Downtown students headed west on Roosevelt Street may have noticed the extensive renovations to a building on the corner of Third Avenue. The building, which has seen major upgrades to its exterior, including paint, landscaping and a parking lot, will soon be home to three new businesses scheduled to open Dec. 1.

Sooo U! Fine Clothing and Accessories, Phoenix Natural Medicine and Detox Center and Royal Exchange Furniture will become part of the burgeoning downtown Phoenix retail experience.

http://downtowndevil.com/2011/11/09/...iness-opening/

Good news to have more diversified businesses opening up. Pretty good locaton too, being close to Portland st.

Anyone have full access to this article? I'm curious where this warehouse is located.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/p...its-wings.html

I hope it pans out wherever it is...it seems we hear about this kind of stuff all the time and then it just sizzles out. There were the three (or five) restaurants that were supposed to go in a couple adjacent warehouses that never seemed to happened. Then we read about Stanley's Sausages that was going to move their operation to the warehouse district and a also open a restaurant and that has fallen off the radar too.

When, I have been to Lolo's, they said it is going where the original is located. There is a building attached to it. LOVE LOLOS!!!!!!!!

That would make sense. This is the PHX Business Journal after all, not a source known for actually knowing where "Downtown" is. While I love LoLos another location in the actual Downtown would probably be too close to their original location to work.

The Low Down on the SE Corner of McDowell and 7th Avenue
by Taz Loomans

When driving by the new redevelopment on the SE corner of McDowell and 7th Avenue, you might do a double take and ask yourself whether you are in the suburbs or in the heart of Phoenix. That’s because the facade of the building, with it’s flat stucco texture, pastel colors, cookie cutter metal decorations, and worst of all, the brick veneer is a style more found in the suburbs, where cutting edge architecture is not as easily swallowed as in urban areas.

Many people, including those who live in Willo and the Central Phoenix community at large, are upset at this suburban (less risky, vanilla, and plain mediocre) attempt on this beloved, historic and important corner of Phoenix. Judging from their reactions, here in Central Phoenix, people demand a little more sense of place, a certain funkiness, some pushing of the envelope and certainly an acknowledgement of history.

A good example is just across the street – the Pei Wei/Starbucks/Side Bar building. It has stucco on parts of it, but yet it very much embraces its historic character. The corrugated metal details on the exterior also help make it fit into the urban context and create a new identity.

....

http://www.fireflyliving.com/wp-cont.../photo-314.jpg
The current street view of the SE corner complex. Photo by the author.

http://www.fireflyliving.com/wp-cont...endering-1.jpg
Rendering of the vision for the SE corner complex. Image courtesy of Niels Kriepke. [what might have been]

read here:
http://www.fireflyliving.com/uncateg...nd-7th-avenue/

The developers should be grilled over this. It's fucking tragic how they did this, and I hope the neighborhood leaders write letter after letter to the developer, describing exactly how much they bastardized the corner.

I'm really blown away that Hayes had anything to do with this. He and I have met a few times at the local bike shop that we both shop in, and he has told me about a few of his projects, and I'm finding it hard to believe that he was given free reign on this building, or there is something we don't know.

If you read the article, it explains why they did what they did..but as it also says, even with the challenges, they could still have made a better effort to make it look more urban.

I missed part of it due to attention span.

I Very interesting article. I agree that its much better than what we had but it could be better.

I'm not sure what anybody really expected, but it doesn't appear to be that bad. It would be one thing if some grandiose building was demo'd for this development.

it looks like something that belongs in the midwest in one of those new master planned faux urban developments.

looks like appropriate phoenix architecture to me

"Me and Jenny goes together like peas and carrots" (Forrest Gump)
 

I want to see more sizzle in the urban core. That will more likely foster the kind of infill that you envision at a quality level that you desire.

I want more high rises, or mid-rises with nice set-backs, especially office buildings. In spite of the way Phoenix has built out, I'm convinced that going forward downtown can and will become the financial/business center.

