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^It's a 25,000SF site, not building...

It doesn't mention how large the site for the parking garage would be. An efficient garage is about 375SF per space. A 1,000 car garage could easily be 8-10 stories on a constrained site.

For clarification, because I missed it too.

Quote:

Due to interest from the private sector and demand for additional research space by the universities and tenants within the TGen facility, staff is requesting authorization for the issuance of a RFP for a research laboratory facility for institutional, academic and private biomedical users.

Staff has identified the approximately 25,000 SF site located between the TGen and ABC I facilities along 5th Street for this development opportunity.

The RFP will include language stating preference will be given to proposals that incorporate ground level retail and below grade parking.

With planned development underway for HSEB and ABC II, current surface parking on the PBC is insufficient to accommodate additional users. The RFP will also seek proposals for the development of a 1,000 space parking structure which maximizes development of the site by incorporating active uses other than parking and addresses all four sides of the structure by upholstery development, structural screening, ground floor retail or other pedestrian active uses or a combination thereof.

So basically they've identified a 25,000 sqft building site with its own parking below grade. The garage site is separate.

Since there is never an RFP without a developer already favored, I'd like to think something good and real will come out of this soon.

^Exactly. I had to read it about three times as well to figure out that they were talking about two separate projects.

Some more information about the Bio-Med campus...

Quote:

UA's Phoenix campus gets regents' OK for expansion
EDUCATION/RESEARCH

Published on Friday, January 08, 2010
The University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Phoenix, a partnership with Arizona State University, received the endorsment from the state Board of Regents for a $187 million expansion.

At its Dec. 4 meeting, the board approved the plans to build a 268,000 square-foot health sciences education building and other improvements on the Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix.

The expansion will allow the medical school to train more physicians and strengthen the presence of the UA College of Pharmacy on the campus.

The expansion. which has already been been approved by the Legislature and governor, still must be approved by the state’s Joint Committee on Capital Review, which convenes this week.

Quote:

Purchase gives UA more options for downtown campus
Phoenix Business Journal - by Angela Gonzales

The University of Arizona paid $9.85 million for 2.6 acres across the street from the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, where it already is planning more than $300 million in expansion projects.

The Plaza Cos. sold the property to the UA Foundation after it paid RiboMed Biotechnologies Inc. about $10 million two years ago for the parcel.

Having the additional space will give UA more options for developing biomedical facilities as part of the campus.

The downtown Phoenix property, which includes a vacant 33,000-square-foot biomedical building, sits on the northeast corner of Van Buren and Seventh streets.

UA is planning to develop a $140 million cancer center on or near the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, and it is working with the other two state universities to build a $187 million Health Sciences Education Building on the campus.

The campus already houses the UA College of Medicine–Phoenix, in partnership with Arizona State University, as well as the headquarters of the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said he envisions medical offices, research facilities and classroom space on UA’s new site once the vacant building is razed. To connect that property to the Biomedical Campus, Gordon would like to see an enclosed bridge over Seventh Street at the very least. Ideally, he would like to see the education building connected to the former Plaza Cos. site with a structure that includes office space stretching over Seventh Street.

He also noted that ASU now owns the rights to use the Phoenix Preparatory Academy at 735 E. Fillmore St., just south of the former Plaza Cos. site, so there are more possibilities for expansion.

“That will just propel us,” Gordon said.

He expects construction to begin within six months.

Nearly $2 million in bond funding had been set aside for expansion. With Phoenix City Council approval, that money could be used for the construction project on UA’s newly acquired plot.

Dave Harris, senior project manager for the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative, a consortium of the three state universities formed to develop the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, said UA is considering all of its options.

UA will use the former Plaza Cos. location temporarily as wet lab space, and later as construction headquarters when the $187 million Health Sciences Education Building is started.

Last month, the Arizona Board of Regents endorsed the expansion plan, which will allow the medical school to train more physicians and strengthen the presence of the UA College of Pharmacy and other health-related colleges on the campus. Plans call for expanding the current class size of 48 medical students to at least 110 a year.

