Quote:
Originally Posted by KevininPhx
Which, over time, have filled up and surrounding them are hundreds of thousands of people, loads of towers and public transportation. If a developer built a 500-foot building right in downtown Phoenix, it would fill up and other buildings would go up around it. That's how it works.
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I agree with this philosophy quite a bit. I think Phoenix, more so than Tempe, was hurt big time by the recession as it pertains to momentum downtown.
While we may not love every development, one thing is true with every new development -- there is now less developable land remaining. This over time drives up values. The more you must pay for the land, the more density you need to pack it with to earn a return and make development economical.
So I'm willing to live with less than ideal developments knowing that it will contribute to better developments in the future. I think Tempe is proving this out as we speak with the Mill+Rio/Monti's/100Mill towers and the proposed 7th st mixed use project.
In addition, more humans need more retail, restaurants, hotels, etc. which requires more humans. More humans then need more housing. It's a snowball effect that was unfortunately greatly damaged during the last recession, but you can feel it picking up more and more momentum now.