Kudos to Mayor Gordon as he helped push through a delightful combination of improvements downtown over the last decade. I know it has been a struggle in the past, but the urban core is at a
pivot point and poised to become more attractive to a wide range of business interests that will see downtown as their preferred option.

We just need a little time to absorb some of the existing vacancy and some refreshed energy in the local economy.

I expect downtown to become the "A" place for "A" space.

I'll have to check it out in person. Always hard to get the real feel from a picture.

I have mixed feelings. It certainly could have been done better, but watching the construction it did not strike me as having much to recommend it, no brickwork hidden behind the facade, no interesting beams, etc. It appears to have been a crappy building to start out with. At least we are getting some restaurants that don't close at 2 pm and it appears to have encouraged the folks across the street (who have a much more interesting building and appear as though they might be doing the right thing with it) to go ahead with their development efforts.

Speaking of that center, I was trolling around city of Phoenix website liquor license requests and there is a request by: How Do You Roll? I'm guessing it's a sushi place. Not sure of it's petigree, but an independent place for a change.

Good catch. It is a sushi chain out of Austin, Texas. Their website lists this as a "Rollin' Soon" location. They appear to be expanding rapidly into AZ, CA and FL.

Whoa that's weird. Just this past Sunday I was at Sakana with my wife and some friends and we were talking about how cool it would be if there was a sushi place where you could choose your own ingredients...and now there it is! I hope they have good hours (and good quality), I can see visiting this place quite often.

Upload issues.

Calabria is closing its doors at 7th St and Virginia while the Phoenix Cheesesteak company takes its place.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bel...chen_close.php

This leads to the following statement: The 7th Street food/bar scene through the Coronado neighborhood continues to grow organically and is really awesome. ;)

But seriously, from approximately Palm to Virginia (btwn McDowell and Thomas), 7th Street is really taking off. There have been several new restaurants open up, most in unique little houses, and all of them are non-chains with basically local people putting up their money. We should be supporting these establishments. I expect there will be additional establishments going into the other houses and such along this stretch.

From South to North (see map below):

1. Green/Nami: Vegan Restaurant = Green. Vegan Coffee, pastry, soy-gurt = Nami. This place is newly opened and beautifully renovated, taking the place of the old That's a Wrap and the old house next door. Good vegan food (per my vegan sis-in-law) and their Tsoynamis are delicous at Nami (try the s'mores one). Unique feature = the Green building was an old neighborhood grocer... I always thought it was just a house, but the downstairs was a small store and the tiny upstairs was where a family lived.

2. Coco's: Blech, not sure why people would go here over anywhere else on 7th St.

3. America's Taco Shop: The original one. Good eats for a weekend afternoon. Good beans and guac and $2 Pacificos (all the time I think?). Nice patio.

4. Coronado Cafe: One of the first, more sit-downy-type lunch and dinner faire. Effing delicious chocolate chip cookie.

5. Rice Paper: New Vietnamese restaurant and bar. Spring rolls up the wazoo and they are good. A bit over priced, but a really nicely renovated old house and cool place to have drinks.

5b. La Piccola Cucina: Not sure the deal with this place. Haven't been since they opened, but they have a gelato bar and lunch/dinner/wine.

6. McAlpine's: Old fashioned soda fountain, coffee, lunch and dinner. Cool little place taking up an old '20s or '30s Pharmacy. Not the greatest food (burgers, sandwiches) but fun and unique place (where else is an "original" soda shop in phoenix?). Surrounded by vintage/antique stores. If the owners had money they should renovate the place a bit better and restore the brick facade of the building.

7. Perc Up: New Breakfast/lunch/coffee place. Really nice people and delicioso food. I had a SW breakfast burrito with homemade salsa and it was awesome. Their fresh fruit that comes with stuff is literally freshly cut good fruit, not the shitty "fresh fruit" you are used to.

