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-   -   Phoenix Development News (3) (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=173764)

azliam May 16, 2011 2:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean (Post 5278812)
^ You do realize the park and rides exist for a reason?

Of course, but I have no reason to park and ride anywhere that the light rail would go, except for downtown perhaps; however, the weekends are usually the only time I drive anyways and downtown is not always my usual destination. If I end up going to say, Charlies, why would I drive to Bethany, park, get on the lightrail, just to get off at Camelback and 7th Ave? I live west of I-17, so it's still going out of my way just to get to the Bethany station, so it doesn't seem practical to me. I do wish I lived/worked closer to the lightrail as I would definitely use it. My point was that the buses are still the most extensive form of public transportation for most people in the valley because the metro is just too spread out.

Vicelord John May 16, 2011 5:44 AM

The answer is simple, walk or ride a bike.

HooverDam May 16, 2011 11:15 PM

more re: McDowell Road
 
I can't find anything on bike lanes shared with tramways/streetcar lanes, but I thought for sure I had seen that online somewhere. But there is a lot of stuff online about bus/bike shared lanes, here's a video from Paris:

http://www.streetfilms.org/mobilien/

Tucson apparently even has some of these (if Tucson can be this foreword thinking, so can we. ).

I imagine it could work just as well for Trams/Streetcars as it does for buses. Bikers sharing a dedicated lane with only a bus or tram means they're only dealing with professional drivers. Additionally those public transit vehicles are by their nature coming at a lesser frequency than all the cars on the road, making things smooth sailing for cyclists.

This of course saves space where you're trying to retrofit a project on an existing road with buildings, as there may not be room for a dedicate 4-6 foot bike lane.

I had assumed all 6 lanes on McDowell Rd were the standard 12' width that most arterial street lanes in Phoenix seem to be. Google Distance Calc is telling me that may be wrong, but there's a fair margin of error when using that. Without actually being in Phoenix I can't know for sure how wide the lanes are, but there should still be room for streetcars/trams & auto traffic.

Additionally, if the City were to ever undertake a project like Streetcar from 19th Ave to the 51 I imagine part of it would be dramatically reducing parking requirements for adjacent business. With theoretically more people accessing the area by bike and transit, the huge overstock of surface parking would become even more silly.

Many of these business have large surface lots as well as diagonal parking between the sidewalk and the businesses (think My Florist) which would also have to go. You don't want people backing or having to make weird maneuvers onto busy arterial streets. Entrances for parking should be limited to specific, standard driveways going into surface lots & garages. This would free up space in the fronts of buildings for more plantings or moving the sidewalks back from the street and adding a planter strip or patio area's, et cetera.

Smallish garages (with retail/office facing McDowell obviously) could be built every 1/2 mile or so on some of the surface lots to make up for any unacceptable loss in parking. Of course these could also serve as Park and Ride's for a hopefully rejuvenated "Miracle Mile" for those coming from further afield. Park your car in a garages once, ride the streetcar up and down McDowell all day and transfer to LRT if you want to too.

It should also be noted that some of the planters facing McDowell are probably a bit too huge. There was originally on street diagonal parking along the Miracle Mile that those planters replaced. Some of them are up to 20' deep and mostly just full of gravel and dying shrubs. Some of that space could perhaps be repurposed to make more room for auto and bus/tram/bikeways.

At the very least if a Streetcar were too pricey or too progressive for Phoenix a shared bike/bus lane going each way (with 2 lanes of traffic going each way). It would dramatically increase the reliability of the buses. It would make the area safer for bikers and it would be a good place to prove a concept that could in the future be used elsewhere in the City. If McDowell did begin to redevelop and we saw more 4-8 story mixed use structures along that 4 mile or so stretch, then perhaps a Streetcar could be put in place later.

It just frustrates me that in large part due to poor infrastructure by the City that McDowell Rd is such a shitburg. The vast majority of the residents of Encanto, Willo, north Roosevelt, Los Olivos, Ashland Place, Alvarado and FQ Story aren't hurting cash wise. Add to that the fact that Coronado continues to gentrify, Calle 16 might become something interesting (though more working class) and it stands to reason that McDowell has a boatload of potential as a walkable, urban street full of shops, cafe's, etc.

