Phoenix Development News (3)

[apocalyptic0n3]

New crane is being constructed at the northeast corner of City North this morning.

[xymox]

Originally Posted by apocalyptic0n3

New crane is being constructed at the northeast corner of City North this morning.

Saw it today - curious which project this is for. I thought the taller projects were due up near the 101. Not sure where the 9 floor hotel is going though. Crane doesn't seem much taller than the one for Optima McDowell Mtn.

[highnoon]

Incredible project by Jones studio from a competition in 2019, hope that it will be realized soon along with the rest of the RIO PHX project, the land it was visualized on is still empty and it would be the perfect spot for such a project, except for its proximity to the airporthttps://jonesstudioinc.com/project/rio-unido/

[DesertRay]

Originally Posted by highnoon

Incredible project by Jones studio from a competition in 2019, hope that it will be realized soon along with the rest of the RIO PHX project, the land it was visualized on is still empty and it would be the perfect spot for such a project, except for its proximity to the airporthttps://jonesstudioinc.com/project/rio-unido/

Oh, man does that look cool. I would LOVE to have that happen.

[somethingfast]

That observation tower is EPIC. Looks like 800' or so. Can't imagine this actually coming to fruition - but damn cool to see something like that!

[DesertRay]

Phoenix’s skyline-changing Astra project pushed back amid financing delay
Aug 18, 2025, 5:00 AM

BY ANGELA GONZALES/PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL
The developer of a $650 million project to build Arizona’s tallest tower won’t break ground in 2025, after all.

Originally projected to break ground during the second quarter, the project is getting pushed back to potentially break ground in downtown Phoenix by the back half of 2026.

Aspirant Development, developer of the Astra, is still working on finalizing financing, a spokeswoman for the Scottsdale-based developer confirmed to the Business Journal.

The project is expected to be built on 2.18 acres on Second Avenue between Van Buren and Fillmore streets in downtown Phoenix. It is slated to include a 44-floor residential tower that will be 541 feet tall, surpassing the 483-foot former Chase Tower as the largest in Phoenix. An adjacent tower will span 34 floors and rise 424 feet.

[builder03]

Braved the heat yesterday afternoon and cruised around downtown for some progress photos.

See the URL for all of the photos, but I will paste the best directly here.

https://imgur.com/a/PHyiwGj

The Edith:


Ray and Sol:


Saiya Pedestrian Passage:


2nd Ave & McKinley NWC:


3rd Ave & McKinley SEC:



692 N 3rd Ave:


Mockup for CAMI on lot just north of the site:


The Henri:

[TJPHXskyscraperfan]

What is Cami?

[TJPHXskyscraperfan]

The lot with the house progress is taking forever. Anyone know if they plan to get that thing moving soon?

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by TJPHXskyscraperfan

What is Cami?

https://healthsciences.arizona.edu/conne...dbreaking-ushers-new-era-health-sciences

[locolife]

Thanks for the photos, downtown is looking awesome.

[ASU Diablo]

I know we give Christine sh*t sometimes for perhaps not prioritizing downtown as much as the rest of the Valley, but she did some pretty amazing things.

Let's see if her replacement does a better job of attracting companies and HQs back to the downtown core.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2025/08/29/why-chris-mackay-took-the-top-job-at-gpec.html

[MiEncanto]

Originally Posted by ASU Diablo

I know we give Christine sh*t sometimes for perhaps not prioritizing downtown as much as the rest of the Valley, but she did some pretty amazing things.

Let's see if her replacement does a better job of attracting companies and HQs back to the downtown core.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2025/08/29/why-chris-mackay-took-the-top-job-at-gpec.html

I will preface this by saying I'm a fan of Christine Mackay. She is a fine lady who professionally does her job, stays factual, and oversaw a booming time for Phoenix.

However, we should acknowledge that Phoenix and especially downtown, was due for a major boom given the return to downtown vibe that has taken over so many downtowns- the people wanted this and developers responded. We see similar booms in almost every comparable downtown. To take credit for that phenomena is sorta silly. If we couldn't improve downtown in the last decade... we seriously missed the wave.

Also, I have a distaste for city employees taking credit for development as though they did the real work. The city's job is to not screw this project up... When they do that, great! But the fact that we need a 50 person ecodevo team at CoP... in part to help a team help the dev team get around the bureaucratic hurdles... is a tacit admission that we've made this too difficult.

I'll note we've had some major whiffs over the past decade:
No new corporate HQs downtown. Several majors have left.
Warehouse district is largely a flop.
No new towers on north central. Existing towers are vacating space. Only new developments are nonprofits (meds and eds) who aren't on the tax rolls plus a few stick and stucco apartments.

[combusean]

It's nobody's "fault" Downtown is lagging in office, it's just not central to anything anymore, and even Tempe is overbuilt with delayed projects. The market wants to be in the suburbs/exurbs anyways... like this 217 acre greenfield.

https://azbex.com/planning-development/m...master-plan-on-former-coyotes-n-phoenix/

there aren't "bureaucratic hurdles", this is Phoenix, not California. The team is probably big because they throw everything in CED like the film office and the arena that would be its own departments somewhere else.

https://www.investinphoenix.com/Documents/CEDD-Org-Chart.pdf

[MMDelon]

I’m not a fan of Christine Mackey and glad to see her move on.

[MMDelon]

Block 23 and the Central Station project are both extremely underwhelming to me.

[MMDelon]

And don’t get me started on Roosevelt Row….I can understand Block 23 and the Central Station project, but I don’t understand how underdeveloped Roosevelt Row is. If there ever is a location where prime retail, restaurants, and entertainment can be built, it would be Roosevelt Row.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by MMDelon

And don’t get me started on Roosevelt Row….I can understand Block 23 and the Central Station project, but I don’t understand how underdeveloped Roosevelt Row is. If there ever is a location where prime retail, restaurants, and entertainment can be built, it would be Roosevelt Row.

What are you looking for on Roosevelt Row that isn't happening there? There isn't much vacant land on Roosevelt per se. The lots that were available have all been developed over the past decade. In the blocks to the south between Roosevelt and Fillmore, there is all sorts of development that is discussed regularly here.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by MMDelon

And don’t get me started on Roosevelt Row….I can understand Block 23 and the Central Station project, but I don’t understand how underdeveloped Roosevelt Row is. If there ever is a location where prime retail, restaurants, and entertainment can be built, it would be Roosevelt Row.

I don't think there's anything wrong with Roosevelt row most are mad that its lost its artsy feel. Do you remember what was there in 2012? (Spoiler it was Carly's, Rebar and a bunch of Crack heads)

If anything there's only the single family homes on the east side that are waiting to be turned into retail/bars and the old radio station at Central

[az_daniel]

the current state of downtown development is well beyond any of our expectations from 10+ years ago. The fact that some are calling impactful highrise development like central station "underwhelming" shows how far we have come (imo - its the best building built downtown - and it was a two tower project that actually built both towers!)