8. Humble Pie: Same place that they have up in Scottsdale (and/or Desert Ridge?)... but I like the pizza a lot. Good drink specials and a cool hang out place.

9. The Main Ingredient: Great bar and the best patio in the area. 1/2 priced pints every day during happy hour.

10. New India Bazaar and Chaat Cafe. Haven't been here but have been meaning to. Apparently the little food items you can get at the counter/cafe are good. Mostly a grocery.

11. Virginia Market: Nice people, regular liquor and convenience store, but they have a really good beer and wine selection as well as quickly made pizza slices/sandwiches/chicken/etc in a small counter/cafe.

12. The new Phoenix Cheesesteak Company: To open soon.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../7thStreet.jpg

yup, coronado has become a really neat neighborhood, and with willo/palmcroft, midtown, and Madison Park taking off, Phoenix more and more is getting unique neighborhoods.

Sad about Calabria, though I can't say I'm surprised. That dude just sat there watching TV all the time and rarely had customers.

I used to go to the original Gold Spot location regularly (the one that is now Lola Downtown), but I never made it to 7th Street. Any idea why they moved?

/\probably much cheaper rent on 7th street, and they still couldn't make it.

That location on 7th street is relatively nondescript, it will be interesting to see if the Phoenix cheesesteak place will be able to sustain customers and survive.

I'm not entirely sure, but I'd assume that the rent at the Gold Spot building was too high. I enjoyed the sandwiches, but those people are terrible at marketing. Nobody knew they had reopened at a new location after closing the first location. Seems to me that if you had some amount of clientele at the first place, you would try to go out of your way to tell them where you moved to. That didn't really seem to happen. The new location also had a pretty shitty parking situation, which I am sure contributed to the failure there. There were about 3 parking spots in front and a small lot (maybe 6 spaces) in back. Probably sufficient for most times, but they were open for about 6 months before putting up a sign indicating that there was parking in the back.

This is the first that I had heard that they went someplace else after Gold Spot. I wasn't all that impressed with the place anyway. I had hoped that it would be more of a real Italian market than a place to get sandwiches and such.

All I can claim so far and enjoyed both.
I have someone who I've promised to take to the area (cause I like). :D

I tried to buy some meats/cheeses there once and the guy told me he could order anything I wanted. I was like, um, but I want to take it home now. He also didn't have any advertised prices on things, and it seemed like he made them up on the spot.

I found an interesting item for a City of Phoenix zoning adjustment meeting on 12/1. The rectangle parcel on the SWC of Central & Camelback had an office project proposed that was really out of scale for the area and area residents went nutzo. Seems as though they are pursuing a hotel now to be put on the corner and the link shows the stipulations the developer wants the city to approve. Seems pretty early on in the process, but an urban hotel right where the light rail has a major platform would be friggin' cool.

http://phoenix.gov/PUBMEETC/1034.html

Scroll down to Item 12

Isn't the parcel more a triangle than a rectangle?

Sorry, meant triangle.

I always get those mixed up!:shrug:

Whoa...

"possible" "looking".... it's fun to dream, isn't it!?

For some reason your link no longer works, it links you to a retirement party announcement. Here is where it's been moved to:

http://www.phoenix.gov/PUBMEETC/1037.html

Just in case it gets moved again, here are the meeting notes with my comments:

This is probably an academic discussion anyway because it will likely never get built, or it will get built as a cookie cutter holiday inn express.

More offices and less surface parking, lets get it done.

I didn't see any specifics. The article just stopped. Is there anything here height -wise or real intent or is it just a fishing expedition. Sure would be awesome!

Can someone post up the height limit map for downtown phoenix again? ;) Just for shits and giggles.

Now seems like a good time to build something as far as costs go. Seems like downtown Phoenix office is pretty strong. And maybe, just maybe, some behind-the-scenes negotiation for a new DT headquarters is going on. I mean, there has to be some reason the guy that owns the land is now thinking about building.

