Phoenix | Astra Towers (2 towers) | 541 FT | 44 Floors & 425 FT | 30 Floors

[MMDelon]

The 36,000 sq/ft of retail and 5.5 million donation to the affordable trust fund are huge for the city! The RAA cannot go against that.

[halicem]

Originally Posted by MMDelon

The 36,000 sq/ft of retail and 5.5 million donation to the affordable trust fund are huge for the city! The RAA cannot go against that.

https://www.youtube.com/live/R_kc6Zq7KaM?t=2015

Really impressed with Chris Mackay and how she sold it. First time I heard they’re stipulating 20% workforce housing on the coliving tower as part of the GPLET aside from the donation, that’s ~60 units or up to 240 people if we’re talking 4-BR units. that sounds too good to be true, tbh. But, exciting stuff!

[combusean]

The way I understood this project is that the coliving units, while not as profitable as your typical apartments, are in very high demand and are "close enough" (according to either CED or one of the councilmembers, I can't remember) to the workforce housing that Phoenix has been wanting all along.

So that's 300 coliving units and 387 apartment units which is huge.

Typical workforce housing has inadvertently required some sort of real subsidy and income qualification, so I think the City is very pleased to see this product rolling out without that. I'm guessing the developer made the in-kind contribution to the trust fund to avoid designating the 20% of any units as income restricted, so I suppose they're free to charge as much as they want even tho that won't fly yet.

AZCentral has the approval story.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/mone...a/70367159007/

[azcats]

Usually - the city manager will put a controversial subject on the council agenda to be discussed/ voted on towards the end of the meeting. Most people sitting at a meeting will leave after 10:00 p.m. Time to go home and go to bed. From 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. - those same people will want to get up and stand in line to rant and rave at the city council members. Only seven from the general public spoke?!? Huge project in a huge city. HA! The external affairs from this developer (or, hired P.R.) could have filled the room with supporters - guess they felt it wouldn't be necessary. "Extortionary" ...HA! Yawn. Try a city council member (city and state unnamed) demanding - from the dais - that an oil company give $45 million after that company stated they will "gift" the city $5 million. The city held up a major project to connect two pipelines. The company had built over decades: new city hall...community center...parks...$$$ to schools...$$$ to local non-profits, etc. The company said they wouldn't budge on this one. The city held up their project until they got their $45 million "gift." They got their $45 million.

[azcats]

Originally Posted by PHX31

This x1,000,000. This is the state of "activism" for the most part in society these days. Idiots have zero intelligible reasons to even opening their mouth, but they just lie and hope the shit that comes out sticks somehow to someone.

Tell the RAA to get bent or just ignore them, and others similar, entirely... which is what I bet the council will do.

Run...and I'll vote for you!

How many times do you hear, "Well, someone complained." Some ONE!?!? O...N...E ...ONE. 1. Am hoping we can reverse this course - and soon!

[ASU Diablo]

Originally Posted by ASU Diablo

Pending Goldwater lawsuit probably lol

Did they address that?

From the AZ Central article posted above...let's see what happens.

Despite the changes in the rules, GPLETs are still controversial. The libertarian Goldwater Institute think tank, which has taken legal action against the city’s GPLETs before, sent a letter to the city opposing the incentive for Astra.

“Based on our understanding of the facts, 200% of the city’s foregone tax revenue does not even remotely approach the value of the subsidy to the developer,” Jon Riches, vice president of litigation for the Goldwater Institute said in a written statement. “The city also fails to mention the multiple other taxing jurisdictions that will not receive tax revenue because Phoenix has decided to give a gift to one private, special interest.”

Riches also took issue with the mandatory contribution to the affordable housing fund.

“Finally, the city is prohibited by law from imposing conditions on private parties that require them to set aside housing for specific groups of people,” he wrote. “The ‘contribution’ to the city’s housing fund is extortionary and appears to be an attempt to evade the requirements of state law. It is hard to understand why it is so difficult for Phoenix to simply abide by the law.”

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by ASU Diablo

From the AZ Central article posted above...let's see what happens.

I just gave myself a quick refresh on Gift Clause litigation:

The AZ Supreme Court decided a Gift Clause case in 2021 that was a big win for Goldwater. Though not expressly a GPLET case, it dealt with similar economic development issues, in this case with Peoria. The Court basically said to pass muster under the Gift Clause, the governmental benefits must be for a "public purpose," and give "sufficient consideration" for the benefit. Public purpose is still somewhat broad. But "sufficient consideration" is a high bar, interpreted as being basically quid pro quo, and cannot include, for instance, indirect economic impacts. So courts will take a legitimate look at what the public is getting back in exchange for a GPLET and determine if it is sufficient.

