Arizona Center Development

[combusean]

I'd take those closings with a grain of salt. The four stores in Seattle, Oakland, and SF all opened relatively recently, so they're locked into high rents in areas with generally declining traffic. The one in Pittsburg, CA hasn't been updated in years and it wouldn't surprise me if their lease was unfavorable too.

Even the tiniest amount of shrink would harm an already untenable position and it's probably just easier for them to blame that rather than admit the fundamentals of having high or anticipated sunk costs and no realistic way to ride it out. Target really tried to hit the urban markets which COVID massively disrupted and they can't have investors questioning that strategy by looking at the surviving stores.

[Stijl]

Adding a bit of context here... Target is the leading location for theft in the valley because that particular Target is actively working with the city and police to address the issue. My understanding is they're reporting all thefts, regardless of value, zero tolerance.

They're also working to identify repeat offenders, and are willing to press charges if they're arrested (my understanding is that is not common for corporate chains). I've seen their own security on site recently; not sure if it's Target's or Christown's, but it's a company outside of both organizations standard group. I don't think I've been past there in the last few months there wasn't a COP Tahoe out front.

It'll be interesting to see if it makes a difference... and agreed, something needs to be done nationwide on this front, but I have no idea what that's going to be. This seems like one of those issues so widespread you can't arrest your way out of it, but that might be where it starts given how the US is set up.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by combusean

I'd take those closings with a grain of salt. The four stores in Seattle, Oakland, and SF all opened relatively recently, so they're locked into high rents in areas with generally declining traffic. The one in Pittsburg, CA hasn't been updated in years and it wouldn't surprise me if their lease was unfavorable too.

Even the tiniest amount of shrink would harm an already untenable position and it's probably just easier for them to blame that rather than admit the fundamentals of having high or anticipated sunk costs and no realistic way to ride it out. Target really tried to hit the urban markets which COVID massively disrupted and they can't have investors questioning that strategy by looking at the surviving stores.

Nine store closings in a chain as large as Target is trivial, but Target's new release prominently announcing the decision and linking it to shoplifting is clearly designed to make a statement. It's a statement I support, but also one that clearly has political dimension -- not a partisan one per se, but a more general message that cities need to take theft more seriously.

Originally Posted by Stijl

Adding a bit of context here... Target is the leading location for theft in the valley because that particular Target is actively working with the city and police to address the issue. My understanding is they're reporting all thefts, regardless of value, zero tolerance.

They're also working to identify repeat offenders, and are willing to press charges if they're arrested (my understanding is that is not common for corporate chains). I've seen their own security on site recently; not sure if it's Target's or Christown's, but it's a company outside of both organizations standard group. I don't think I've been past there in the last few months there wasn't a COP Tahoe out front.

It'll be interesting to see if it makes a difference... and agreed, something needs to be done nationwide on this front, but I have no idea what that's going to be. This seems like one of those issues so widespread you can't arrest your way out of it, but that might be where it starts given how the US is set up.

I'm glad they're doing this, but I wish the store would also staff more of its checkout lanes and rely less on self-checkout. When there are huge areas of unattended space up front, it's easier for thieves to feel no compunction about walking out with merchandise. It's also easier to rationalize theft when it involves stealing from a faceless company rather than a visible workforce.

[MiEncanto]

The Target at christown used to be my wife's Target. She grew up in the area so she's no stranger to less than perfect central Phx situations so I was surprised when she said she was never going back about 2 years ago. She now hikes all the way to the PV mall area for a large target since the one at 16th st "doesn't have everything I need."

On another note, I have heard from CoP cops that they put more emphasis on residential crimes because the threat to citizens is viewed as the top priority whereas corporate stores should be able to use their own mitigation strategies. And I've heard from reps in the retail industry that at times they feel like they don't get nearly enough support as it relates to organized retail crime. Hopefully the recent attention changes that because we have enough headwinds in brick and mortal retail.

[Phxguy]

New owner of AZ Center announced last night the Wren and Wolf team plans to open a steak restaurant in the Center. No timeline or suite given but an interesting concept to debut given the state of the desolation the center is in.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Phxguy

New owner of AZ Center announced last night the Wren and Wolf team plans to open a steak restaurant in the Center. No timeline or suite given but an interesting concept to debut given the state of the desolation the center is in.

Nice! Downtown could use a quality steakhouse!

[ASU Diablo]

Originally Posted by Phxguy

New owner of AZ Center announced last night the Wren and Wolf team plans to open a steak restaurant in the Center. No timeline or suite given but an interesting concept to debut given the state of the desolation the center is in.

That team has been on fire lately. They also recently announced another cocktail bar concept that’s supposed to reflect the golden age of travel in the 50s-70s. Looks cool!

[exit2lef]

The bad: I was leaving my office the other day and two women approached me. They were coming from the Arizona Center across the street and appeared to be in town for a convention. They asked me if there was a "tourist area" nearby. I asked them to clarify what they were looking for and they said basically "restaurants, shops, anyplace they could walk around and find things to do." I had to tell them the Arizona Center was a dead zone and that they should walk to Roosevelt Row, CityScape, or Heritage Square.

