It's been like that for months...it's not going anywhere, just your normal sale gimmicks.

I'm amazed Charming Charlie's has survived as long as it has.

The council subcommittee approved (unanimously) $500k investment to build the 20 parking spaces from Hines/Collier Center.

I guess that project could be coming sooner than anticipated! :cheers:

Actually this time they really are done. And not just in downtown Phoenix, but most of their stores (if not all) nationwide.

$500K for 20 parking spaces? Crap.

I am excited by the Hines/Collier project. Another out of nowhere but i think will add much to the area!!!

Please help me understand why this is a positive development. Downtown already has more parking than it needs, and even if Downtown had a parking shortage, 20 spaces would hardly make a dent. The price per space also seems exorbitant, showing just how much money is wasted on overbuilt, underpriced parking. Was this somehow a critical step to make a larger project work? If not, it seems like a questionable decision.

see the post above...related to 21+ story residential tower in Collier Center

Bingo.

Wouldn't go as far as to call it 'critical'. But it's a step forward none-the-less!

This?

"the Developer and the City has identified there is a need for additional public parking in the vicinity, and the developer has agreed to build at least 40 additional parking spaces. The Developer will then sell half of those spaces to the City and these approximately 20 spaces will be under total City ownership, which will assist in bringing new tenants into Downtown Phoenix"

Plenty of surplus capacity exists in all the other garages around the area. I understand that developers sometimes build excess parking capacity due to the demands of their investors and misguided minimum parking regulations, but it's sad to see the city actually paying for more parking to be built in what is supposed to be a walkable urban area served by high-capacity transit.

20 spaces to get a 21 story building. NO BRAINER!!!

I remain unconvinced.

Investment in a revitalization area is a win. Park Central is a small win, but it's a win nonetheless.

I'm with exit2lef. $500k is a huge amount of money. It could plant hundreds of trees, which would do vastly more for downtown than 20 parking spaces. Maybe if we had hundreds of more trees downtown, we'd be getting a 40 story building with no subsidy.

That's not really how it works though, you need people and businesses' downtown that demand the trees. and then it just sort of builds on itself from there.

Everyone needs to calm down downtown is just starting to hit its stride.

AMEN, Obadno.

The City is facing a massive budget shortfall coupled by it's inability to mange it's pension liabilities yet it has money for 20 parking spaces at half a million dollars?

Id rather it spend money on development then on overgenerous pension plans from the 1960's

We are also rapidly approaching the end of a residential building cycle and over-saturation. My concern is spending $500K on parking spaces as a sop to a developer and it may well end up with them not building. It's a very realistic possibility.

Here's the video of the meeting. I'm even more disappointed to learn that these 40 spaces are surface parking, not in a garage, making the price per space even harder to justify. If 40 public spaces are needed, they could easily be added with more on-street parking in the surrounding blocks -- something the city needlessly shies away from in favor of too many travel lanes on Washington and Jefferson.

https://youtu.be/6oi-7BDX1TE?t=3m20s