The expansion was approved twice by the Arizona Legislature and signed by the governor, but still must be reviewed by the Joint Committee on Capital Review before ground can be broken. The committee is scheduled to meet early this year to address the project.

Additionally, Harris is negotiating with the Arizona Center at Van Buren and Fifth streets to lease between 10,000 and 20,000 square feet on the third floor as temporary space for the cancer center.

Michelle Hanna, CEO of RiboMed, moved to San Diego in 2007 after selling her company’s former headquarters to the Plaza Cos. Sharon Harper, president and CEO of Plaza Cos., originally planned to demolish the aging structure to build a biomedical plaza.

Harper said it fit into UA’s expansion plans for its medical school across the street, but she said it’s too early to say whether her company will have a role in developing the UA property.

“The Plaza Cos. has been dedicated to the vision of creating a world-class research and academic medical center in downtown Phoenix, and looks forward to working with the University of Arizona to ensure and support opportunities with the project,” she said.

Robert Green, president and CEO of the Arizona BioIndustry Association, said the project proposed by Plaza Cos. would have been a terrific addition to the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

“But in these difficult economic times, plans change,” he said. “Fortunately, with the property’s purchase by the University of Arizona Foundation, the new owner has a continuing stake in maintaining the biomedical character of the area and retains the prospect that this property will be used for educational, research and/or health care purposes. This is a positive outcome under these circumstances.”

so put it in lehman's terms. What are they going to build on the NEC of 7/VB??

More parking to DT Phx, just what this city needs.

The Joint Committee on Capital Review has been scheduled to hear it forever. The Giant Douchemonger from Mesa Russsel Pearce chairs it, and hates ASU and anything related to spending money for it.

I'd give about a 10% chance of this project moving forward.

More bad news for Phx.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...ldata0111.html

Quote:

In Valley, 80 mil square ft. of business space is vacant
16 comments by J. Craig Anderson - Jan. 11, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
The Valley's real estate boom-and-bust cycle left an almost unimaginable 80 million square feet of excess office, retail and industrial space on the rental market at the close of 2009 - the rough equivalent of 1,600 football fields.

The unprecedented oversupply of commercial real estate sent vacancy rates soaring in all categories, while lease prices tumbled, according to reports from area commercial real-estate firms.

Market analysts said the oversupply problem is going to get worse before it gets better, although few new projects are planned beyond those started before the market took a dive.

About one-quarter of metro Phoenix's rentable office space, or nearly 20 million square feet, sat vacant at the end of 2009, according to Phoenix-based Cassidy Turley/BRE Commercial - formerly Grubb & Ellis - the Valley's largest commercial property broker.

There was almost as much unused retail space on the market, about 17 million square feet, Phoenix brokerage CB Richard Ellis reported, including more than 8 million square feet of empty "big-box" retail, defined as spaces of 10,000 square feet or more.

Industrial and warehouse properties finished the year with about 43 million square feet of vacant space on the market, nearly 17 million of it in empty distribution centers, CB Richard Ellis reported.

"As 2009 closed, the metropolitan Phoenix economy continued to feel the effect of the recession as both the commercial and residential real-estate markets were impacted by the deepest recession since the Great Depression," Jeff Cooledge, firm research manager, reported.

The vacancy rate for office properties was about 25 percent as of Dec. 31, compared with about 19 percent a year earlier, the report said.

The vacancy rate for retail properties ballooned from less than 8 percent at the end of 2008 to more than 11 percent, and industrial-property vacancy jumped from 13 percent to 16 percent.

As a result, lease rates for all property types plummeted.

The average office lease rate dropped by 10 percent to about $23 per square foot annually. The average retail rate fell about 9 percent to just above $17, while the average industrial lease rate dipped about 15 percent to 56 cents.

Another 1.4 million square feet of office space still is under construction and expected to hit the market this quarter, CB Richard Ellis reported. As of Friday, only about 300,000 square feet of the soon-to-open space had been pre-leased.

About 760,000 square feet of retail space was under construction at the end of 2009, along with roughly 870,000 square feet of industrial space.

