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Cartel Coffee is Expanding to Downtown Phoenix
By Michele Laudig in Chow Bella
Fri., Nov. 6 2009 @ 4:24PM
cartelwall.jpg

It's a coffee Renaissance in downtown.

Just got the lowdown from the guys at Tempe's Cartel Coffee Lab that they're opening a second location in the heart of Downtown, at 1st Street and Washington (right across the street from the new CityScape development). The timing is hazy, because they have some construction to do to get the space ready, but hopefully they'll set up shop by the end of the year.

Cartel joins an ever-growing roster of hip coffee hangouts in the area -- two Royal Coffee Bars, two Fair Trade Cafes, Conspire, the soon-to-open Giant Coffee, and the also soon-to-open second location of Lola Coffee.

People, we are gonna be wired for the 21st Century.

Awesome, love Cartel and their cafe excellentes.

Hopefully they take up a big empty lot and attach a huge garage door like they have in their tempe location. I do not know the downtown coffee situation, but hopefully this connects the roosevelt crowd and brings some much needed foot/bike traffic between the two areas.

What big empty lots do you know of at 1st and washington?

I think he means the parking lot. but i highly doubt it's going to be there. I was thinking more towards First Watch and BK or at the ground floor of Phelps Dodge.

Nyny deli was an epic fail wasn't it?

About the U of P downtown location idea...they could easily rent space at OCPE. I was thinking that ASU could locate offices and classrooms there as well if they need to expand further.

Suffolk University in Boston has classrooms in a highrise on the 28th floor, ASU could do the same (or U of P).

I am a current ASU student living in Tempe, and have been part of this forum for awhile. I know there are a lot of great places, specifically affordable studios, to rent in downtown phoenix. The only problem is a lot of these places aren't advertised on the internet. I was wondering if I could have some ideas for some affordable studios in the downtown area? Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog (Post 4548816)

If I remember correctly, ASU was part of the original plan for the building. It was going to be the tallest in the state. I don't remember if they were talking about putting classrooms/offices or dorms into it. But they pulled out to do their own thing, i guess it was to expensive for them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wissundevil06 (Post 4548855)

Check out the Casitas on 5th Ave & Roosevelt. Lots of hot ASU girls live there plus it's a short walk to the campus & the LRT.

I think they are represented through Downtown Phoenix Rentals or something like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog (Post 4548816)

Yah I was thinking the Phelps Dodge tower would be a good place for a downtown UofP campus actually. Since Freeport McMoran is going over to OCPE and the Dodge tower is going to be somewhat empty now. Either way, its just a silly idea that'll never exist outside my brain sadly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo the Dog (Post 4548816)

Good Thought, it is a crying shame that the Apollo group who built their high rise in South Phoenix off of I10 couldn have moved in or built downtown.
Where the helll are the planners and the mayor in deals like this? They should be pitching people and yes if possible giving incentives on building downtown. (i.e. the new music instrument museum at 110 and Tatum or 56th whatever, should have been built near the Phoenix Art Museum and Heard Museum to create snynergy.)

Plaza revamp at Chase Tower--

So, I emailed David Noble at the Downtown Phoenix Partnership over the weekend in regard to Chase Tower's outdoor plaza. He didn't have many additional details to report, but did forward these photos of the renovation plans that are currently being displayed in the building's lobby. Gives a somewhat better idea of the project's scope:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...bydisplay2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...bydisplay3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...bydisplay1.jpg

No information appears to be on the landscape design firm's website yet: http://www.floorassociates.com/site/...ssociates.html

Nice find OLIVEURBAN!!!!!!!!! The plans look very nice, like they will be making a desert oasis. I wonder if they will include any water features. Right now it was just a lot of cement with trees stuck in. The plans look like some well thought out pavers, lights, and desert plants with some nice color.

I stopped by tonight and phase 1 is all cleared and they have the black tar paper down. Looks like they are close to putting the pavers in.

I sure hope they do something to make those huge planters look attractive, rather than just big cement basins. Stain them or cover them, but do something with them.

Very good find on the Chase Tower stuff. Id like the moat to be done away with and maybe some retail wringing a courtyard but Ill take what looks to be an improved public space.

In other news...
http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...oenix1110.html

Quote:

Phoenix makes it easy to go solar at home
1,000 APS customers can lease panels with no up-front costs
3 comments by Ryan Randazzo - Nov. 10, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
A new program will allow about 1,000 Arizona Public Service Co. customers in Phoenix, including many low-income families, to put solar panels on their homes and cut their power bills without paying anything up front.

The city-supported program called Solar Phoenix will help residents take advantage of the sun with leases financed by National Bank of Arizona.

"One of the barriers for residential solar power is the up-front cost and whether people of all income levels can afford that cost," Mayor Phil Gordon said. "We wanted to figure out a way for blue-collar people to use the sun to help the environment and use their own money for things that are more useful in their lives, like food and clothing."

Similar municipal-financing methods have taken off around the country since Berkeley, Calif., announced a city-backed solar program last year, but the Phoenix project is much larger and in a class of its own because of its financing structure.

The program works like this:

• People who want solar panels on their homes will contact SolarCity Corp. of California, which has been offering solar leases in Arizona since April 2008.

• Applicants will be evaluated based on their credit-worthiness, not their income level.

• Qualified applicants will have systems installed on their homes, with no money down. They will pay a monthly lease, based on the size of the system installed.

• SolarCity will guarantee the panels' annual energy production for the 15-year lease.

"At the end of the year, if the system doesn't generate the power we estimated, we are settling up with cash," SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive said.

Customers still will get power from APS at night and when they are using more energy than the panels generate.

Solar-panel systems for an average house can cost $30,000 to $70,000, which can take several years to recover through lower energy bills.

