Phoenix, Arizona keeps on growing and the newest addition to the city may be the 900 million dollar CityScape project. With 4 40 story buildings, CityScape will house 1,200 residential units, 150 hotel rooms, and over 800,000 square feet of office space. To compliment this project, there will also be somewhere between 170,000 and 280,000 square feet of retail space and 100,000 square feet filled with public plazas.
Paperwork was filed with the Phoenix government Friday by the developers RED Development, LLC and Barron Collier Co.
The residential component of CityScape would be the responsibility of the Novare Group, which has developed high-rise mixed-use, residential and hospitality projects in Austin, Texas; Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Tampa, Fla.
The massive urban project in downtown Phoenix, covering up to three city blocks and 2.5 million square feet, would take about five years to complete. It includes 100,000 square feet of public plazas and 170,000 square feet of retail space. The retail space could be increased to 280,000 square feet, depending on development restrictions on an adjacent block.
The city’s financial involvement in the project, according to the proposal, consists of constructing underground parking with 4,500 spaces and leasing the parking back to the developers. via the The Business Journal of Phoenix
The Arizona Republic has more information on the CityScape Project, including some of the issues that developers will have to contend with.
“We will know we are successful when we build this and people will live here and travel to the suburbs to work,” Cardon said.
For that to happen, CityScape would have to succeed where others have not. Arizona Center, a downtown open-air mall, has struggled since it opened in 1990, and Park Central Mall, between Thomas and Osborn roads along Central Avenue, once was one of the top malls in the Southwest before major tenants began to flee to the suburbs in the early 1990s.
In both cases, the outlets were hurt by a lack of downtown housing and little desire among suburbanites to shop in the city.
“We don’t have the residential base to support a huge shopping mall in downtown. What brings people downtown is something unique,” said Ioanna Morfessis, a national economic-development consultant who once ran the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. “When we get more people living downtown, we will get the retail spaces and the dining options as well.”
No related posts.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
What no one mentions is that this development requires us to lose the only public space downtown, Patriot's Park. This last bit of public space is VITAL to a community spirit that does not descriminate based on income or social status.
We encourage people to visit http://www.SavePatriotsPark.org for more information and to come out to the Parks Department meeting Thursday, Sept. 28th at 4pm to have their voice heard.
Sincerely,
Erin Benson
Ok. About time have i had a hear in all this. I am a sophmore at Paradise Valley High School. I moved back to Phoenix after living in Seattle, San Fransisco Bay Area, Santa Barbera and New York City. Phoenix's downtown is beyond pathetic. I don't understand why everyone complains about the "veiw" of the mountains when NO ONE ever goes to them. With the labor Phoenix can produce, not to mention unlike most major cities Phoenix isn't on the line of natural disasters like earth quakes, hurricanes or volcanic erruptions, I think Phoenix can spring up with buildong exceeding the Empire State Building and the Sears Tower. If the generation of the 1940-1970's doesn't think Phoenix should become a great downtown, just wait. My generation will become old enough and change all that. Wait.
Visit http://www.downtownPHX.org for more information on CityScape and what it will contribute to downtown.