I'm not a fan of Sam Fox restaurants either, they're slightly above average food and service with WAY above average prices. You know what? people as a whole love them and they bring instant activity into any location they open. It would be a sign that downtown phoenix has moved on to the next step.

I welcome that.

Potential Uses
 

Seems to me that DeSoto might be a prime place to put Coworking space or event spaces. As downtown fills in, there will be an increasing need for flexible, configurable spaces that don't live in hotels.

Why would I support mediocrity with a good pr campaign? I challenge you to name anything that he does better than any other restaurant around town other than draw a crowd. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that that's a skill. And he excels at it. But a space that unique is not being utilized to it's potential as any kind of Sam Fox Restaurant.

You can thank a lot of people for Central Phoenix's gentrification but generally, by he time Sam Fox is there, it's already pretty well on it's way. Any location that you can think of for Fox, I can more popular restaurant who did it better and more popular first. In central Phoenix you can thank places like LGO, Crudo, Beckett's Table, etc. I'm assuming that is the area you were talking about since Fox doesn't really have any restaurants in Central Phoenix but loves Biltmore, Arcadia, and "Arcadia Lite".

Yes becasue those are improving areas and not Kierland or the Price corridor.

You can think what you want but a sam fox restauraunt downtown would be great becasue its a big name local guy stamping his seal on the neighborhood.

This is exactly the truth. Put your own bias aside, here. It doesn't matter your own opinion of the food at a Fox restaurant.

Too many people out there who were/are in favor of preserving the Roosevelt area as it was post-millennium . . . I never understood their point of view to be honest as a lot of those areas have been total shitholes before gentrification began . . . .

It has always baffled me the people out there on nextdoor etc against all the apartment development in the area for example, falsely referring to them as "condos" etc

clueless

Probably premature at this point, but given that the Link is actually under construction and news has been slow lately: the same owners building the Link submitted their first Pre-Application plan review today for the neighboring parcel at 4th St./Pierce. If you remember, the initial news indicated there were 3 planned towers. No information in the publicly available documents, but good to see they at least appear to be moving forward with the other towers.

https://i.imgur.com/TRdF172h.png

Original plans (https://www.shepleybulfinch.com/proj...ures-the-link/) indicated three towers ranging from 19 to 32 stories, and the original rendering indicates that this would likely be the 19 story tower. But things obviously may have changed.

Yes this would be the the 19 story tower, it will be awesome if this whole 3 tower project gets built

This is awesome! I speculated a week ago that we might see this soon. They are moving so quick and were so quick to get The Link going I figured they’d start the second tower almost immediately after they get the first in the air.

I just wish we’d see some movement now on the towers for The Arizona Center and One CPE.

They are making me nervous. But I think the Hotel at least will move once the rennovations of the mall portion are coplete And I think Kinnect will be completed.

The rest:shrug: we'll see

THIS is what we need more of
 

Great writeup in the New Times about a Grand Avenue collaboration between developer, artists, government, and veterans.

New Creative Space the Armory Opens in Grand Avenue District
LYNN TRIMBLE | AUGUST 21, 2018 | 6:00AM

There’s a new creative space coming together in the Grand Avenue arts and historic district. It’s a multiuse adaptive-reuse project located at 1614 West Roosevelt Street, which is the site of a former National Guard armory.

Jay Visconti is transforming the 1950s building into a space for artists and other creatives and calling it the Armory. Visconti is the head of Northwood Properties, based in Torrance, California. He’s also principal for Arizona-based Armory Partners, incorporated in August 2016.

“I looked at the building about four years ago, but passed on it because I really couldn’t see the vision,” Visconti says. “But then I began to understand how artists were being displaced by new developments and construction, and I saw the need for this for people.”

The property actually comprises a full city block – between West Roosevelt and Linden streets, as well as 16th and 17th avenues. It’s being developed in a couple of phases, starting with the existing building.

There’s a central area at the former armory, with rooms of various sizes branching off corridors that run in two directions from the center space. They’re intended as artist studios and creative office spaces.

We spotted this layout during a recent visit to the Armory.EXPAND
We spotted this layout during a recent visit to the Armory.Lynn Trimble
But the building also has common areas, including a large kitchen and lounge area, and a central foyer that can accommodate a small band, and a simple food spread for things like exhibition openings. There’s no elevator, so people have to take the stairs to get to second-floor spaces.

