We've done this drill before on LVTs and it's both impractical and likely would require a constitutional amendment in AZ, since property tax law begins there. I just don't think you're going to be able to tell the public that their tax bill for empty land is going to be the same as the one with Astra on it... Or that the mansion in Paradise Valley sitting on 1 acre pays the same as the 1 acre with a shack on it.

I could go on for days about the economic impacts of the tax shifts and the awful political outcomes but suffice it to say, there's a reason no serious person is advocating for this.

Noticed in the X PHX II construction camera (https://app.oxblue.com/?openlink=clayco/xphoenixph2) that heavy equipment has been delivered to The Henri (Toll Brothers project) site at 5th Avenue and Van Buren.

nice catch. i keep driving by that lot waiting for them to start.

Amazing how many parking lots are in that shot. kind of depressing.

I'm hopeful once Astra is going that some of those lots will end up getting filled with some of our tallest developments. Those blocks West of 2nd can go from 550-650' the closer you get to 7th Ave.

I disagree, Half those lots are already slated for developments.

Not to mention most of downtown looked like this in 2010

Yah if you told someone back in 2010 or even 2016 how much development would be done by 2023 with how much was in the queue they would have hardly believed it.

I want them to turn the camera slightly more to the left... but yeah those lots are going away fast.

Unfortunately, the party unfortunately looks like it's getting close to over in that corner of downtown. I find it hard to believe myself but so much land is owned by that parking lot hoarder that there's like one good site on the west side of 3rd Ave that's the right size and has the right zoning.

There are some nearby, but they're too small to be developed in this market (smaller than the Derby lot) or don't have the right zoning with that density cap, or both.

Where there is a will (Read $$$$$$ to be made) the land will be bought, combined, cut up, rezoned etc.

If that land will make more money as apartments or condos or offices, it will happen. Maybe not right away, maybe development will shift for now until the prices downtown make the harder to develop sites more attractive, but the land bankers all have a price and there are lots of developers with insanely deep pockets.

Despair is unnecessary.

That hoarder does not want to sell, and that's most of the land there alone.

They will eventually

Why did the City sell a prime lot to this guy in the first place? Seriously, I’m done paying $50.00 to park there lol haha

They didn't, I assume he just started buying lots decades ago with the intention of getting into the parking business. I've known of these lots almost ever since I've been using the county assessor's website and I don't think he's sold ever.

This is an additional problem with these lots, as the neighborhood grows around them, the parking demands increase by default so he's likely even more reluctant to sell, or he dies and his heirs then all have to agree...yeesh.

And I doubt developers are going to deal with a reluctant seller/sellers when there are other less-risky opportunities that don't erode into already thin margins. The expansion of the GPLET redevelopment area will very much spread the development around and hamper that critical walkable mass downtown still needs.

Probably tore down some old building's years and years ago when there was no interest in anything downtown.

Saw on Twitter that one of the Mayo/ASU buildings currently under construction is on fire. Hopefully not too damaged...

It was a box truck that caught fire parked next to the new Mayo Clinic Research and Education Building, luckily looks like very minor damage to the building based on images and happened on a façade that hasn't been completed.

Movement on the Henri lot the past couple days.... Clearing debris etc...

Pretty cool view of downtown Phoenix (even if low quality) from ADOT's freeway camera at the I-17/I-10 Stack. Downtown is looking so much beefier and is only going to get bigger/taller/better.

https://twitter.com/ArizonaDOT/statu...837318/photo/1

This is pretty much the same image w/ some more cranes that have since come down:

https://goo.gl/maps/eQWG5rDTLpKiXQ5h9

The latest wave of towers should really fill in some gaps too.

Central Station will fill it up between the Sheraton. X Roosevelt, Saiya, Realm, and Vela will back fill almost everything between the Westward Ho north, and that's just what's on the immediate horizon.

Sing High Building
 

Havent heard much since the Restaruant closed. But sounds like they are exploring selling the land to an apartment developer.

https://admin.azbigmedia.com/wp-cont...g-1024x768.jpg

https://azbigmedia.com/real-estate/h...ouse-district/