Once those projects are completed, developers aren't likely to build much for years to come, local experts said.

"In an overbuilt market, any new construction is not expected for some time," Cooledge said. "The lack of office development is not new to the metro Phoenix market, as no new product was built between 1992 and 1995."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog (Post 4644197)

More bad news for Phx.

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...ldata0111.html

Unfortunately, it's going to be a very, very long time before any new projects pop up. Nobody will be proposing or building for several years, if not longer.

I'll try and look at this as a positive. If you are a large business paying high rents in a place like LA...why wouldn't you move your business to Phoenix where you could get primo real estate for a fraction of the cost? In other words, take the principles that dictated people from CA moving here to buy homes and apply it to the commercial market. I'd argue that if the city could market itself properly, they might be able to sway a fair amount of large businesses to either open new branches here or to relocate. Labor sure is cheaper here.

While good to remain optimistic, I wouldn't hold your breath. The companies with the money are going to stay in CA. Just like NYC, there isn't an exodus to Pittsburgh because NY is expensive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glynnjamin (Post 4644611)

Sadly I think a lack of civic leadership (both private and public) will severely limit the chances of this happening.

Actually a lot of financial institutions moved to Pittsburgh for that very reason. I think when you are comparing NYC to PIT you are talking about completely different leagues than when you compare LA and PHX. While we don't have a the massive culture that LA does, we share things like being car-friendly and having a large international airport. I'm not sure but I don't think you can fly to London direct from Pittsburgh but I think you can get to Japan from Phx without making a stop. Maybe I'm wrong. It seems to me the movie industry has started to do a lot more out here because it is cheaper and because of the short commute between LA and Phx. I don't know, I don't own a big business and have no idea how to run it. But Hoover is probably right - we lack the civic leadership to get anything like that done.

oh my god, two large cities that both have an international airport? Get the fuck out.....

Incase you didn't notice, that was sarcasm. Nobody is going to leave Houston for Abeline, either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glynnjamin (Post 4644721)

It seems to me the movie industry has started to do a lot more out here because it is cheaper and because of the short commute between LA and Phx.

Working in said industry, its actually been horribly slow this past year. We've had some TV shows, commercials, et al but in feature films New Mexico is absolutely kicking our asses, a lot of stuff gets shot there. They have much more aggressive public leadership in regards to getting the film business to come there and more support for their tax credit. Sadly Arizona should have natural advantages over them, being closer to LA, a more diverse climate (means you can shoot almost anything but a beach centric movie here), and a bigger population (means more crew, extras, et al).

Just in the past few years they've shot all 3 High School Musicals, Emplyee of the Month, Did you Hear about the Morgans?, Little Miss Sunshine, The Hills Have Eyes, Observe and Report, 2010, 3:10 To Yuma (set in Yuma, Arizona!), The Book of Eli, Brothers, No Country for Old Men, Jarhead, The Longest Yard, Hamlet 2 (set in Tucson, Arizona!), Gamer, Rent, The Spy Next Door, Terminator Salvation, both Transformers movies, Wild Hogs and Year One either partially or totally in New Mexico.

All of those films employ hundreds of local workers who then buy local products (and pay sales tax), buy property (and pay tax), etc. Plus its good for the tourism industry (something Arizona should want) and is a non polluting/'green' industry. All of those flicks could've been shot in AZ, there's no reason they had to be in New Mexico other than their leaders are aggressively pursuing them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glynnjamin (Post 4644721)

I'm not sure but I don't think you can fly to London direct from Pittsburgh but I think you can get to Japan from Phx without making a stop. Maybe I'm wrong.

You can't. London is the only city outside of North America with non-stop service to Phoenix. US Airways is contemplating a route to Tokyo though.

Downtown PHX zoning meeting schedule.

Pulled from downtownvoices.org...