From the perspective of someone staying in the Sheraton or the AC, the Arizona Center looks like a logical place to go. It must turn some hotel guests and convention attendees off to Phoenix when they discover the big development right by their hotel is nearly a ghost town.

The good (potentially): As I walked through the Arizona Center yesterday, I saw a bunch of people with blueprints and clipboards looking at the Hooter's space and chatting about its details. Maybe there's finally a plan to lease that space. The new owners have been gutting the empty restaurants to make them more appealing to tenants who might want a totally fresh look and fixtures. There is one new tenant: a place that serves different types of chocolate desserts.

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by exit2lef

The bad: I was leaving my office the other day and two women approached me. They were coming from the Arizona Center across the street and appeared to be in town for a convention. They asked me if there was a "tourist area" nearby. I asked them to clarify what they were looking for and they said basically "restaurants, shops, anyplace they could walk around and find things to do." I had to tell them the Arizona Center was a dead zone and that they should walk to Roosevelt Row, CityScape, or Heritage Square.

From the perspective of someone staying in the Sheraton or the AC, the Arizona Center looks like a logical place to go. It must turn some hotel guests and convention attendees off to Phoenix when they discover the big development right by their hotel is nearly a ghost town.

The good (potentially): As I walked through the Arizona Center yesterday, I saw a bunch of people with blueprints and clipboards looking at the Hooter's space and chatting about its details. Maybe there's finally a plan to lease that space. The new owners have been gutting the empty restaurants to make them more appealing to tenants who might want a totally fresh look and fixtures. There is one new tenant: a place that serves different types of chocolate desserts.

Yea, that should honestly be an embarrassment for the City of Phoenix to have such a dead-zone by our largest downtown hotel. I'm surprised there hasn't been more push to change this. Good to see some activity though. I think a Zips would be a good fit there. Their midtown location has done well.

[ASU Diablo]

Originally Posted by CrestedSaguaro

Yea, that should honestly be an embarrassment for the City of Phoenix to have such a dead-zone by our largest downtown hotel. I'm surprised there hasn't been more push to change this. Good to see some activity though. I think a Zips would be a good fit there. Their midtown location has done well.

Zipps would do good. Is the Phoenix Bourbon Room still open? If so, I am quite surprised it has survived this long. That spot is a PRIME location for a Twin Peaks. It would kill there.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by ASU Diablo

Zipps would do good. Is the Phoenix Bourbon Room still open? If so, I am quite surprised it has survived this long. That spot is a PRIME location for a Twin Peaks. It would kill there.

Amazingly, the Bourbon Room is still open, even though I've never seen it crowded.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by exit2lef

Amazingly, the Bourbon Room is still open, even though I've never seen it crowded.

We ate their once and had a pretty bad experience, have not gone back. Wasn't that space a Tilted Kilt or something similar to that at one point?

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by locolife

We ate their once and had a pretty bad experience, have not gone back. Wasn't that space a Tilted Kilt or something similar to that at one point?

Yes, that's exactly what is was originally. I've actually had some pretty good food at the Bourbon room, but the generic name is kind of a negative. Couldn't they have come up with something more original? It also seems like a big space that is seldom full. If I were a more suspicious person, I might think it's a money laundering operation.

[ASU Diablo]

Man, Pretty Decent Concepts is going all in on DTPHX. Another 3 concepts coming to AZ Center. Also, I hadn't realized that the AMC Theatres was sold last year.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/mone...s/72749086007/

Three new dining concepts are planned for the long-struggling Arizona Center, which was purchased by a Phoenix-based real estate investor last year.

Phoenix-based Pretty Decent Concepts, the creators of Chico Malo, Wren & Wolf, and the upcoming Carry On restaurants, is going to lease space at the center for three new concepts, including a classic, upscale steakhouse.

Teddy Myers, owner of Pretty Decent Concepts, said he had been looking at a location at Arizona Center since 2017.

“Seven years later, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring our vision to one of the marquee restaurant spaces in downtown Phoenix,” Myers said in a statement.

Arizona Center is located at Third and Van Buren streets downtown. It was once a destination for downtown dining and nightlife but has struggled to attract and retain businesses in recent years.

Pretty Decent Concepts is leasing 9,875 square feet and will divide the space into three different concepts, with a plan to open this winter. No other details were given about the future restaurants.

Phoenix-based Presson Corp., led by Daryl Burton, a real estate developer and property manager who has been involved in major projects throughout the region, bought the retail and office portions of the center in July for $27 million, according to real estate database Vizzda.

Karla Scott, economic development program manager for Phoenix, said in September that Arizona Center has been a priority for the city to try to reinvigorate the retail and restaurant scene in the area.

Other tenants at the center include Jersey Mike’s, BoSa Donuts, Moriah II Nails & Spa, Omoide Sushi and Noodle Bar, the Rose Theatre and Art by Nik Ridley. The AMC Theatres at the center was bought by Glasir Capital Partners in November for $27 million, according to Vizzda.

