guys will be coming downtown once we generate some real vibrancy down there," he said.
Other downtown developers already have said they are receiving calls from retailers interested in downtown projects.
Retailers are critical for downtown to expand, said John Pasquinelli, who is buying a 1,800-square-foot condo on the 23rd floor of 44 Monroe. He currently owns a south-facing 10th floor condo at Orpheum Lofts, 114 W. Adams St., which he plans to lease after he moves into 44 Monroe.
"The city has got to follow up with the retail," Pasquinelli said. "If they don't, they're making a huge mistake. We need some grocery, some clothing and whatever people think they can set up to make money."
Pasquinelli, a native of Chicago who also has lived in Los Angeles, is familiar with long commutes. That's why he prefers downtown living to the suburbs.
For Phoenix, Fria said the addition of downtown residential buildings is a predictable reaction to the other major projects under way, including the Phoenix Convention Center, the Arizona State University campus, light rail and the opening of the Translational Genomics Research Institute, and because of the March 14 passage of the city's $879 million bond proposals.
"Phoenix is in a state of change right now, with the bond issue just passing," Fria says. "The snowball's just been pushed down the hill."