Phoenix Development News (3)

[HX_Guy]

There is a similar concept being done in NY and according to the article...

Designed by Nobutaka Ashihara, the tower will have a main entrance and arrival lobby on West 54th Street; the lobby for the Residence Inn will be on the building’s third floor, and the Courtyard lobby will be on the fourth floor. Courtyard guest rooms will be on floors 6 through 32, while Residence Inn rooms will be on floors 36 through 64; each hotel will have its own elevator banks.

Oh course their hotel will be 68 floors and 753' in height.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/reales...t-hotel-project-planned-in-new-york.html

[gymratmanaz]

I am not sure by the diagram, but if it is a 250 room hotel, how high might that be? The Palomar is 250 but it takes up 1/2 a block. I get the feeling the Marriott would have a much smaller footprint......so???

[HX_Guy]

We actually went thru all of this in the Luhr's thread...I had forgotten myself but it's all been discussed, even heights and some renderings...

FAA permits from 2008 approved the site for up to 264'.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=166536&page=5

[HooverDam]

I love the rendering of the tall, blue modern tower. Not sure why the shorter tower facing Madison is so beige and dull though. It seems like going full tilt with contemporary glass towers would contrast best with the historic buildings.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by HooverDam

I'm not familiar with these dual branded hotels, how do they work? Are there two separate lobbies and one hotel is the first X stories and the next is the stories above? or are they more wholly integrated?

That's a good question, though those that know have updated this project but in general the best example is at L.A. Live by AEG and according to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.A._Live

Hotels and residences

Hotel tower
The centerpiece of the district is a 54-story, 1,001 room two-hotel hybrid tower, constructed above the parking lot directly north of the Staples Center.[2] Built by Webcor Builders, the skyscraper contains both an 879-room JW Marriott hotel on floors four through 21 and a 123-room Ritz-Carlton hotel on floors 22 through 26. Floors 27 through 52 hold 224 Residences at the Ritz Carlton condominiums.[10] Groundbreaking for the structure took place in June 2007.[10] The project was completed in the first quarter of 2010.

[HooverDam]

^Interesting. Well it would be nice if one hotel had an entrance off of Jefferson and the other out onto Madison. That would help activate both streets and keep people milling about.

[gymratmanaz]

Good call Hoover!

[Leo the Dog]

This would be an incredible development on a great block.

[phxSUNSfan]

Looks like the Suns could be back in action for Christmas. Will be good for downtown and CityScape and make the area busier than it already has become without the NBA games.

The Hansji Hotels project is interesting and hopefully the beige building in the rendering is left out...

[nickw252]

A Phoenix land deal to give the Arizona Opera a new home came with some strings attached.

To get the 16,800 square-foot Walsh Bros. building near McDowell Road and Central Avenue for Arizona Opera, the city agreed to buy the whole the property – which included three vacant parcels at McDowell Road and First Avenue – for $1.78 million, according to Maricopa County records.

The city bought the land from two family trusts: the Doris E. Jones Kile Trust, represented by Northern Trust, and the Paul S. Jones Trust, the records sow.



The building is undergoing renovations for the opera. Now the question is: What should the city do with the neighboring empty properties?

“That would be a nice infill (for the land) – maybe a multifamily, mixed-use development,” said Jeremy Legg, a city economic development manager.

City officials are asking the Phoenix City Council Wednesday to approve a deal with a Phoenix non-profit, the Industrial Development Authority, to help pay for the empty land next to the opera’s new building at 1636 and 1644 N. Central Ave., and work together on ideas for possible construction. For its part, the IDA would chip in $157,500.

Link

Something needs to be done on the empty lot at McDowell and Central. I would prefer a high-rise office or condo building or a mixed use mid-rise. Does anyone remember what used to be there? How long has it been a dirt lot?

[Jjs5056]

Referring back to the topic of development in the area around 44th Street and Van Buren/Washington, there's some small work being done on VB near Tovrea Castle. They've added a small parking lot with some pretty nice signage and landscaping. I'll try to snap a picture this week. The building mentioned in the article at 44th and VB is fairly attractive, as well.

It's a shame how disconnected and underdeveloped that area is with quite a few potential destinations/landmarks, though: Phoenix Municipal Stadium, Papago Park, Zoo/Botanical Garden, Tovrea, etc. It's also right off the light rail and very close to downtown Tempe.

[phxSUNSfan]

Originally Posted by Jjs5056

Referring back to the topic of development in the area around 44th Street and Van Buren/Washington, there's some small work being done on VB near Tovrea Castle. They've added a small parking lot with some pretty nice signage and landscaping. I'll try to snap a picture this week. The building mentioned in the article at 44th and VB is fairly attractive, as well.