Phoenix seeks public input on Downtown Code[Source: City of Phoenix] – The city of Phoenix Planning Department is seeking input on the city’s proposed Downtown Code. The Downtown Code, which is part of the Phoenix Zoning Ordinance, addresses design that impacts the public by establishing standards and guidelines that will allow projects to develop over time. It does not dictate architectural style. The code will be presented at the following locales:

6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11, Central City Village Planning Committee, Emerson Court, 1817 N. Seventh St., School District Board Room;
6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13, Planning Commission, Phoenix City Council Chambers, 200 W. Jefferson St.;
4:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, Historic Preservation Commission, Phoenix City Hall, 200 W. Washington St., assembly room A;
3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3 at Phoenix City Council Formal Meeting, Phoenix City Council Chambers, 200 W. Jefferson St.
The remapping of the area to change the zoning to the proposed Character Areas will follow in March 2010.

The Downtown Code implements the vision, goals, and policies of the Downtown Phoenix Plan and establishes the physical environment to create a pedestrian-oriented center. The code applies to all land uses, subdivisions, and development within the area generally bounded by McDowell Road, Seventh Street, Buckeye Road, and Seventh Avenue. The code can be downloaded here: http://phoenix.gov/urbanformproject/dtcode.html.

Comments can be submitted by contacting Planning Manager Carol Johnson at 602-261-8289.

http://downtownvoices.org/2010/01/09...downtown-code/

^I've been going to those, I really hope you'll all show up, I need more people to help me fight the good fight. This is your chance to talk with city planners and give them the ole what for (and Carol Johnson is a super nice lady who actually listens) and hopefully make some positive changes. Come to the meeting and say hi, Ill be the loud Ron Howard lookin' feller.

Related...Downtown Voices is having a big event this weekend Im going to attend and you all should too:

http://downtownvoices.org/2010/01/08...nce-jan-15-16/

Quote:

Downtown Voices Coalition to hold 5-year retrospective and visioning conference, Jan. 15-16
Downtown Voices Coalition invites you to attend an open, facilitated, and collegial discussion on what has been accomplished in our downtown and what remains to be done. Five years ago, Downtown Voices held a visioning session, created a “white paper,” and formalized as an organization. Since then, it has participated in many issues and “battles” with much progress made, but with some losses. Now is a good time to move forward with the greater community to re-examine our priorities — what was, is, and can be.

A facilitated, collegial discussion of the way forward for downtown Phoenix. Open to the public. Reservations required for Saturday, January 16 activity.

Opening Reception & Happy Hour ~ “A Look Back”

Date: Friday, January 15, 2010
Time: 5-7 p.m.
Place: Matador Mexican Restaurant, 125 E. Adams St., Phoenix, AZ 85004-2331, (602) 254-7563
Features: Complimentary appetizers, no host cocktails, introduction to visioning conference, and special presentations
Visioning Conference ~ “Looking Forward”

Date: Saturday, January 16, 2010
Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (registration 9:30 a.m.)
Place: Historic A.E. England Building, Downtown Civic Space, 424 N. Central Ave., Phoenix AZ 85004
Transportation: Use Park & Ride and Light Rail to Van Buren Station; free parking on lot adjacent to the ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication
RSVP to Kim Kasper by e-mail if you plan to attend

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vicelord John (Post 4644741)

oh my god, two large cities that both have an international airport? Get the fuck out.....

Incase you didn't notice, that was sarcasm. Nobody is going to leave Houston for Abeline, either.

You left out the descriptive words "tasteless" and "arrogant" before "sarcasm." Don't worry, I caught the mistake.

While I think it's wrong to think there will be a mass exodus from LA, I don't think it's absurd to think some businesses may trickle over if city officials can get a little more strategic with tax breaks and incentives. For those businesses that don't need to travel internationally on a regular basis with nonstops across the Pacific, Phoenix might be a good place to relocate a business struggling to keep up with lease payments or looking to expand.

I know being a douche is the way you like to operate, but it's really not lunacy to suggest some businesses might consider relocation from LA to Phoenix.

The business I'm in moved from downtown San Francisco to Oakland, then moved most of the Oakland people to Phoenix, specifically because it was cheaper to do business here. And APL left a prominent location in Oakland and moved to Scottsdale. I realize this is all anecdotal evidence, but it is evidence that companies do relocate to Phoenix for economic reasons.

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