SkyscraperPage Forum - Phoenix Development News (3)

Viewing Page 706 of 1071

SkyscraperPage Forum (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/index.php)

- Southwest (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=643)

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

^ Yeah, wow great pics there man! Much appreciated! I lived in Maryland and NoVa quite a bit in the past and I like NoVa but I honestly can't say MD is a place I'd willingly move to. But hey there are some things about it so best of luck! Cheers...

Haux, thanks for the photos. Good luck.

Great photos... Thank you. I'm going to miss the updates, but good luck on the move.

You should copy and paste your photo update post into the Phoenix City Compilations thread.

Haux, I also appreciated the photos and footwork that went into getting them. Have a great move, and come visit us periodically!

Thanks Haux, we’ll hold down the fort here in Phoenix keeping you up to date with the latest!

https://azbigmedia.com/live-forward-...ntown-phoenix/

Coming very soon to Garfield and another lot bites the dust!

Awsome news, the low Rise Mercado has an expiration date and its in 2024. And the city will sell it off to high density developers.

Its a shame that it wasn't used better, I think the Mercado could have been cool if it was full of restaurants instead of....whatever the heck is in there.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...eloped-by.html

Quote:

Once a dream project of former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, the Mercado will eventually be razed to pave the way for future development.

Built by Mercado Developers — a partnership of Symington and the for-profit division of Chicanos Por La Causa — the 125,000-square-foot center opened in December 1989 as a Mexican-style shopping plaza that failed to attract and maintain tenants.

By 1999, Arizona State University bought the shopping center at Seventh and Van Buren streets for $9 million and has used it to house some classrooms as it expanded its downtown Phoenix campus.

As the Phoenix Biomedical Campus across the street — at the southwest corner of Seventh and Van Buren — has continued to grow, the master plan calls for eventually taking over the Mercado property, said Rick Naimark, associate vice president for program development planning for ASU.

By 2024, the property's ownership will transfer to the city of Phoenix, said Christine Mackay, economic development director for the city.

"In the future, we'll be working to redevelop all that property as much more dense," she said. "We're talking seven, maybe eight, years from now."

While the property functions well for ASU today, the Phoenix Biomedical Campus will be completely built out by then, she said.

Meanwhile, plans are in the works for development of a 7-acre parcel on the north side of the 30-acre biomedical campus, where Baltimore-based Wexford Science & Technology LLC is building a $77 million research center that will be anchored by ASU.

The 30-acre Phoenix Biomedical Campus has the capacity for 6 million square feet. So far, 1.6 million square feet have been built — housing Northern Arizona University, University of Arizona's medical school and the Translational Genomics Research Institute.

A Tripp-Umbach study released in 2014 showed the economic impact of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus was $1.3 billion, while UA's medical school had a $961.6 million impact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phxguy (Post 8502082)

https://azbigmedia.com/live-forward-...ntown-phoenix/

Coming very soon to Garfield and another lot bites the dust!

I've been biting my tongue waiting for two announcements in Garfield, this isn't one of them. Totally surprised.

200 W. Monroe Demo

Quote:

Originally Posted by muertecaza (Post 8496705)

Demo permit issued for the parking canopy on the south half of the 200 W. Monroe site this week. Doesn't mention the building on the north half, so not sure if that will have to be under a separate permit. But it's progress. :cheers:

Demo started today on the 200 W. Monroe site. They already have the parking canopy torn down and they are currently tearing the building down as well. Thank god!

I’ll try to post a picture later tonight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunsfan87 (Post 8502200)

Awesome update! Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by biggus diggus (Post 8502137)

I've been biting my tongue waiting for two announcements in Garfield, this isn't one of them. Totally surprised.

I’m curious, what are these other two announcements??

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunsfan87 (Post 8502200)

Another skyward crane for downtown coming soon!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phxguy (Post 8502231)

I’m curious, what are these other two announcements??

There are a couple other multi-family developments in the pipe but since AZ is a public record state and anyone would be able to track it down I can't speak about what they are doing.

Thanks, Haux! I moved away from Phoenix about 6 months ago too.

You'll be sticking around here for updates, I promise :) :cheers::cheers::cheers:

Marriott picks downtown Phoenix hotel to debut new brand

Looks like Sheraton Grand will be the first to debut of the *new* Sheraton brand model by Marriott. No word in the article on just how much remodeling they will do, but they are stating a “modern town square vibe”. I am also hoping at least a paint-job at the minimum on the outside.

Quote:

Marriott International Inc. (Nasdaq: MAR) is re-inventing its Sheraton Hotels & Resorts brand this year and the first property showing off the new look will be in downtown Phoenix.

Marriott started making some of the changes public Monday when it unveiled the new Sheraton logo. In a statement, the company said the new look “reflects the brand’s holistic vision for the future, making Sheraton the central gathering place of communities around the world, welcoming guests and locals into a public space that embodies the modern town square vibe.”