It's a shame how disconnected and underdeveloped that area is with quite a few potential destinations/landmarks, though: Phoenix Municipal Stadium, Papago Park, Zoo/Botanical Garden, Tovrea, etc. It's also right off the light rail and very close to downtown Tempe.

It is "underdeveloped" for a variety of reasons. 1) It is close to Sky Harbor and all the accompanying height restrictions, sound issues, etc. 2) Much parkland and parcels that cannot be developed (Pueblo Grande Museum) are within this zone. 3) It is not particularly "close" to either downtown Phoenix or Tempe in terms of continuing the urban core out to 44th St. 4)One corner is also a Transit Center for light rail, the future Sky Train, and buses.

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by nickw252

Link

Something needs to be done on the empty lot at McDowell and Central. I would prefer a high-rise office or condo building or a mixed use mid-rise. Does anyone remember what used to be there? How long has it been a dirt lot?

I really wish the Musical Instrument Museum would've gone on that lot. The MIM fronting McDowell with a pair of 300' or so towers facing Central would've been a dream. Plus with a 3rd Museum (the MIM) in the area the name "Midtown Museum District" would've seemed a bit less silly. I've never really understood how PAM & The Heard constitute a "district".

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by nickw252

Link

Something needs to be done on the empty lot at McDowell and Central. I would prefer a high-rise office or condo building or a mixed use mid-rise. Does anyone remember what used to be there? How long has it been a dirt lot?

It housed a bland, windowless building that belonged to Mountain Bell, now known as Century Link. It was torn down at some point in the early '90s.

Originally Posted by phxSUNSfan

It is "underdeveloped" for a variety of reasons. 1) It is close to Sky Harbor and all the accompanying height restrictions, sound issues, etc. 2) Much parkland and parcels that cannot be developed (Pueblo Grande Museum) are within this zone. 3) It is not particularly "close" to either downtown Phoenix or Tempe in terms of continuing the urban core out to 44th St. 4)One corner is also a Transit Center for light rail, the future Sky Train, and buses.

Agreed, but there has still been a decent amount of development there. Lots of mid rise buildings from 5 to 10 stories have been erected in the past 10 years in the area bounded by Washington St., 44th St., Van Buren, and 48th St.

Originally Posted by HooverDam

I really wish the Musical Instrument Museum would've gone on that lot. The MIM fronting McDowell with a pair of 300' or so towers facing Central would've been a dream. Plus with a 3rd Museum (the MIM) in the area the name "Midtown Museum District" would've seemed a bit less silly. I've never really understood how PAM & The Heard constitute a "district".

Completely agree. Unfortunately, at the time MIM was being planned and built, that lot was slated for two high-rise condo towers that were never built. That's not to excuse MIM's poor site selection, but more just an explanation of why that corner was probably never available to the museum.

[dtnphx]

Africa-Israel Group (can't make this shit up) is the owner of the parcel on McDowell and Central. They're a pretty big outfit, so my guess is their holding until the right project comes along.

http://www.afigroup-global.com/afi_usa_new_york.htm

[glynnjamin]

Just a heads up - dirt lot turning into a parking lot on the SE corner of 2nd Ave & Fillmore, just south of the Lofts.

ASU needs parking for YMCA while they renovate so they are going to pave the lot into another heat island-inducing, flood water collecting parking lot.

[PHX31]

/\ Good, that lot is a huge piece of sh!t. This is one instance where I'd rather see a new parking lot (as it used to be one that fell into total disrepair).

I'll still hold out hope that someday it's developed for real.

[pbenjamin]

The permanent signage for Chipotle (NWC) and Five Guys (NEC) is up at "The Corner on 7th". An eat-outside area is being constructed, surrounded by a railing, on the McDowell side of Chipotle. Temporary window signs for Jersey Mike's (between Chipotle and Five Guys) and How Do You Roll? (SWC) are also on display. How Do You Roll? has a beer and wine license application in the window.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by dtnphx

Africa-Israel Group (can't make this shit up) is the owner of the parcel on McDowell and Central. They're a pretty big outfit, so my guess is their holding until the right project comes along.

http://www.afigroup-global.com/afi_usa_new_york.htm

Fess up.... You just made that site up, right?

Actually I see it's a public company that trades on both the TASE and the LSE. From Wikipedia there is this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Israel_Investments

In September 2009, Leviev's empire was on the verge of collapse. During the real estate bubble of the early 2000s, he had borrowed huge sums of money to acquire property around the world, including America. As American real estate prices plummeted and market values declined to less than half of what Leviev had paid for properties, so did the value of Africa Israel investments. Leviev said: "Our main mistake was the investments in the U.S."[3

Apparently, like everybody else they are recovering slowly. In October they sold the Manhattan Clock Tower for $165 million. (per Wikipedia)

[combusean]

The Africa-Israel site has been for sale for a long freaking time. The associated project *used* to be listed on their website but is long gone.