See this Tribune article for an interesting front-page story on Centerpoint and surrounding area in this morning's paper:

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/94864

There was a computer-graphic view in the paper edition looking down the same street at how everything proposed would look a few years from now.

Here is the AZ Republic story with rendering:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...r-teardown.jpg

It's likely curtains for Mill theater

Katie Nelson
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 10, 2007 08:53 AM
Tempe's main downtown movie theater likely is going to disappear.

DMB Associates, Inc., the Scottsdale developer that built and maintains the "Centerpoint on Mill," has ambitious redevelopment goals.

The development company oversees the 24 acres at the northwestern corner of Mill Avenue and University Drive. The Harkins Centerpoint 11 and the Coffee Plantation retail strip will be torn down in the coming years to make room for newer, taller buildings. The Chase and PF Chang's buildings will remain.




Built in 1993, the Harkins Centerpoint was one of the first theaters with high-backed rocking chairs, but one of the last built without stadium seating. Harkins in June opened a 16-plex with all the latest technology a couple miles away at Rio Salado Parkway and McClintock Drive.

"It's all about staying relevant while things change around us," said Karrin Taylor, a DMB vice president. "Our plans, I think, are reflective of the evolution of the market and evolution of the synergies that are occurring in downtown Tempe."

DMB was one of the pioneers in transforming Tempe's core. The company's investment helped transition downtown from a place full of gritty bars and mechanic shops to a shopping and nightlife destination.

DMB is in talks with an unspecified hotelier to install a 200-room hotel with a health club that will be open to the public, Taylor said. Two other buildings, where Coffee Plantation is now and the one behind it, will be torn down and replaced with high rises that contain retail on the ground floor and condos on top. The timeline will depend on market needs, he said.

The city has yet to approve any building plans.

In the meantime, the company is replacing the teal-color paint theme with a more modern black and maroon detailing and installing blue awnings.

LAME.

i dont want to drive to tempe marketplace to see a movie! they should re-develop with a new theater in the project!

or at least WAIT to demolish the place till the building is going to actually get built, i can easily see the place being demolished and then the tower waiting on the market......and empty lot.

^^^I agree, why not rebuild a smaller version of the theater, and use it like they do with Camelview 5?

agree i like my indie films and although camelview isnt to far, im really sure a independent film theatre can really flourish around ASU because Valley Art is too small to with only one theatre.

it will really be intersting to see how Mill avenue is going to transform in a few years. Its always been a pretty cool college hangout place, but the way things are going now, it might become Scottsdale South, all ritzy and what not.

:fingerscrossed: Since ASU is not going anywhere, I imagine it will have to hold on to its "cool college hangout" atmosphere. Hopefully, the condos have a lot of college kids with rich parents. :fingerscrossed:

I will miss that little place though. I spent so much time at the Coffee Plantation and Uno's. I haven't lived here a decade yet, but many of the places that bring back fuzzy memmories of my first days in AZ are going or gone.

This is some bullshit!
My favorite date night was Unos, then a Mill Ave stroll, then a Centerpoint 11 movie and a Coffee Plantation coffee.

Why not integrate these elements in to the project?

Assholes.
I fuckin hate this project now.
Fuckheads.

Tell us how you really feel...

fuckheads.... hahahaahha

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2004/20040319h.jpg
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19

2+3= cats...
i love it!

There were four FAA applications received on 8/9/07 for 4 buildings all around 360' and the project names are "Moniti's A" Monti's B" etc.

Does anyone know what these are about?

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...eCaseID=531858
https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...eCaseID=531859
https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...eCaseID=531860
https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external...eCaseID=531857

^ Monti's La Casa Vieja. This most be some sort of redevelopment project for that parcel of land.

Love the ancient maps they are using...no mention of the Loop 202
Freeway.

No other info is known at this time that I've seen - first I've heard of something potentially being that tall.

--don

Awesome! I can't wait until these projects get going! I think once two or three more get going there's going to be so much momentum it's going to be hard to stop!

wow just came back from a weekend in San Diego and heard the news on centerpoint! that really sucks, I think there should be some kinda movie theater in downtown tempe. i think it sucks that all these tear downs will make everything all new and that a theater built 15 years ago is considered ancient. but the market dictates everything and we make up the market. if there is a demand for another theater in downtown it will happen.

