What do you guys think the City of Phoenix is getting wrong with their RFP process? I don’t know much about it and difference between what Tempe does with their RFP compared to Phoenix.

I have no idea, obviously they need to find some mechanism to judge what organization has realistic intentions to develop and the resources too.

Seems like they just keep awarding nice looking renderings with no serious plan on how it will get done.

If anyone in the City of Phoenix council ever thought that the original Smith Group proposal was better looking than the Davis Experience proposal, then they need new glasses. :haha:

What I'm seeing, at least in my opinion, is that developers are creating and submitting proposals which will score the most points just to win the RFP (and not create the best proposal possible). Although a proposal may score the highest points, it may not necessarily be the "best" project.

We've seen countless examples where the City has awarded the RFP to second-tier proposals. Deck Vista and American Legion Post site comes to mind. Some serious WTF moments there. Look at Regency RFP. One of the reasons they chose Berger was because they were supposed to have it ready in time by Super Bowl 2023. Look where that got us... :shrug:

I really hope the City is smart enough to take a step back after all these failed RFPs and re-think the entire end-to-end process and figure out what exactly is the issue.

I would be in favor of going to council about this, especially if we talked to the RFP losers that are watching this insanity by the sidelines and reluctant to do business with the city again.

Only an idiot would pick a smalltime company like Berger to do business with rather than the all-powerful Hines for example. That's just one of many.

A citizens/developer group petitioning the city could be pretty powerful imho.

Well, it appears that many fail the Proposed Project Timeline points. I question the Proposed City Commitment and Benefit to the City points also. I'd like to know just what exactly the City is looking for when it comes to these specific point systems. In regards to the Deck Vista RFP, David Wisniewski (city contract manager) emailed me back in May 2020 stating he would be happy to set up an appointment to go over the detailed scoring sheet by the evaluation team. It interests me, but not enough to set up an appointment to find out. I wouldn't make time for that, although perhaps someone else can email him if they are interested.

Many thanks to IndyAZ for providing photo updates in all those project threads.

There's fencing up around the country club lot.

Edit: Upon second look, it looks like staging. Is there anything else the country club is working on or do you think we'll see some movement soon?

As far as I know, that is it. I don't think they would let any nearby projects use their lot for staging, so this would be my guess.

They're re-grading the east lot because it was draining into the adjacent house in the last few storms. Don't get too excited about that tower.

AZ Humane Society - New Phoenix Campus
 

Located at SEC of E Van Buren St & N 55th St

https://www.azcentral.com/story/ente...us/6091495001/

Looks like problems at the Stewart are only getting worse.
https://youtu.be/Dabj5KvD0JM

Not a good note for Empire Group. Let's hope that Aspire and Astra have better build quality that Stewart.

Couldn't tell for sure but it looks like Skye's crane is going up this morning!

No photo, but the "Wells Fargo" letters are being removed from the south side of the old Wells Fargo tower. The letters on the north side are not being illuminated anymore, so I'm assuming those will be next.

Central/McDowell?
 

Long time reader, first time poster.

Anyone have any idea what's happening at the SW corner of Central & McDowell-- 1500 N Central Ave? They're tearing down the building that was there (the old Donnelley building) and am just curious what's next? Can't seem to find anything anywhere on it...

Welcome!

There has been some discussion in this thread and the 'low-rise' thread. I don't think I've seen anyone with information about the future plans, and I don't see that there are any recent plans/permits filed other than the demo permits. Someone did link that the property is being marketed for sale, and the listing notes that the zoning allows for a "mix of uses including: multifamily, office, healthcare, and retail." But again, no hard details.

https://www.avisonyoung.us/propertie...-north-central

It was being marketed as a redevelopment site and to my knowledge hasn't changed hands yet. Dirt is easier to sell than use-specific buildings typically.

I think its in an opportunity zone, Probably honing to sell it to an apartment developer that will be a standard 4-6 story wood apartment block

Some pics from Code5 on the Skye thread: https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=245440