a Bookman's used book store

Great news about Bookmans! And I couldn't agree more, KEVIN, the little editing troll comes by to clean things up. Did the same thing to Times Square 20 years ago!

Interesting "then and now" photo gallery on AZCentral. Slide #23 (picture below) is shocking and sad. Yes, that is the same location. The "then" picture is what a downtown is supposed to look like. I wouldn't be so negative about downtown if we could have retained some of that urbanity. Instead we have hideous parking lots and uninspiring buildings.

http://www.azcentral.com/travel/arti...otographs.html

http://www.azcentral.com/prog/image.php?i=613040.jpg

I couldn't disagree with you more. Old buildings get knocked down for a reason. They're ugly and they suck the life out of a city.

Yeah I'll take the newer more modern buildings over the old run down ones any day. Every small town in the USA has that same old run down and quite frankly depressing look.

Just want to re-iterate this person and I am two separate people despite the similar handles. . . :runaway:

this forum is gettin' trolled hard!

This forum needs to be changed to the "Phoenix Complaint Forum". All you guys do is complain...I mean you guys hate more on CityScape than anything else on this forum. To me CityScape is a project that has brought life into DT Phoenix. Plenty of retail, restaurants, and even has a gym. Phoenix will never in the near future be Old Town Scottsdale or DTC, but is a lot better than what it was a decade ago and is improving!

Who are you talking to? The majority of posts have been 1) commending the rendering for fixing what was once a horrible-looking hotel and 2) defending the thought that people might be interested in living in that location.

With that said, the CityScape project was not without major flaws and I think it's unfair to expect that those flaws be ignored. For what was supposed to be a game-changing development - one that took over public space and was given millions in in public subsidies - we ended up with a very poorly designed, 50% complete project, and it was a struggle to get even that in over 7 years.

With each master planned development that goes up downtown, we seem to improve, but that can only continue if we take an honest approach to assessing what could have been done better. With CS, we finally got hotel and residential components. Those alone make this a success, as the retail becomes so much more viable having permanent, built-in foot traffic right above. Now, hopefully next time, we won't have inward-facing retail, garages and service entrances opening up to historic building stock, etc.

But, yes, I think almost everyone here sees CS as a positive and you'll get very few arguments that downtown Phoenix is in a much better place than 10 years ago. And, all signs point to that trend continuing upward.

Sorry that it irritates you. I used to be KevininLB, but since I haven't lived in Long Beach for 7 years that didn't make a whole lot of sense. I've been on here for longer than that. Not a troll...just don't comment that often.

Do you this mean Borders Bookstore? Borders Bookstore is went out of business. We don't have one in my area.

What's happening? We didn't hear the news today. Is anyone got hurts? I wasn't sure about this one. Just stay away from the area. There are too many criminals out there. Don't go there.

According to soleri's original post, it is going to be a Changing Hands bookstore, not a Bookman's.

I just always think Kevin is talking to himself.

Project proposed for 44th St and Camelback:

JLB Partners L.P., Irving, Tex. plans to build 312 apartments, 44th St. and Camelback Rd., Phoenix. The company paid $11.8M ($1.7M/acre) to buy the 6.8-acres. The parcel, right behind the Louden center also included a 1.7 acre open space dedication to buffer an existing residential neighborhood.
Womack + Hampton Architects LLC, Dallas, Tex., is handing the design of the four-story complex. There is no GC selected at this point. JLB is shooting for an October construction start. The new owners are hoping for an opening 12 months after construction starts.
Development cost for the project is estimated at $50M, including land. The original mixed use project was supposed to value at $250M. The property was in foreclosure with seller Parkway Bank & Trust Co., Chicago, owner of seller PB and J XVI LLC.

Source:http://azbex.com/jlb-plans-new-50m-a...and-camelback/

Interesting to see Arcadia getting so many multifamily projects. I love the area, it is great to see all the infill projects and density coming in.

Also, a link to a cool video about the work that Terry Goddard is doing to try and save the First Baptist Church:

http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2013/0...aptist-church/

Would absolutely love to see that biulding saved and restored to its former glory.

Oh man, that gal from Cronkite didn't tell me she was going to interview Terry Goddard too, I would've loved to have met him.

My dream for that building would be the PHX Public Market moving into it. That way you don't need to worry about the expense of a roof, just keep it open air as is.

Maybe eventually the Bell Tower could become a small multi floor restaurant, that would surely have some cool views.

And if our Public Market ever grew into a big time, big City market like Pikes Place, or Redding Terminal, it could easily expand onto that lot just North of the church that fronts Van Buren. A modernist glass/steel box facing Van Buren that attaches to the back of the church would be cool.

Plus I think the Market, if it grew properly, could be the catalyst for finally redeveloping West Van Buren and potentially making it the high density shopping street that downtown so desperately needs.

Nice job HooverDam... Funny at the very end of the video the kid in the background spits on camera.

It is a great building and I really hope it gets restored. It kind of sounds like an overall money pit and charity case, but let's hope the investors have deep pockets and don't care about anything other than preserving history.

One question to Terry Goddard would be, why did downtown suck so back at the beginning of your first term as mayor (wasn't it homeless that started the fire?). Had you invested in the downtown area better then, you wouldn't need to waste this money now and we'd have many more historic structures like this to enjoy.

I think the Terry Goddard question as to why downtown sucked in his first term IS the answer. Things take time to come to fruition. Terry gave us the district system and implemented a lot of progressive policies that made Phoenix win so many civic awards. Prior to rein, Phoenix was run by the Phoenix 40 business group that ignored the important stuff.