SolarCity guarantees only the amount of power the panels will make, not the amount of money customers will save. However, they say customers' new utility bills plus lease payments should add up to 10-15 percent less than their old utility bills.

Besides the financial benefits, the program will save customers the "brain damage" of dealing with utility, federal and state rebates, because that will all be handled on the back end of the deal by the bank and SolarCity, Rive said.

National Bank of Arizona is spending $25 million to buy the systems from SolarCity and lease them to homeowners, and the Phoenix Industrial Development Authority is putting up $250,000 to protect the bank from people who default on their leases.

Executives at National Bank will collect the APS rebates and 30 percent federal tax credit on the systems.

They expect to recover their $25 million investment within six to seven years through those incentives and by collecting monthly lease payments from participants, bank Executive Vice President Craig Robb said.

"The program has economic viability in addition to being environmentally sound," Robb said.

The bank is reserving $5 million of its investment for low-income customers.

At the end of the lease, customers will have the options of buying their system, extending the lease, upgrading or simply ending their relationship with SolarCity. The leases also can be transferred to new buyers if the home is sold.

Gordon persuaded the city's Industrial Development Authority to put up money to cover defaults and avoid risking any of the city's operating funds.

The development authority also recently lent $250,000 to the new Downtown Phoenix Public Market.

"Solar is another example where we had money in the bank and we could set it aside to help an important project," said Don Keuth, president of the authority's board.

"We think it is a pretty safe bet right now," he said. "Given the market these days, everybody is so cautious. But it wasn't hard for us to do. It just made the right sense."

Last year, Berkeley provided loans for homeowners to install solar-power systems, which homeowners pay back through property taxes. The Berkeley pilot program has 38 participants.

The mayor of Austin announced a program in October called "Energize Austin" that could provide loans to residents also to be paid back through property taxes.

Gordon said the plan in Phoenix is good for the city because rather than have the city issue bonds to cover the costs, National Bank is providing the money and will profit, minimizing the city's risk to the $250,000 provided by the Industrial Development Authority in case of defaults.

"We don't have to worry about it," Gordon said. "We've got the private sector doing it."

The plan also should create economic activity and, importantly, jobs, he said.

Gordon said he talked with officials at Salt River Project, which splits electrical service in the Valley with APS, and said the utility one day may participate as well.

I havent done the math on this not being a homeowner but it sounds good. Anything that gets us more on the Solar boat is probably a good idea. But whats with the City of Phoenix teaming with a California based company for this? Are there really no firms in Phx or at least AZ that could've done this? If so its another example of how Arizona's already fallen woefully behind in the Solar industry and we really need to catch up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HooverDam (Post 4550411)

I think we are probably still the best city in all of the world in terms of solar power. First Solar is probably the biggest player in the world in solar power and they are located in Tempe.

The problem with these guys is why should they fool around with small single family homes when you can go after countries (China).

I'm a little confused as to how they got $30-70k for installation costs. WOW is that expensive.

I'd actually prefer to see this type of subsidy go for solar hot water and pool heating first...because the efficiency of such a system is much greater (and needs less panels) than something that's probably only going to generate 15-25% of your electricity anyway.

I took a nice little Phoenix adventure today since I'm in town. Started out at Ted's Hotdogs in Tempe, yummmmm. Got on the light rail at the 101/Apache park and ride. The ticket machine was really easy to use and fast... worked just like and ATM. Waited about 5 min for a train and got on.
The train ride was good. We never really stopped at a light, just slowed down for the light to changed. The notifications worked at every station. There was quite a bit of people on the train (I got on around noon). Lots of ASU students use the train and it's good for eye candy. Had a stinky guy get on and sit behind me at one of the washington st stations. Had a transit cop get on and check everyone's tickets in downtown.
Got off at Van Buren and strolled around. The park turned out nice and they are overseeding the grass with Rye... it's looking good. A lot has changed since the last time I was downtown a year ago. I stopped off in the AZ Center for my first time. Bought some stuff to take back to OKC with me. Took a stroll down Taylor St and saw tons of ASU chickies walking by halfway clothed.... very nice. No pictures because I can't find my charger for my camera :(
Took the light rail back without any problems and sped back to Chandler to beat rush hour traffic.

Why can't we as a state mandate that every new home and apartment be installed with at least one or two solar panels at the time of construction? The incremental cost at the time of development would be much less than the cost to retrofit after the fact.

By the way, a friend of mine who lives in Laveen installed 21 solar panels on top of his 3,500 square foot house, which has large sections of flat roof (Territorial style) two years ago. They were about $40,000 total, and rebates cut that cost in half. He now pays no electric bill in the fall, winter and spring, and only pays about $50 to $100 per month in the summer, when his AC usage exceeds the amount of energy generated by the panels. His electric bill before the installation was about $100 per month in the winter and $300 per month in the summer. He estimates that he will recoup his $20k investment in about 10 years total (8 years since he has had this system for 2 years), after that it is pure profit for him in terms of reducing his electric bill.

--don

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don B. (Post 4551625)

how do you propose the electricity company makes money if everyone is on solar?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don B. (Post 4551625)

I think thats coming but in this economy its a tough sell to say "hey we're going to make the initial cost of construction even higher." We talked briefly about it at the General Plan Visioning thing last night and of course the people there were for something like this.

What Id like to see is it phased in on different building types. All new governmental buildings (city, state, county and federal) should have to have solar panels (as well as solar hot water and gray water systems). Next all buildings over a certain size (say anything the side of a large grocery store on up), then apartment/condo complexes and then eventually all new single family homes. Maybe its something you could phase in over the next 10-15 years, but Im not expert so maybe thats too slow or too fast of a time table.

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