Retailers Rediscover the Valley

Panda Express launched a new free-standing restaurant near Ninth Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix.

Other retailers focusing on infill locations include include Nordstrom, which has announced plans to open a Rack discount store at Town & Country shopping center in Phoenix and Swedish retailer H&M, which plans to open a third Phoenix-area store later this year at Arizona Mills in Tempe.

There has been speculation in real-estate circles that Whole Foods may open a store at Town & Country, near 20th Street and Camelback Road. And LA Fitness is building a new health club near Northern and 23rd avenues next to a new large-format Circle K convenience store.

Many retailers are tailoring their stores to the new infill locations as well. Walmart, Best Buy, Petco and others are developing smaller stores that can squeeze into smaller sites.

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according to this post on the Arizona Preservation Foundation's facebook page, Ben Bethel is meeting with lenders to possibly finish Hotel Monroe...

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6045/...44458344_b.jpg

heres the link in the post
https://picasaweb.google.com/1088028...007HotelMonroe

That would be incredible!!! Go Ben. Go!!!!!!

Wow! Amazing! That would be huge if Ben bought it. He's done such a good job on Clarendon. Shame the state/city won't kick any money or tax breaks his way even though they've done so for the corporate downtown hotels.

^ Who says they won't? The city has subsidized damn near everything else. Even a renovation of the Wyndham (whatever happened to that, anyways?) has got a GPLET incentive.

Frank Luke Addition Redevelopment
 

Phoenix homes, part of segregated past, demolished

Does anyone know what the new building will look like? Will it be street facing and encourage walkability or will it be a suburban barracks style place that caters to automobiles?

It will probably look like the new Mathew Henson Apartments on 7th Ave. It is a medium-density, suburban styled complex:

http://www.mycheapapartments.com/Mat...40548-For-Rent

But, maybe not:

"This phase includes a 60-unit senior living project consisting of a 3-story, 67,749 SF building with activity areas, office space, dining room, and center courtyard."
http://www.a-p.com/project/recently-...senior-housing

I'm sure someone will dig up some renderings of the project soon.

Behel needs to mention the upcoming super bowl and the necessity of having the hotel Monroe finished. I can't wait.

Well that just means hotel Monroe will be an ill maintained shit hole like Clarendon. Damnit I hope this actually doesn't happen. I know a few groups with deep enough pockets are trying to make that property work, and would turn it into a fantastic place. If bethel gets involved, prepare to see card tables for bar tops, moldy carpets, and btw the windows on the units at Clarendon were never replaced. He did a complete half assed Reno there and I wouldnt expect anything better at Monroe. It would be wise of the city to block this.

This is one thing we agree on! ;) The City should take interest in this project because it is one of the few remaining historic buildings downtown. It's an awesome structure and needed to be renovated long ago. This project needs to be handled with great care and plans for this hotel must be as grand as Grace Properties' for the first Hotel Monroe project; it can't be half-assed and a "spared no expense" approach must be taken to make this a premiere boutique hotel.

And that's the problem. Bethel doesn't have access to the type of funds it would take to build something grand, with no expense spared. He would equal a budget remodel, and I would rather wait for some money to come along.

There's no way the Clarendon would provide him enough capital to pull this off, so that's why he's meeting with lenders today.

And how much do you think he will be loaned based on his collateral and cash reserves??

Well, that is a huge concern. I used the term "half-assed" because I've heard similar reviews of Clarendon even though it receives much praise in numerous publications and industry mags. Rather surprising to hear.

I thought Grace Properties and the original proposer of the Hotel Monroe project (that was to be completed by 2008) still had a vested interest in the building? If this is true perhaps a partnership can be formed. A little info for this building from last year:

"Synder says the renovation project that began and failed a few years ago is about 1/3 complete. Some of the floors are completely framed out and much remains to be done. He estimates an additional 30 million will be needed to finish the build-out. On the good news side, much of the ground work has been done to qualify for historic federal tax credits and the property is already on the both state and federal historic registers."
http://urbanconnectionrealty.com/201...new-developer/

Wasn't familiar so I took my kid to a delightful brunch at the Clarendon. Nice property.

Oops... posted before I read the comments above. Interesting....

I'm not familiar with how these projects have fared but they've been a godsend in Denver which as Vicelord John would say is a different "animal."

Denver cleared a roughly 6-7 block area formerly called Village East for a Hope VI project. Built in phases, the quality is better with sustainable features. An urban village that features several different
architectural styles and variety of affordable housing.

It is sooo much nicer than before. Denver does benefit from downtown having over 8,000 hotel rooms and over a 1,000 retail establishments many being restaurants so there is a need for nearby
affordable housing. All are within a few blocks of downtown and to light rail that goes through downtown.

In the La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhood Denver is specifically protecting the character of this historically Hispanic area. The former Public Housing, though, will be replaced with the next Hope VI project also
within blocks of a (different) light rail line. Great masterplan. The first phase, under construction, is a ten story senior project which the neighborhood residents "helped" design through several neighborhood meetings.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Congress doesn't kill future Hope VI funding.

Given the battering this area has taken, I remain impressed with the activity in and around downtown Phoenix.

Not so great news about Mid-Town
 

According to the Republic, downtown business groups are interested in turning the Downtown Phoenix Partnership into a "holding group" similar to what downtown Denver has that "would enable them to share some functions, such as marketing the downtown area." This could enable the groups to focus and share some resourcing on developing downtown further, luring business and entertainment to the area.

They could start by trying to jump start "Jackson Street"? :tup:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...ix-groups.html

More good news...
http://downtownphoenixjournal.com/20...gton-all-sold/

The Downtown Denver Partnership does yeoman work and some impressive stuff. There are like six major events per year in downtown and then other stuff will come up from time to time.
They also help sheppard many improvements and retail recruiting to downtown.

For me, it seems like yesterday that they started the Capitol Hill People's Fair, sort of an artsy event with many food booths. Technically it started in 1971 and after a couple of locations, it moved
to the Civic Center Park in 1987 which is where my memory of it starts. It now is a big deal and attracts people metro-wide.

Only in its second year, this years Fourth of July free symphony concert and fireworks brought about 10.000 people/families to the Civic Center.
It is intentionally held on a different day from the traditional Fourth of July offerings.

Phoenix does some cool stuff too. My point would be that with hard work, a coordinated effort, patience, perseverance, and growing financial backing over time,
these things both activate and draw attention to the downtown.

For anybody that's interested you can see the Downtown Denver Partnership's not fancy site, except for the nice rotating eye candy, here: http://www.downtowndenver.com/

Or you can see long time leader Tami Door's annual presentation to the public here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=pBc10vTc7Ew