From The Arizona Republic today
 

Another Track Club update: Cocktails and live music will fill the downtown space after all
Tirion Morris - Arizona Republic

The historic DeSoto Building in downtown Phoenix has been on quite the ride over the last few years. And the space is about to evolve again.

Track Club, an ultra-modern EDM night club opened in the space in October, 2019. Less than one month later, the club abruptly closed.

Track Club was a collaboration between Phoenix developer Charles "Chuckie" Duff, Relentless Beats music promoter Thomas Turner and Rattle and Rum cocktail expert Damon Scott. The team attributed the closure to "personal health issues," Duff wrote in a statement to The Republic in 2019.

In January 2021, former Track Club manager Pat Brocco told The Republic he'd be taking over the space and turning it into a gym by the same name. Brocco created coaching brand Possible Pat after losing more than 300 pounds and sharing his fitness journey with "Ellen," "Good Morning America" and other major media outlets.

This summer, there will be a new twist to the building's story. While Brocco still plans to open his gym, the front portion of the large building will now house Tru Ultra Lounge, a new cocktail bar and music venue.

"The gym is still on track," Brocco says. "But we wanted to provide a really upscale environment for downtown."

Full Article:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/ente...ge/7816464002/

Minor news: Some equipment is on the Moontower site with caution tape between Jackelope and the old Valley Youth Theater building. Looks like demolition of the Theater is coming up soon.

Valleywise is building a second mid-rise tower with construction starting late this year. The second tower will serve as the Support and Services Building and will be 6 floors. An FAA height evaluation has the height listed at 219'. But in reality, should be around 120' if the floor plates are similar to the new hospital tower currently under construction.

FAA Evaluation: https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...86207845&row=0

FAA Crane Evaluation: https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...86163997&row=3

Building Site Plan (smaller building to the left): https://valleywisehealth.org/wp-cont...lan.pdf?x91220

Couple things to post for this week:

The Moontower lot is getting construction fencing up today. Stopped and chatted with someone from JE Dunn construction and he said the plan is to demo the old Valley Youth theater this week and break ground almost immediately within the next 2 weeks. He mentioned they had a lot of setbacks and it was already supposed to have broken ground by now, so they are fast-tracking construction after the setbacks. I expect this to go quickly.

Also to report is 6th and Garfield Streets around Sky are getting blocked off with cones and I saw some constructions guys checking out the lot. So it looks like this may re-start again hopefully soon.

Also, Ida is up to 6 levels of containers and is looking surprisingly tall for a container development with still one more level to go. Took an update pic of Ida with Derby in the background. Derby is nearly topped with 1 more floor to go.


Ida and Derby:
https://i.imgur.com/ohMqaq5.jpg

Great news on Moon tower hopefully a lond awaited ground breaking

https://i.ibb.co/710NbH8/An-elevated...ooking-the.jpg

I gotta say, Phoenix is definitely looking like a new city especially from this angle. Imagine how good Astra is going to look in our skyline when it's finished.

https://kjzz.org/content/1700908/pho...e-vacant-oct-1

I think we all knew Chase Tower was in the process of vacating, by Oct
1st this will be a reality. A quick blurb hints that plans are underway for the tower’s future but nothing is certain at this time.

Demo work has started on the Moon Tower lot.

Just looked at this one. 357 units seems like a pretty huge number. Is there anything else even approaching 300 in the neighborhood?

It's student housing as a reminder. But Skyline Lofts (Alta Phoenix) is 332 units. Roosevelt Point is 336 units.

Thanks for the reminder. Those always help me remember things I never knew to begin with.

Anyone want to speculate on what are the plans? Hotel/residential conversion?

I kind of like the building, flaws and all, and hate to see it rot away unused but maybe its time to cut losses?

I would be surprised if residential because the floor heights are so short, I could see someone redeveloping with hotel and office.

I’m going to go with Hotel too.

Whatever is put in, I hope they at least have the foresight to raise the sunken plaza or knock down the fortress walls.

I’m with Combusean on this one. Knock the tower down, along with the parking garage across the street , break up the two city blocks and start from scratch.

Then it'll be two giant surface parking lots for 20+ years....

What does NYC do with buildings like Chase that were built in the same era to the same specs? I don't think they tear down larger towers on a regular basis...

Fun fact: If Chase Tower were demoed, it would become the 10th tallest building in the world to be voluntarily deconstructed. Assuming our trusty Wikipedia source is up to date.

I was driving down central and the Urban Farm across from Indian School Park is being leveled.


Any idea what's going to happen with this land?

Wasn't that big project scheduled for that corner? Is it possible some phase I is about to break ground that we missed somehow?