The first Sheraton property with the new “modern town square vibe” will be the Phoenix Sheraton Grand Hotel in downtown Phoenix. In June 2018, the city of Phoenix sold the hotel for $255 million to Marriott, Concord Wilshire Cos. and TLG Investment Partners, with Marriott being the majority capital partner.

The hotel company is now putting in millions of dollars to renovate the Phoenix Sheraton Grand. With a price tag around $40 million, the 1,000-room property will be the first of Sheraton’s full on-strategy hotel. It is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019.

“The hotel will serve as a living and breathing lab, showcasing design and activations, using new technology and insights that bring a unique community vibe to the space,” the company said about the Phoenix hotel in a statement.

Besides Phoenix, Marriott and Sheraton are working to have a number of its hotels renovated this year, whether they are owned by Marriott or have licensed its brand.

“There has been so much enthusiasm for the new direction of the brand and owners are excited about the change,” Indy Adenaw, Sheraton’s vice president and global brand leader, said in statement. “From Phoenix to Toronto, Tel Aviv to Fiji more than 30 percent of our portfolio worldwide is under some sort of renovation.”

Across all of its businesses and brands, Marriott is projecting to spend $500 million to $700 million on capital expenditures in 2019. During a call with investors on Feb. 28, Marriott Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Oberg said those numbers don’t include the specific build or buy of hotel or hotel chain, but said the renovations of the Sheraton Grand Phoenix would be “in the ballpark of $40 million.”

Those projected capital expenditure amounts are higher than what Marriott spent in 2018, 2017 and 2016, according to regulatory filings.

When the Sheraton Grand Phoenix sold last year, Nate Sirang, president of Concord Wilshir told the Business Journal the renovation plan included guest rooms, food and beverage outlets, meeting rooms and other public spaces.

Sirang said Sheraton Grand Phoenix renovations will “re-energize and transform the property” and make the hotel the “showcase model” for Marriott’s new Sheraton brand.

After the renovation of the downtown hotel, Marriott’s plans for the property include selling it, but the transaction will be subject to a long-term management agreement.

This is not the first time the Phoenix hotel received an honor of being a first for the brand. In 2015, the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel was the first Sheraton in North America to receive the "Grand" designation, and henceforth was known as the Sheraton Grand Phoenix.

Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...debut-new.html

Why Meow Wolf Coming to Phoenix Is Worrisome

Apparently, not everyone is thrilled with Meow Wolf...

Quote:

While it is admirable that a group of artists has been able to be so monetarily successful, we have to ask: What is Meow Wolf doing for culture as a whole?

PHOENIX — It was announced the weekend of February 23 that the Santa Fe-based collective Meow Wolf would be opening a 400-room art-themed hotel in Downtown Phoenix, complete with a 75,000-square-foot exhibition space, in the middle of Roosevelt Row Arts District. The psychedelic, Burning Man-esque vibe of the Santa Fe flagship Meow Wolf has been widely popular, seeing large attendance numbers for the small southwest mountain town.

However, Meow Wolf has not been loved by all in that community. Some, myself included, have been critical of the vaguely colonial subtext that underlies its permanent installation titled the House of Eternal Return. The interactive, two-story Victorian house is centered on the imagined story of a white family from California. This narrative, transplanted into a brown neighborhood in a city that is defined, predicated on, and commodified around Indigenous identity, can be read as tone-deaf at a moment in this country when decolonial narratives are prominent.

Meow Wolf has also adopted a hotel model that feels populist. CEO Vince Kadlubeck shared in a statement on the Meow Wolf website, “Guests are always asking about staying overnight inside of our House of Eternal Return project in Santa Fe, so doing an intertwined exhibition and hotel just made sense to us.” The decision feels more driven by customer service than a curatorial vision.

So what does a Meow Wolf hotel mean for Phoenix?

While it is admirable that a group of artists has been able to be so monetarily successful — Meow Wolf also plans to expand to Las Vegas, Denver, and Washington DC — we have to ask: What is it doing for culture as a whole? I cannot speak for Las Vegas, Denver, DC, or even really Santa Fe, but for Phoenix, it is worrisome. It could dislodge local artists from their downtown and south Phoenix studios as more and more development happens on that scale in the “arts district,” raising prices, making it difficult for small galleries to exist, DIY spaces, and the like. In an article published in AZ Central last year, artists are quoted as speaking out against the rapid development of the neighborhood. There are already fewer galleries on Roosevelt Row than a few years ago, and along Central Avenue in midtown Phoenix, a new multistory, hipster-vibe apartment building goes up every other month. A Meow Wolf Hotel just seems part of the larger gentrification that is displacing people with lower incomes to find shelter and studio space elsewhere.

The problem with Meow Wolf is that it is a supreme act of late stage capitalism disguised through the collective’s mantra of the underdog as art savior. It is in fact a corporate entity, partnering with another corporate entity, True North Studio, for the Phoenix project. In their 2018 documentary Meow Wolf: Origin Story, the collective refers to themselves in one instance as “Santa Fe’s orphans of neglect,” which can be viewed as insensitive if not ignorant to what brown people working in contemporary art in Santa Fe go through to show their work that may not fit into the establishment of Canyon Road art galleries.