And we can all dream, right?

http://emvis.net/~sean/ssp/downtownheightzonemap1.jpg

Remember to subtract about 1086' from these values to get the actual building height limits. Seems like they can go to about 540' on the site.

A 540' building with modern office-size floorplates would be incredible for that site. So much density...

Looks lik the potential project is in the very early stages...getting ready to hire a leasing broker to look for potential tenants.

74 downtown Phoenix condos purchased
Max Jarman The Arizona Republic

A California real-estate investment group has purchased 74 unsold condominium units in the high-profile Summit at Copper Square project in downtown Phoenix for $12.7 million.

That works out to about $171,000 each for the units that initially were listed for between $300,000 and $1.2 million.

Still, Hadden Schifman, whose Scottsdale firm Vizzda tracks the commercial real- estate market in metro Phoenix, called the sales price "fairly strong." He noted that some documents pegged the liquidation value of the unsold units at $7.3 million.

Documents show that Howard Wu and Taylor Woods, both principals in Urban Commons LLC of Los Angeles, purchased the units from Scottsdale's Stearns Bank. Stearns foreclosed in July on an original $64 million note secured by the property.

Norm Skalicky, CEO of Stearns Bank, called the sale a "win-win" for both parties.

"The buyers got a great deal, and we were happy with the price," he said

The buyers did not return calls seeking comment on their plans for the property.

The 23-story, multicolored high-rise development, just west of Chase Field, was completed in 2006 at an estimated cost of about $65 million.

When completed, the tower at 310 S. Fourth St.was hailed as a major milestone in the redevelopment of downtown Phoenix as a residential hub.

W Developments LLC sold 91 of the 900- to 1,500-square-foot units at an average price of $415 per square foot before the housing market collapsed in 2008.

After that, sales dried up and the project was beset with lawsuits over unpaid bills. In late 2009, W Developments filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an attempt to avert the Stearns foreclosure action.

W Developments was unable to put together a Chapter 11 reorganization plan acceptable to creditors. Stearns eventually took back the property.

The original lender was First National Bank of Nevada, which was declared insolvent and closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2008. Records show Stearns purchased the note for an estimated $6.4 million.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/re...purchased.html

That parcel bounded by Monroe, VB, 2nd and 3rd Avenues is a really key parcel in my estimation, I'm glad its early and going slow because we really need to make sure that lot is developed right (for a change). Portions of that lot could be built as high as 564', a good 81' higher than our current tallest. That stretch of VB is also set aside in the new Downtown Code to be the place for department and other box type stores.

The article is right to note that PHX isn't attracting new HQs, regional or otherwise and companies have just been bouncing from tower to tower within the City. If the Resolution Copper Mine happens I'd love to see Stanton & the City aggressively pursue a regional/US mining HQ for PHX, that lot would be a good fit. The empty lot nature of the parcel currently also means it would potentially be easy to put a big anchor type department or box store fronting VB and making for nice ground floor retail-- I'd be thrilled with Kohls, JC Penny, a real grocery store, etc.

On another note, looking at the height map, it looks like 614' is the tallest a building could currently built in Downtown. For reference, thats the same height as the Boston Federal Reserve Bank building . The VB/Monroe/2nd Ave/3rd Ave lot at 564 could be the same height as One Market Plaza in SF, or the Four Seasons in Denver

EDIT: Good to hear something is going on at Summit too. Hopefully that can get switched to apartments, that seems to be the one strong market segment for Central PHX.

Yes, and Summit location is great for DT businesses access.

The first proposer of a 400+ tower on this lot was Steve Ellman; yes, the former Coyotes owner and destroyer of Los Arcos (though it was an ugly mall so no hard feelings).

A nice, tall, urban hotel with direct access to the LR platform would be marvelous and a huge step for the Central Ave corridor.

