More info on the welcome news of Tempe's plan to annex the ugly county island:

https://azbigmedia.com/business/temp...me-since-2006/

https://i.imgur.com/dlUEsK1.jpg
Hudson

https://i.imgur.com/6m2Kva2.jpg
Atmosphere

Wow The Pier might surpass 100 Mill in speed. Floor plate 6. They were at 2 in January I believe. About a floor every 2 weeks.

Yeah, the speed has really picked up! Hopefully it doesn’t take another 4 years. It’s going to be nice having a high rise in that desolated area.

Robinhood coming to Watermark
 

New lease by Robinhood
https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...P5F5r-yC22SDXg

Man Watermark really came through with some impressive tenants. Hopefully it motivates them to move forward with the planned neighboring office building.

Tempe project list is updated for March: https://www.tempe.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=86321

Not a lot new, but there are two new infill projects that have started the entitlement process: 'Milhaus @ Apache,' apparently planned where the Haji-Baba warehouse is (NOT the restaurant), near Apache/101, south-side next to the other new apartments; and Novus Parcel 3F, the 7-story student-oriented apartments next to the hotel.

Went hiking up A Mountain the other day and was able to grab a pic of 100 mill and the ASU hockey arena site.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...280834b5_b.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9676bf2b_b.jpg

https://youtu.be/KAMbLWcUEIg

Novus YouTube interview.

Anyone know what's going on with the (Car-free) development Culdesac in Tempe? The website, etc., state that it is coming in 2021. Well, I went past the site today and it most definitely is not coming in 2021. (I presume "coming in" to mean completed and not starting construction.) The very large site, which is surrounded by banners on the fences saying Culdesac 2021, is a completely empty dirt lot. In fact, I couldn't see any trace of any materiel or even a single vehicle or piece of equipment.

The reason it came to mind is that the local Tempe bike advocacy group, TBAG, is having a bike ride/crawl between a few restaurants and it is apparently being organized by Culdesac with TBAG, per a facebook post. I thought it was maybe a bad sign that the project clearly won't be finished in 2021 and three months in they haven't updated their projected timeframe publicly in marketing.... yet they are still doing a marketing event with local groups?

I’m not sure if it’s a bad sign, but I don’t really know what to make of it. Culdesac continues to be active on social media, and I heard an interview with one of their staff recently on a local podcast. Then, there’s this event. They’re definitely trying to stay in the public eye, but the most critical activity, a groundbreaking, has yet to be announced. I’d probably be even more worried if there were complete radio silence, but I am having some doubts about the viability of this project.

To be clear, it’s not that I think Tempe can’t handle an apartment building without parking for everyone. It’s more that I don’t think the best route to that has to be a hyped megaproject. A more realistic route may be allowing all new buildings to be built without mandated parking minimums. Few would choose to have zero parking, but some would build at less than a 1:1 ratio and unbundle the parking from rent. The market tends to move in small incremental steps rather than dramatic changes all at once.

I’m sure skyrocketing lumber prices has delayed the project. Especially for a project of that magnitude. Hopefully it moves forward!

I'm wondering if they're flat out able to get that project to pencil out at all with the questionable demand and enormous costs involved. When was the last time an apartment complex had a "marketing team" doing events around town?

From a structural and density aspect Culdesac is a garden apartment complex on steroids but instead of the low maintenance of surface parking, they have the insanely high maintenance burden of amenities an order of magnitude beyond your typical garden complex.

So rather than economizing on parking, residents are paying a premium to live without it.

I doubt I'd want to live in a complex that has "abundant natural light" in the desert--I'm skeptical that will somehow save energy costs--overlooking oversized courtyards where pretty much anyone can party all day and into the night...which really isnt actually conducive to anyone from the working professional or the busy student or older generations looking to relax.

The whole thing comes off like a cult compound. Not that it matters because it's beyond stalled, it never made out of plan review. It's comatose if not dead.

Let's all not forget the first phase was the retail and grocery store component. I don't know what grocery store would want to stick its neck out to place its flag on that stretch of Apache in its current state. You have Food City and Safeway (and H Mart) not terribly far from the site.

Article about the apartments on the former county island at Curry/Miller. Supposed to break ground this month.

https://azbigmedia.com/real-estate/1...ortunity-zone/

https://culdesac.com/

The culdesac website has more pictures and 360 degrees pictures of the development. Feels like being in Spain.

Fence is down at the Westin:

https://i.imgur.com/jok4CeIh.jpg

The Pier:

https://i.imgur.com/maqhzS0h.jpg

Full DRC packet for Aura Apache:

https://www.tempe.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=88577