In a media advisory released on their website, Kadlubek stated, “our intention for this venture is to collaborate with the creative community in greater Phoenix to produce an authentic, local statement of expression which will bring further excitement and creative energy to the Roosevelt Row Arts District. This project is going to be truly monumental on so many levels.” While it is good to hear that Meow Wolf wants to collaborate with local creatives in this endeavor, it is important for the creative community here to know what that collaboration looks like. Is it ongoing? Is it a one-off? Are local artists going to be engaged in planning, or will they simply be commissioned for a project here and there to have the illusion of community buy-in? None of this information, to my knowledge at least, has been made available.

Over the past week, I consulted with other members of the creative community, including Indigenous artists, curators, museum directors, and professors, and the sentiment is overwhelmingly the same: We are all curious to see what Meow Wolf will do and how it will function in the bourgeoning landscape of downtown Phoenix, but we also worry that it could be harmful to the city’s cultural framework. The main critique myself and others in Phoenix have regarding this Meow Wolf Hotel is that a huge opportunity was missed to talk with individuals and entities within greater Phoenix about this project prior to the big public announcement. There could have been inclusivity and open dialogue about the opportunities and potential pitfalls that could be present with this project from the get go, but that does not seem to have occurred.

That said, based on the conversations I have had, the Phoenix art community is still open to collaboration. Meow Wolf, we welcome the opportunity to sit down to discuss your projects, share our work with you, and see where we can find common ground to work together in a healthy, sustainable, and accountable way.

Source: https://hyperallergic.com/486886/why...-is-worrisome/

^The references to colonialism and "late stage capitalism" seem cliched, but the wording I find most troubling is towards the bottom:

The main critique myself and others in Phoenix have regarding this Meow Wolf Hotel is that a huge opportunity was missed to talk with individuals and entities within greater Phoenix about this project prior to the big public announcement. There could have been inclusivity and open dialogue about the opportunities and potential pitfalls that could be present with this project from the get go, but that does not seem to have occurred.

That said, based on the conversations I have had, the Phoenix art community is still open to collaboration. Meow Wolf, we welcome the opportunity to sit down to discuss your projects, share our work with you, and see where we can find common ground to work together in a healthy, sustainable, and accountable way.

This is a variation of the same theme I often hear from anti-development voices. There's a strong implication that every developer should invite community participation before moving ahead with a project. It might be nice, even smart, for developers to do that, but it's certainly not a moral, ethical, or legal obligation in most cases.

Quote:

Originally Posted by exit2lef (Post 8504104)

^
This is a variation of the same theme I often hear from anti-development voices. There's a strong implication that every developer should invite community participation before moving ahead with a project. It might be nice, even smart, for developers to do that, but it's certainly not a moral, ethical, or legal obligation in most cases.

It just completely comes off as treating the RR area and art itself as a walled garden. That northern downtown needs to remain static and that city planners are monsters.

Populism isn't inherently bad, and it's bogus to treat these developers as sellouts when it feels like virtually everyone who visits Santa Fe (from all over the world!) says it's incredible. It's also a little hard to initiate community conversation when the guys themselves have said the project is years away from completion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stutteringpunk (Post 8504253)

It's also a little hard to initiate community conversation when the guys themselves have said the project is years away from completion.

Good point. I've been to some meetings held by both private developers and city staff in which the public has been asked to brainstorm about all sorts of lofty concepts and ambitious plans. If some of those concepts and plans don't come to fruition, then there are complaints about broken promises. Sometimes, it's better not to involve the public until design is at least part of the way along.

Quote:

Originally Posted by exit2lef (Post 8504104)

That said, based on the conversations I have had, the Phoenix art community is still open to collaboration. Meow Wolf, we welcome the opportunity to sit down to discuss your projects, share our work with you, and see where we can find common ground to work together in a healthy, sustainable, and accountable way.

This is a variation of the same theme I often hear from anti-development voices. There's a strong implication that every developer should invite community participation before moving ahead with a project. It might be nice, even smart, for developers to do that, but it's certainly not a moral, ethical, or legal obligation in most cases.

I was actually assured at this point. I was happy that the author didn't sprinkle "neoliberal" throughout the piece like Parmesan cheese. While I agree that developers aren't obligated, MEOW WOLF seems pretty hellbent on positioning themselves as artists of the people. Live by that sword, and you risk death by failing to actually represent the people. MW is claiming to want to work with the local artist community, and I've worked with many an artistic community--it's a group of very, very vocal and difficult, talented people. If you are going to make that claim...strap in. I wish them all luck. If the local artists deep six this, it will likely be MUCH worse than what MEOW WOLF will bring.

Viewing Page 706 of 1071