This is the site of the condo building, there's a variance posted but no permit yet. Lots of activity.

https://i.imgur.com/aKIy0SVl.jpg

That's the tower next to Hampton Inn right?

Looks like the US Bank/developer issues have been resolved. Patio is up and most of the retail spots have been filling up. Work on the bar is also happening up the street.

https://i.imgur.com/OVi3Xu7h.jpg

That must've just happened over the weekend! I walked by Friday night and none of that was up. Great to see!

As for the Central Park East residential, I don't think anything is moving on it yet. Most of that equipment is from the Hilton and I believe the variance Biggus is referring to is the abandonment hearing which has been there for some time. Is that still the same sign Biggus or is it a new variance posting?

I don't know the dates or timelines. They wanted to decrease the set back to zero.

Just a little tidbit. Lenny's Burger Shop will be moving from the shopping plaza at Thomas/Central to the old Burger King at Virginia/Central. Looks like the old Burger King will get a full renovation.

I am not exactly sure how well they will do in that spot. Seems like they are moving a little bit farther down from their primary lunch crowd than they should.

Not sure how plausible this would be. LoopNet is advertising a track of land at the SW corner of Washington & 8th Ave for a high-rise residential development. The renderings on LoopNet show a 250' tower (just for show I'm sure as the rooftop rendering is actually the Stewart's rooftop).

Interesting to see the city giving the OK for rezoning lots for taller buildings in the Western edge of Downtown. Does anyone think this could actually move in this location?

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/SW-Wa...x-AZ/12130457/

Quote:

This listing consists of a full city block of land for sale. The property is currently zoned C-3 but the City has verbally approved a re-zone to PUD including high density housing, and 250ft of vertical development. The property currently houses an 11,670sf warehouse, a 9,034 sf warehouse, an 1,120 sf office and a 1,472 service area, all of these buildings are in general disrepair, but with some work could be habitable. This site will also be directly adjacent to the light rail lines on Washington and Jefferson Street in 2023 and located adjacent to a light rail stop. This is the only full block of land for sale in the downtown Phoenix area.

*Edit: Correction on the rooftop pool being the Stewart's. It's too far East to be the Stewart. Derby maybe? :D

I'd love to see more developments on the west side and especially along the light rail line. However, that's within spitting distance of multiple homeless shelters. Good luck renting or selling high-end units there.

I fully expect development to move west and north Garfield is low rise to the east, maybe we will get some height in the warehouse district but I doubt anything major.

With the unfortunate events of last week (homeless guy breaking into a house near Downtown and killing the homeowner) I expect that some of these shelters will be relocated and hopefully upgraded in the near future.

Besides The Link, it sure does take a long time for Downtown PHX to get moving on anything large in scale. With Tempe having a giant lake, I assumed that Downtown PHX would feel the threat and drastically pick up their entitlement pace. They haven't and I think it's extremely risky on their part. What's taking Barrister so long? Luckily the office portion of Block 23 is going to look great and could save their ass if there's a ton of demand.

Looks like a sleepy part of Camelback is ready for its closeup!

http://azbex.com/affordable-luxury-m...7th-camelback/

Very cool project, and I really like the mixed-use designation; I have to say, it's great to have so much construction going on in the Valley, but I feel there isn't as much 'street activation'-- for example, think of LA. When just about any apartment complex is built, retail and office space are almost always included to encourage further development in the immediate area, part of why LA is so walkable. In PHX, however, many apartment complexes are just that, residential, and command residents to other areas (regardless of how near or far) just to get their necessities. Just my two cents, but this project is a step in the right direction.

Now that Jjs has become active again, expect some debate on this. My point of view is that ground-floor retail is great when it is actually occupied by retail tenants. When it is vacant for years, it becomes a net detractor for the neighborhood. Unfortunately, we've seen our share of buildings that have plenty of ground floor space but few or no ground floor tenants. While it's tempting to blame bad design for the vacancies, I'd me more inclined to blame requirements and incentives that encourage developers to include ground floor space not in response to actual demand, but instead simply to say their projects are mixed use.

I agree with this, property managers aren’t stupid, if they can make more money leasing retail tenants they will happily build retail spots, I’d rather get the apartment with a gym on the first floor and then in 5-10 years when here is demand let the property manager change out the gym for a restaurant pad

The example I always like to think of is Tapestry on Central, those retail spaces are dogs. It's not because of bad design, it's not because of poor management, it's because they're on a suburban stretch of street with little to no foot traffic and people in this city just aren't going to spend time trying to figure out how to park for a business unless it's a very special and unique location.

Sounds like a great project. I'm happy to see it's on the west side of Camelback and on the light rail line.

Speaking of which, are there any statistics on light rail ridership and whether the residential boom downtown has increased ridership?

I'm not entirely sure that is the best example.

My understanding is that there was next to zero parking available for those spaces. I think two spots per tenant (or roughly that number) with more being located in the garage. Problem was, the garage was partially closed for years due to issues with the pool so the retail spots were given up for residential spots. Also I remember them asking crazy money for the storefront spaces. Granted, this isn't ever going to be a super walkable stretch but there is sufficient residential there to support a winebar, a barbershop, a flower shop, a small bottleshop, a bodega, or something else similar. I mean, right next door there are two of those things that are doing fine.

Ridership statistics are available here.

I've also been curious and have been tracking the statistics. (because that's what normal, sane people do in their free time). I would say it's arguable and unclear whether downtown residential has increased ridership. I have a list of month-on-month ridership back to 2014. Ridership increased 3.4% in 2015 as compared to 2014; and jumped 11.53% in 2016 as compared to 2015 (although I would say a lot of that is likely attributable to the Central Mesa extension opening). In 2017, ridership was basically stagnant as compared to 2016, and ridership in the first couple months of 2018 have been down ~4% as compared to the equivalent months in 2017.

So ridership is up ~10% since 2014, which is awesome and corresponds to roughly the period of increased construction. But unclear to me how much of that is new extensions, etc., and how much will continue due to current slight downward trend.

How accurate are these ridership statistics? I'm sure they have a pretty good method of counting riders. However, in my mind, I compare them to census reports which are pretty much rough estimates and can be off by a large margin.

I would say they are watching boarding pass sales, but that seems like it would be way too off to me as there would be all day passes, monthly passes, riders that don't buy a pass at all, DBacks game riders which ride for free, etc. which would affect the numbers.

So, if someone could enlighten me, how are the ridership counts taken and how far off could the estimates be?

Ridership is counted via sensors in the train doorways, not via sales of tickets and passes. Also, Diamondbacks attendees do not ride for free. It is only for events at the Talking Stick Resort Arena that an event ticket is also a rail ticket.

We recently bought in Tapestry, and there was a huge lawsuit won by the owner of the retail against the HOA. There is infighting among the HOA on how to proceed, including a recall election. I am on the side of settling with the owner and giving him whatever he needs, including parking, to make the retail viable. It is also my understanding that no cafe or bar can rent there. The Community Walgreens Pharmacy seems to do well though.

I believe this to be correct because of the exhaust vent situation (or lack thereof) but that obviously doesn't apply to a bar, not sure why that would be the case.

Most of those buildings have big fights and lawsuits, enough to keep me from buying in one again. If you all only knew the issues we've dealt with at Landmark over the years.