If it takes them a year to play with the idea, get an idea of potential tenant interest, then another 18 months to design and permit, and then two years to build the 65 story beauty,
it will be four to five years before it's done.

In the mean time VJ, you'll have plenty of time for Wishing and Hoping. .... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-MVAzdUK4
Or if you prefer the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycbgHM1mI0k

I've been sayin'.

assuming they can find anyone interested in occupying a building.

Honestly, it does seem a wee bit premature. It could be that they would build it on spec. if they feel the interest would come and have the horsepower to do it?
Likely they would need at least one decent tenant(s) for a minimum 250,000 square feet, especially if they do build 65 stories as rumored. Just guessing, though.

Where is this '65 stories as rumored' you speak of? You realize that a 65 floor OFFICE building using current LEED standards for floor-to-floor is like 1100ft tall right? Not something you'll ever see in downtown Phoenix.

There is no indication that this will open in downtown but seems like it would be a good fit...maybe at Cityscape or Luhrs?

Phoenix corridor showing signs of growth
Phoenix Business Journal by Jan Buchholz, Reporter
Date: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 6:53am MST - Last Modified: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 9:29am MST

If Washington, Jefferson and Van Buren streets between downtown and 44th Street aren’t typically on your radar screen, you might not know all of the activity taking place along that portion of the light rail corridor.
There are a multitude of projects in the works dominated in large part by the $1.5 billion PHX Sky Train under construction at 44th and Washington streets. The elevated train and loading platform — which looks like a scene out of “The Jetsons” cartoon — is coming along in spectacular fashion, even though completion of the first phase won’t be until 2013. That’s when travelers will be able to ride the Sky Train from the light rail stop to the East Economy Parking lot and Terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. By 2015, the Sky Train will be built to Terminal 3.
But there’s a lot more going on, as I discovered during a field trip I took last week with Don Keuth, CEO of the Discovery Triangle Development Corp. That nonprofit organization was created to promote investment, development and diversity in a triangular area the includes Phoenix Sky Harbor and is defined by a line that stretches from downtown Phoenix to downtown Tempe to Papago Park and back to downtown Phoenix.
Down the street from the PHX Sky Train at 44th and Van Buren streets, DPR Construction transformed a former sex boutique into a 16,000-square-foot regional headquarters. The company invested in the neighborhood of $3 million to create a sustainable development that employs a variety of “green” strategies for cooling the building and drawing in natural light.
At 40th and Washington Streets, the Animal Welfare League is building a $3 million addition to its shelter. Across the street to the west, Gateway Community College has two significant projects under construction. One is the $53 million Integrated Education Building. The three-story, 120,000-square-foot space will include classrooms, art studios, community career center, science labs, a student and community library, a computer commons, performance space and staff offices. The second is the $6 million Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation, a business incubator that will be home to early stage start-up companies.
The UMOM New Day Center, at 3333 E. Van Buren St., provides housing and support for homeless and low-income families, and recently completed its addition to the attractive Legacy Cross apartment community. It took the place of a rundown motel that was razed for the new multifamily project.
At 30th and Washington streets, Phoenix Ale Brewery LLC recently started operations in a 15,700-square-foot warehouse.
A little further west, Ballet Arizona has purchased the former Walsh Brothers warehouse at 2835 E. Washington St. to house the dance troupe and its administrative offices. Several million dollars will be invested in renovations.
The Salvation Army is building its divisional headquarters to the tune of $15.5 million at 27th and Van Buren streets.
At 12th Street between Washington and Jefferson streets, Mike Lafferty, a local developer and solar power entrepreneur, is moving forward on his plans to build a multifamily project.
At Central Avenue and Jefferson Streets, the Bannister Place Building soon will be undergoing renovations and will be the headquarters of the Institute for Advanced Health.
In between those points small businesses are remodeling buildings and calling the East Washington Street area home, including Aspire Marketing, Imcor and CCRD Partners.
The area is generating an increasingly cool vibe. You may want to discover that for yourself.