Every other God damned City our size has this sort of shit, there's zero reason we shouldn't besides the fact that we can't stop pissing on our own feet.

Vicelord John May 16, 2011 11:26 PM

Tucson has blue people... Phoenix is red. We will never be as visionary as Tucson.

PhxDowntowner May 17, 2011 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vicelord John (Post 5279989)
Tucson has blue people... Phoenix is red. We will never be as visionary as Tucson.

I think of it like this: Phoenix is the LA of Arizona, and Tucson is the SanFran.

Vicelord John May 17, 2011 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhxDowntowner (Post 5280059)
I think of it like this: Phoenix is the LA of Arizona, and Tucson is the SanFran.

Sort of... LA is still pretty blue compared to Phoenix, but I get your analogy.

azliam May 17, 2011 1:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vicelord John (Post 5279989)
Tucson has blue people... Phoenix is red. We will never be as visionary as Tucson.

Having lived in Tucson for nearly 20 years, I can tell you that it sure didn't feel as though Tucson was visionary at much. I waited sooo long to see any form of progress in the downtown area, and it didn't really start doing anything until I moved up here. Having said that, I went back 2 weekends ago (to party downtown) and despite having fun, it didn't feel all that exciting or different from what I've known Tucson to be in the past.

I think that many in Tucson are "blue" just because it means being different than Phoenix. Then you have the U of A crowd that tries too hard to be progressive and ends up just looking uneducated. If you're going to support a cause, it might help to understand what you are supporting, and I never did get the feeling that there were many lightbulbs going on up there with the UA crowd that I would run into.

Leo the Dog May 17, 2011 2:26 PM

Tucson...visionary?! You guys can't be serious.

KingLouieLouie76 May 17, 2011 8:06 PM

Some more positive news:

http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...r-arizona.html

Quote:

The Arizona Cancer Center has reached a preliminary agreement with the city of Phoenix to build a new six-story cancer center on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

Phoenix City Council on Wednesday will be asked to approve $14 million to contribute toward design and financing costs for the $135 million outpatient center planned at the northwest corner of Fillmore and Seventh streets.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...#ixzz1MdsGue6c

HX_Guy May 17, 2011 8:17 PM

6 stories of medical could be pretty good...aren't those like 15-20' per floor?

gymratmanaz May 17, 2011 8:20 PM

Running out of space on that block. Gonna need to move on to another to keep spreading Genetic and medical initiatives!!!!

HX_Guy May 17, 2011 8:33 PM

Chris, this is on a whole new block..it's not the same block where the rest of the BioMed stuff is. This is going on the NW corner of Fillmore and 7th St. right next to the hotel there and directly north of the current BioMed block.

nickw252 May 18, 2011 1:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vicelord John (Post 5277935)
There is a tenant there now called Community Florist. I've worked with DiDi who owns it several times.

Regarding the sign, these people need to be aware that they will face consequences if the sign goes away.

That's exciting news about developing McDowell by 7th Ave - I live in Encanto Palmcroft and have been hoping something happened there, and on that empty lot on McDowell between 13th and 15th.

As far as Community Florist goes - I bought flowers there in March or April - the store was nice and the people were extremely helpful. When I was there I asked them if they knew anything going on on their block and they told me they'd heard that a 5 Guys was supposed to be put in across the street from them.

nickw252 May 18, 2011 1:03 AM

Chateau on Central
 
I took my dog for a walk earlier this week and walked by the Chateau on Central - I noticed one of the units had lights on inside so I started talking to the security guard on the premises. He said that unfortunately none of the units had sold yet and by his tone it didn't seem like there had been a lot of interest.

Vicelord John May 18, 2011 1:38 AM

Woah now there's a surprise.