So far, two tenants have moved in. The first was a company called Spectacle, which creates experiential marketing campaigns for music festivals, sporting events, trade shows, and other gatherings such as Austin’s annual South by Southwest. It’s a subsidiary of Union Digital, which is headed by Pat and Mike Murray.

Fellow creatives like Jeremy Watson, vice president of Walter Productions, know them as “the maker twins.” The Murrays designed one of Walter Productions' art cars, a conical pyramid-shaped sculpture called Mona Lisa, which shoots giant flames into the air.

The brothers moved into the former armory, where they’ve got a five-year lease, in January. They’ve got a team of about a dozen fellow creatives working on various projects inside their 15,000-square-foot shop, which is located in one of two rooms where armory personnel once stored ammunition.

Jason Hugger has one of the artist studios inside the Armory.EXPAND
Jason Hugger has one of the artist studios inside the Armory.Lynn Trimble
Just last week, Glendale-based artist Jason Hugger moved into one of the studio spaces, where he plans to paint as well as show his work. “It’s about twice the space I had for painting at home,” he says. He’s paying $400 a month. Other spaces range from $300 to $850 a month, Visconti says.

Being at the armory building has special meaning for the artist, and his wife, Cathryn Hugger. “This is such a great place to be, because Jason is a veteran,” she says. He’s already settled in, and looking forward to more creatives coming on board. Come November, he’ll be showing his work at another Grand Avenue art space called Sisao Gallery, in an exhibit featuring Carmody Foundation grant winners.

The second phase of developing the Armory will include new construction, assuming Visconti gets the city permits he needs to make it happen. He’s planning to build 40,000 square feet of artist live/work space with about 12 to 15 units. Each creative would have an 800- to 1,000-square-foot maker space on the first floor, and a living space on the second floor above it. That's slated to go on the southwest perimeter of the property, and he'd like to break ground in 18 months.

For now, the focus is finding more creatives for the existing building.

“There’s some real momentum around Grand Avenue,” Visconti says. “People are really taking pride in what’s happening here.”

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts...trict-10734423

Does anyone know if the condos originally planned for development at the Colliers Center in downtown Phoenix are still a go or if they are on hold with the arts/entertainment district part of the proposal?

Asking because I will likely be in the market in the coming years and all I see currently being developed in the area are apartments!

The old building that caught on fire on 6th Ave & Van Buren was demolished the other day. Any news on when construction on the proposed apartment complex begins?

No new news or recent permits on the Colliers development. I am not confident on this one myself. But we'll see.

May as well update some of the other developments:

Ro2 Tower: No new permits since 6/20

AC Hotel: Street light review completed on 8/13. So this one is slowly moving.

Palm Court: No new permits since June.

Kenect: CCPH-1800280 issued on 8/09 (not sure what this permit is for) and also LSIS-1805187 filed on 8/16 which is a plant salvage permit.

Derby: Absolutely nothing.

201 W Van Buren: DSAP-18168 filed on 8/17 which looks to be a non-encroachment over sewer appeal.

The Fillmore: CPSE-1805052 completed on 8/13 which is the development sewer plan review.

Evans-Churchill (Cloud 9) Mixed Use Tower: Nothing new since 4/12.

Thanks for the rundown--very helpful summary.

Thanks for the update and your thoughts. I would be bummed if this didn't go through. Am I wrong in my assessment that the only "true" condo highrise in Downtown Phoenix right now is Summit at Copper Square?

Fast-growing restaurant group moves HQ to iconic midtown Phoenix building
 

Some life to Midtown and Upward Projects moving into Phoenix Financial Center rotunda...

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...-building.html

Im pretty much banking on midtown gentrification for the next several years.

Maybe I made a bad choice

Speaking of Midtown, anyone know the status of the Crescent project at 3rd/Earll? Last I heard I think they were demo'ing the SFHs. Have they started building?

It is currently just fenced off with a big chase advertisement but the houses are dmod, Alta Central is almost done at least externally and Cnetral/columbus is just moving dirt around.

Sprouts is opponed as of today I think, and the Apartments next door are about as far along as Alta Central. There is a small project right at 5th ave and Osborn that is now being painted, hopefully the 1st floor glass fronts will be retail and not just a Gym.

The Title Building looks like its about 1 or 2 floors from topping out and The Small office building across the street is for sale, hopefully somebody buys it and redevelops it.

Park Central Mall is really undergoing heavy work, im interestd to see how it looks in the end.