[ASU Diablo]

More coverage and info...

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

The new owners of the Arizona Center retail district in downtown Phoenix have signed a local restaurant group to open three restaurants in the struggling shopping plaza.

Pretty Decent Concepts, the team behind downtown Phoenix’s Wren & Wolf, Chico Malo and the no-phones allowed bar Trophy Room, have leased out nearly 10,000 square feet of space in the Arizona Center, including the former Hooters space.

Theodore Myers, one of the co-owners of Pretty Decent Concepts, told the Business Journal the group had been eyeing the Arizona Center as a destination for a new restaurant concept since 2017 and are happy to finally be connected to the space.

“When you look at Arizona Center, it was a bit of a black eye to the burgeoning restaurant community that is trying to develop here,” Myers said. “Having an unsavory restaurant chain anchor in that space for 30 plus years. It has always been a bit of a personal goal of mine to take what should be a prominent marquee corner in downtown Phoenix.”

The plan is to open three new, but “synergistic” concepts in the space. Myers deliberately did not give out many details but said one of the concepts will be “an upscale vintage steakhouse.”

“It will be like if Durant's was reimagined and opening in a much more prominent location in downtown Phoenix. That's our goal with this,” Myers said. “We want this to be the staple steakhouse restaurant in downtown Phoenix.”

The comparison to Durant’s is meant to be a homage to the timelessness and lasting ability that the more than 70-year-old restaurant has had on Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix.

Arizona Center gets a jolt of 'creative energy'
Similar to the other Pretty Decent Concepts locations in downtown Phoenix, the firm has brought on Peter Bowden to design the new restaurants. Construction has already started on the project and all three restaurants are expected to open in December 2024 or early 2025, Myers said.

Myers credits the new owners of the Arizona Center for helping him and his team, which includes his wife Kaitlin Myers and Thor Nguyen, bring the long-planned restaurants to life.

AZ Center LLC, which was formed by longtime Valley real estate investor Daryl Burton’s Reliance Management, in the summer of 2023 acquired the Arizona Center, which includes the retail space and the office building.

“We were talking to the previous ownership group, they were out of San Diego, and I don't think they had an understanding of what downtown Phoenix needed to be,” Myers said. “When the asset traded hands to Darryl Burton, who is local and has the same passion that we have, we very quickly got the deal done in like two weeks.”

The center, located near the corner of Third Street and Van Buren, was built in 2000 and underwent a massive renovation in the late 2010s. The center has several empty retail and restaurant spaces, but current tenants include AMC Theaters, Jersey Mike’s, Cold Stone Creamery and BoSa Donuts.

“[Pretty Decent Concepts] came in with not only just concepts but a creative energy and a level of care and detail to the concepts that they execute on that we think fits really well into what we're doing at Arizona Center,” said Faith Burton, the director of special projects for the Arizona Center. “It is really a crucial first step in the things that we're going to be doing at Arizona Center as a whole.”

Besides Pretty Decent Concepts, the center has also signed another restaurant tenant and has painted several murals in the space.

The Arizona Center adds to a pretty lengthy list of projects Pretty Decent Concepts is looking to open in the Valley. The company is still working on getting open Carry On, its third concept in downtown Phoenix’s Renaissance Square complex at the corner of Washington Street and First Avenue. The company is also signed on to open two concepts under one roof in the former P.F. Chang’s China Bistro space on Mill Avenue in Tempe.

[MiEncanto]

This is great news. I've been saying downtown needs a real steakhouse for years. They did a great job with Wren and Wolf, although tbh I'm not the impressed with Trophy Room. I'm hoping we can get a nice game-watching beers and burgers place in there as well.

[locolife]

Looking forward to this, a quality steakhouse downtown should do great plus you’ll have all the new residents at palm Tower moving in soon.

Shows why local ownership is important, hopefully they continue to fill up more of the AC, a new use for the theater space be it a new condo tower or something else would be great.

[Code5]

"The AMC Theatres at the center was bought by Glasir Capital Partners in November for $27 million, according to Vizzda."

So is that AMC Theaters closing down then? I'll be a little disappointed if it does. I always said they just needed to remodel it and it would be fine. I like being able to walk to go see a movie 😭

[CrestedSaguaro]

AMC should just be cut down to about half and get serious remodel. There is a need for a movie theater chain as downtown continues to fill up with residents. I have noticed AZ Center's AMC has trended upward in attendance over the years. It could do much better with some new stadium/dine-in seating and a bar. The remaining space could be utilized to extend the Taylor Street paseo, add some additional residential or maybe even an urban big-box retail store.

Either way it goes, I'm just glad that someone is taking a leap of faith for AZ Center and finally bringing some needed dining options there. I do wonder if the opening of Palm Tower later this year influenced their decision to bring the 3 new concepts? It will be interesting to see if more retail comes as Palm fills up.

[Obadno]

This is excellent news for az center.

At this point it’s almost surprising it can be so empty simply do to how many people live nearby now.