HX_Guy May 19, 2011 6:33 AM

Quote:

Phoenix approves $14 million for cancer center
Phoenix Business Journal - by Angela Gonzales
Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2011,

The Phoenix City Council voted unanimously to spend $14 million to help support the construction of the University of Arizona’s Cancer Center on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.
In exchange for the city’s financial commitment during the next six years, UA can begin this project immediately, creating hundreds of jobs, new tax revenues and continued development on the downtown Phoenix campus, according to information from the city prior to the deal.
Once completed, the $135 million project will host an estimated 200,000-patient visits annually, bringing 500,000 new visitors per year to downtown Phoenix, according to the city information. It will create approximately 800 permanent biomedical jobs and have an annual economic impact of $250 million.
In putting the plan before the council, city staff said the plan would be a significant addition of a clinical health care component to the City’s Phoenix Biomedical Campus and is crucial to achieving the City Council-adopted master plan for the campus, and will strengthen the community’s bio industry cluster while creating synergies for the city’s tenants, including TGen and IGC.
Phoenix is the largest U.S. city without a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. The center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center — it engages in patient care, research, outreach and education — headquartered in the state and one of only 40 such designated centers nationwide.
The center’s downtown presence also adds a clinical health care component to the Phoenix campus.
That's a crapload of new visitors to downtown per year!

KingLouieLouie76 May 19, 2011 10:04 AM

http://www.azcentral.com/business/re...-projects.html

Quote:

The developer of downtown Phoenix's $500 million CityScape retail and office project is going to handle leasing and management of two other Phoenix office and retail centers: Town & Country Shops at 20th Street and Camelback Road and the embattled CityNorth in the city's northeastern corridor, near Loop 101 and Arizona 51.

RED Development has entered a 50-50 joint venture with Town & Country Camelback, a limited-liability company that owns Town & Country, said Mike Ebert, a managing partner at RED.

RED also has a separate agreement to manage and lease spaces at High Street - an office, residential and retail project at CityNorth, a 144-acre property that has been tangled in legal battles. That deal includes managing and leasing the luxury apartments on the site.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/re...#ixzz1Mn7diIvS

westbev93 May 19, 2011 3:55 PM

I wouldn't hold your breath for anything to happen on the My Florist block. Aren't those plans that were posted above about 3 or 4 years old? For the past 3 years I've heard about the plans for the dirt lot next to My Florist and some restaurant they wanted to build with an outdoor patio and live music at night. Yet nothing has been built. The only action that lot has seen is to stage ADOT equipment for street improvements they did through Willo. Oh, and My Florist closing because they had just about the worst service I've experienced. My understanding from people that have had conversations with the owner is that the owner of the My Florist building doesn't really care if the thing is ever leased out. Seems strange, but that certainly explains why the place has been empty for years despite success at renovating and leasing on Pei Wei/Starbucks/Sidebar corner.

As for across the street in Tom Horne's building, they've been talking about 5 guys, Chipotle, etc for several years. They chipped a bunch of stucco off the facade a couple weeks ago, but that's all they've done there. The little signs about the redevelopment have been gone for months. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one either.

My guess is that both buildings will continue to sit vacant for quite awhile, which sucks for those of us who live in Willo, Palmcroft, Story, or Roosevelt. That is a highly underutilized intersection.

pbenjamin May 19, 2011 4:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by westbev93 (Post 5283564)
I wouldn't hold your breath for anything to happen on the My Florist block. Aren't those plans that were posted above about 3 or 4 years old? For the past 3 years I've heard about the plans for the dirt lot next to My Florist and some restaurant they wanted to build with an outdoor patio and live music at night. Yet nothing has been built. The only action that lot has seen is to stage ADOT equipment for street improvements they did through Willo. Oh, and My Florist closing because they had just about the worst service I've experienced. My understanding from people that have had conversations with the owner is that the owner of the My Florist building doesn't really care if the thing is ever leased out. Seems strange, but that certainly explains why the place has been empty for years despite success at renovating and leasing on Pei Wei/Starbucks/Sidebar corner.

As for across the street in Tom Horne's building, they've been talking about 5 guys, Chipotle, etc for several years. They chipped a bunch of stucco off the facade a couple weeks ago, but that's all they've done there. The little signs about the redevelopment have been gone for months. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one either.

My guess is that both buildings will continue to sit vacant for quite awhile, which sucks for those of us who live in Willo, Palmcroft, Story, or Roosevelt. That is a highly underutilized intersection.

That was my reaction too. The alleged burger joint on the south side was actually Smashburger, though. They actually had a couple of "coming soon" signs up for a while.

glynnjamin May 19, 2011 5:33 PM

Ya, there was never gonna be a 5 Guys there. The 5 Guys is at CityScape. Smashburger was going in there. Smashburger > 5 Guys anyways.


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