The ASU/Omni case from last year was also a win for Goldwater, though more procedural. ASU/Omni had won at the court of appeals, by the AZ Supreme Court overturned the dismissal in favor of ASU/Omni, and sent the case back to the trial court. The case was settled and dismissed a couple months ago, assumedly because Brnovich (who is no longer AG and was driving the litigation) was replaced by Kris Mayes.

Goldwater's current GPLET lawsuit against the City concerning Skye on 6th was just argued last Friday on summary judgment. No ruling yet that I can see, but I assume that will be closely watched as a bellwether for how an anticipated Astra lawsuit might go.

[MMDelon]

Will this lawsuit stop the project?

[PHX31]

Skye on 6th is basically built with the pending lawsuit. I imagine a lawsuit won't hold up Astra.

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by MMDelon

Will this lawsuit stop the project?

Unlikely. Empire/Aspirant somewhat already has experience with this as Goldwater filed a lawsuit against the Derby developers from receiving a GPLET which stalled Derby for nearly 3 years.

At the time of the lawsuit, Empire was attempting to receive a GPLET for Stewart. Ultimately, they built Stewart anyway without the GPLET.

[Mr.RE]

Good info on the project and some renderings I hadn't seen before. Groundbreaking target for next summer!

https://www.orionprop.com/topfive/ph...a-to-downtown/

[somethingfast]

so this might actually, really happen? can anyone who knows the GPLET game etc handicap this? are we looking at like a 50/50 chance at actual groundbreaking at this point? new pics look amazing - they look massive AND tall - will be awesome if it comes to pass!

[CrestedSaguaro]

Those pictures the article are not sized correctly and it won't really look quite that tall. The groundbreaking is so far off. Why does Empire need to wait another year? I'm going to be too old to care by the time this is completed.

The GPLET battle won't matter until Goldwater files a lawsuit and so far have not (although they now have a full year to file now).

[combusean]

Those are the renders they've always used unless I've gone more senile and blind than I thought.

As for this taking a year... there's a lot that still needs to happen. I doubt they've really gone into designing this tower's essential systems (electrical, plumbing, hvac, mechanical) because of the magnitude of changes up ahead.

They still need to change the design to account for the likely additional lane on 2nd Avenue which throws *everything* out of whack. If they don't get the GPLET, there's no reason for them to go above and beyond the zoning for the paseo, so they probably have to account for that as well as a fall back.

And then it has to be costed and value engineered and go out to bid, and then there's contractor lead time on top of that.

A year sounds about right to me and that's if everything works out in their favor.

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by combusean

Those are the renders they've always used unless I've gone more senile and blind than I thought.

It was my phone causing the perspective to be off. Looked from my computer this morning and it looks correct

[ASU Diablo]

Interesting little tidbits. More updates on timelines and reason for the delay. I always thought it was due to financing but I guess it was due to the City of Phoenix revamping the GPLET program, I'm guessing, to avoid future lawsuits.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...g-forward.html

Beginning in the second quarter of 2024, the project will be built in two phases to include 697 apartment units, a 229-room hotel, 36,000 square feet of commercial space, 185,000 square feet of office space and 1,156 parking spaces on 2.18 acres.

The city had paused the GPLET property tax abatement program while it was revamping the program, he said, which also held up development for his project.

"Getting through that GPLET process with the city was a big key for us," he said. "Now that we've got the GPLET finished we can finish design work and start going for permitting. It will take a fair amount of time. Now we'll finish putting together all of our financing."

Originally, Jacobs expected the project to cost around $350 million, but cost increases over the past three years have pushed the price tag up to $575 million.

Jacobs estimates it will take 2.5 to three years to build the project, and expects it to open in mid-2027. Gensler is the architect for the project.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by ASU Diablo

Interesting little tidbits. More updates on timelines and reason for the delay. I always thought it was due to financing but I guess it was due to the City of Phoenix revamping the GPLET program, I'm guessing, to avoid future lawsuits.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...g-forward.html

Q2'24 so possibly earlier than next summer... okay. That cost increase is pretty eye opening.

[MMDelon]

Thank you for bringing this up! This is why I believe this project will break ground because the developer was willing to wait for this GPLET to be updated but also they agree with the new GPLET

[BA744PHX]

Good morning, does anyone know if the hotel partner was announced for Astra?

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by BA744PHX

Good morning, does anyone know if the hotel partner was announced for Astra?

I have not heard any more news on Astra since the new rendering were released. I keep looking every day though