SkyscraperPage Forum - Phoenix Development News (3)

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There are a lot of big businesses that could move to downtown: University of Phoenix, Dial Corp., Go Daddy, Taser, waste management, Honeywell, etc. All of these companies could put their names on top of great new buildings!

Those kinds of companies are always almost in office parks. Lawyers and financial firms want high rises, tech jobs wany suburbs.

Pretty awesome about the Wyndham getting rebranded as a Marriott hotel...they are absolutely right that the Marriott brand has a much stronger name, I mean who ever looks to book into a Wyndham?

Quote:

Two major downtown Phoenix developments get go-ahead from city council
Phoenix Business Journal - by Lynn Ducey and Jan Buchholz

Two new hotel brands now call Downtown Phoenix home, after Phoenix City Council approved separate development deals paving the way for the properties.

Council members OK'd one deal One Central Park East that includes plans for a 280-room Westin hotel and corporate headquarters for Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., and another that rebrands the existing 520-room Wyndham hotel as a Marriott Renaissance.

“We are very happy. Christmas has come early,” said Steve Moore, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We now will have the power of the Marriott brand in downtown Phoenix and the Westin gives our downtown Sheraton guests an opportunity to upgrade.”

Council members unanimously approved a development agreement known as a Government Property Lease Excise Tax, or GPLET, incentive program for the One Central Park East project. The Westin hotel would be a tenant inside the newly constructed building, which also would house Freeport’s headquarters.

They also voted 6-2 in favor of a development deal with Phoenix Hotel Ventures LLC, which would result in the rebranding of the Wyndham into a Marriott Renaissance. Vice Mayor Tom Simplot and Councilman Michael Nowakowski voted against the proposal.

Simplot said the difference for him was that the Westin project was a modification of an existing GPLET that led to the construction of One Central Park East, which is built out, yet unoccupied. In contrast, the Wyndham is an existing property.

“Councilman Nowakowski and I agree philosophically. Personally, I believe GPLETS should be used sparingly for projects that simply aren’t viable without them,” Simplot said after the meeting Wednesday.

Council members voted unanimously in favor of the One Central Park East Project. Proponents said the projects would create and retain additional jobs, create a future revenue stream for bed and sales taxes across the city, county and state levels and keep Phoenix on a competitive par for group meeting and bookings at the Phoenix Convention Center with similar-sized cities, such as Denver and San Diego.

In addition, the Wyndham project will result in $10 million in property upgrades and access to Marriott’s branding power while the Westin is an upscale business class hotel.

The Wyndham rebranding is expected to take place within the first part of next year. Construction of the Westin build-out is expected to begin shortly, with the first guests expected to begin checking into the property in 2011.

It does strike me as very odd that theyre giving these tax breaks to the Wyndham since like has been mentioned its already existing. Im happy the Marriott will be coming in though, they seem to attract a lot more folks.

Hopefully by the time the 2011 MLB All Star game rolls around the Westin, Marriott, Hotel Palomar and Hotel Monroe will all be up and running.

I wonder what the $10 Million in renovations will consist of. Interior only or will they also update the exterior?

the actually just finished renovating all the rooms (beautiful) and did hte lobby about 5 years ago.

My guess is hte renovations will do the restaurant, finish the grab and go, and do the fitness center/pool area.

Found this on another forum...

Marriot has purchased the Wyndham Hotel and will spend millions to upgrade the 70's era sea-shell shaped window exterior facade of the building...

The Wyndham Phoenix Downtown could soon get an exterior face-lift, along with a new brand name.

^Awaiting some odd group to come out and claim it's an architectural landmark...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...SSP/phx103.jpg

At least it's buried in the skyline these days...FUGLY!

Looks like a giant cheese grater to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HX_Guy (Post 4611456)

Wherever you got that, it was made up.

Marriott did not buy the hotel and it is not going to be corporate owned. Steve Cohn still owns it and will continue to own it for the foreseeable future. Changing from Wyndham to Marriott is like changing from McDonalds to Burger King. Different menu and SOP book, but still the same ownership... it's all franchised.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickkoto (Post 4611493)

Looks like a giant cheese grater to me.

That is SO FUNNY. When I worked there back in 2003 and 2004 I would give people directions by saying look for the giant cheese grater.

In 50 years will we look back and think "damn, we should have kept it as it was, there aren't many examples of that type of architecture left"??

Now it looks like shit, but all of the historic buildings that have been torn down looked like old pieces of shit to those in the 50s and 60s.

Awww, I really like that building. In fact, of the little bit of photography that I have sold, shots of that building sell better than anything else. It's not a striking piece but I think the design is unique and, for that reason, I would hate to see it go.

I hope they keep the shells. They look great!!!! If anything, give them a paint job or something. They are very distinctive and cool!

What I do hope they change is the arcade along central. It's just so barren. They could do something to open that up or to put potted landscape-just something.

I hate the Wyndam, it's ugly as sin.

From today's Business Journal...

I guess we should feel pretty lucky that the deal with Freeport and Central Park East worked out as they had other plans originally...one was to leave downtown and move to 24th St and Camelback, which was actually in the works but fell apart for some reason. The other option was to leave the state altogether. Yea...that would have sucked ass.

Ryan Companies is leaving downtown. They are moving to the new building at 24th and Camelback, vacating 20,000 sq ft in the Phelps Dodge building.

Both companies leaving the Phelps Dodge building will take it from it's current 97% leased to 50% leased...and the whole building was just purchased for $127 Million about 1.5 years ago. Sucks for those buyers.

There is also an article about the Wyndham talking about the first phase of renovation being about $4 Million invested in the entrance area off of Adams and possibly also the hotel's restaurant inside.

Revised skyscraper table for Phoenix:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...kyscrapers.jpg

--don

^I may have a few comments/corrections for you here, but it'll take a bit to put them all together...

OCPE is 341', there was also the project proposed for the corner of Central and Camelback but I don't remember it's name.

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