Freeport-McMoRan Center (One Central Park East) - Phoenix, AZ

[HX_Guy]

That is what I was thinking too. I think it can have a very cool look off of Central...right there by the park...could be good for future development in the area.

Here is another article from Jahna with a little more info. I wasn't aware that Freeport was considering a move out of downtown...that would have been a disaster for the downtown office market.

Hotel, mining firm to occupy high-rise

by Jahna Berry - Dec. 11, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

A Westin hotel is planned to fill up half of a new and empty upscale office building downtown, with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. moving its headquarters to the upper floors, the tower's owners said Thursday.

The hotel will inject nearly 300 upscale hotel rooms into the 26-story One Central Park East office building at Central Avenue and Van Buren Street. The mining company, which some say had been considering a move out of downtown, will help the business district hold on to a key employer.

The moves will help strengthen downtown Phoenix in several ways, market analysts and property owners say. But a slow economic recovery may provide challenges for the hotel during its early years.

The Westin will fill a key gap in downtown Phoenix's hotel offerings, said Ryan Whitaker, an equity-investment officer for the real-estate arm of the National Electrical Benefit Fund, the majority owner of the building. The hotel could have up to 278 rooms and could open in downtown Phoenix as early as 2011, he said.

"The fact that we have been able to do this is extraordinary," said Whitaker, adding that financing for hotels is extremely difficult to find because of the economic downturn.

"We will be able to take full advantage of the recovery," he said.

The fund plans to invest an additional $30 million to $40 million in the $175 million building to build hotel rooms, construct a hotel entrance and create a pool deck.

All of the hotel rooms will be suites, and the hotel operator plans to target business travelers.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has signed a letter of intent to operate the Westin hotel for the fund, Whitaker said.

The National Electrical Benefit Fund controls $10 billion in assets and owns 90 percent of the building. Developer Mesirow Financial Real Estate Inc. owns 10 percent.

Because the hotel is expected to open in 2011, it will avoid the brunt of the recession, said Robert Hayward of Warnick & Co.

The Valley depends on tourism, and local hotels and resorts have struggled as businesses have slashed conferences and travel and consumers have cut back on leisure trips.

"Over time, for the convention center to maximize its capability, we are going to need more hotel rooms downtown," Hayward said. "The addition of these hotel rooms over next two years will be timely."

The hotel will bring 226 jobs downtown and will have an economic impact of $32 million, according to the fund.

Freeport at top

The rest of the building, the top six floors and possibly a seventh, - will be the new home of Freeport-McMoRan.

The international mining company has been at One North Central Ave. since 2001 but plans to move to One Central Park
East by the second quarter of 2010.

Freeport has agreed to lease 185,000 square feet. Its name will appear at the top of the building, and the complex will be called Freeport-McMoRan Center.

It was known in real-estate circles that Freeport wanted to move, said Donald Mudd, a senior vice president at Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial LLC.

The company had weighed relocating to the 24th Street and Camelback Road corridor before it decided on One Central Park East.

Although the Freeport move creates a big vacancy at One North Central Ave., the Westin hotel project will help take roughly 300,000 square feet of high-end, Class A office space off the market, Mudd said.

The Class A vacancy rate in downtown Phoenix could drop from 23.9 percent to 17.9 percent, he said. A lower vacancy rate stabilizes the market and will help with the future recovery, Mudd added.