I agree that it's terrible to tear down the theatre without replacing it with another one. Part of the draw of living in a downtown area is having amenities you can walk to. I don't think anyone wants to live in an area of just high rise residential and offices then have to get in the car to see a movie or get something to eat.

Hmmmm... wasn't Michael Monti (or whatever his name was) on these boards a long while ago talking about the redevelopment of his property (but he wouldn't give specifics). That is interesting information regarding the 4 buildings... Hopefully he'll stick to his word and not tear down the actual historic la casa vieja. Wasn't that built in the mid 1800s?

Wasn't there an arbitrary 300' limit the FAA and Tempe agreed upon for all (near) future buildings? I hope Monti's keeps its original building as promised also. I won't hold my breath on the height, but it will be interesting to see this materialize.

maybe these developers (like the Marina Heights ones too), dont think anyone would like a 20 story tower in the area, so they say they will build a 30 story tower which makes 20 not seem so bad? Then when everyone is all going upset about the higher building then they "agree" to shorten the project.

And in the tell us old news again file, this was in the Tribue today, but it gives a little more details on what's going to happen to the Mill.

Historic Tempe mill will see glass addition
Ed Taylor, Tribune
One of the most historic buildings in Tempe will be revived and given a glass-enclosed addition, according to plans drawn up by architects for the dormant Hayden Flour Mill site.

Tempe-based Avenue Communities, developer of the property, and its architecture firm, Substance Design Consortium, have produced renderings that show the mill building and its separate iconic silo structure retained in their existing form but with a five-story glass office building in between and wrapped on top on the mill.

Machinery once used to grind flour inside the mill will be displayed vertically at the northeast corner of the addition, visible through glass from a plaza below. Also the machinery would be visible from a glass-enclosed elevator, according to the plans, which have been approved by the Tempe Historic Preservation Commission.

The 1918 mill building - not to be confused with the separate silo structure that was added in 1951 - will contain a restaurant, retail stores and offices.

Archaeological structures, including an intact stone archway that straddled a canal once providing water power for the mill, will be preserved beneath the glassy addition.

“What makes this project unique is for the old and the new to interact with each other,” said architect Jose Pombo.

Also part of the redevelopment project is a single-story building fronting on Mill Avenue that will contain boutique retail stores. And a winery will be housed in a new structure at the southwest corner of the site.

The taller silos and grain elevator will not be touched initially, but they could be modified for other uses in a second phase, said Rick Labonte, project manager for Avenue Communities. He declined to say what options the company is considering but said Avenue Communities has been looking at silo-reuse projects in Akron, Ohio and Denver in which the structures were converted into hotel rooms and condos.

“We want to make sure we understand what is in front of us,” he said.

Labonte called the site “a tremendous opportunity” for his company because “the historic amenities are about a rich as you can find in the Valley.”

The entire project, including both phases, is expected to cost $500 million.

Under the firm’s development agreement with the city, construction is scheduled to begin by March 2008, and the first phase will open in late 2009.

Mayor Hugh Hallman, who has been deeply involved in preserving the Hayden buildings, said the design meets the desire of the historic preservation commission for an addition that is distinguishable from the historic mill, making it clear what is historic and what is modern while fitting well together.

“I’m excited. I’m eager to get it under way,” he said.

Hallman believes a boutique hotel will be the best use for the silo structure. Because of its narrow depth, it probably would need an addition on the back similar to the addition to the mill building, he said.


History of the Hayden Flour Mill
119 S. Mill Avenue, Tempe
The oldest continuously used industrial site in the Salt River Valley

1874 - Charles T. Hayden builds first mill on the site; along with store, warehouse, blacksmith shop and ferry it becomes the trade center of the south side of the Salt River.
1895 - First mill, made of adobe, burns; second mill built, also made of adobe
1917 - Second mill burns
1918 - Existing four-story mill is built, the first cast-in-place concrete building in Tempe
1924 - Salt River Project extends electricity to the mill, replacing the water power that operated the mill for half a century
1951 - 150-foot tall concrete grain elevator with seven silos is added, providing storage capacity for 18 million pounds of grain
1981 - Hayden family sells facility to Bay State Milling Co., which expands production
1998 - Milling operations cease
2002 - Three-alarm fire burns but does not destroy the vacant mill building because of its fire-resistant construction
2006 - Archeological studies reveal foundations, other old structures connected with milling operations
2006 - Avenue Communities selected Tempe to redevelop site