Phoenix Development News (3)

[nickw252]

Not too much new to see here, but progress is being made:

[nickw252]

Does anyone know about this? It's the apartment building beside the Native Connections building. It looks like it may be re-habbed.

[nickw252]

Phoenix officials hope to attract residents to some of the city’s vacant lots with urban farms, public art and innovative seating areas.

They’re launching an initiative aimed at working with various community groups and property owners to find temporary uses for these lots. They’re identifying potential lots, contacting the property owners and connecting them with groups and individuals with creative ideas.

Longer term, they hope to attract more infill building, and they hope this temporary fix will spur development.

It’s no small task. Vacant lots make up 43 percent of the land in Phoenix, according to a 2000 study by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton will announce the initiative at 10:30 a.m. Monday at a news conference at the site of the first project on the northeastern corner of Central Avenue and Indian School Road. The location is home to a 15-acre privately owned lot that has been vacant since 1990. One of its new uses will be a community garden.

The city also is working with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and local artists on the space.

“This really is a living and learning laboratory. We want it to be dynamic. We want it to be energetic and to percolate from here,” said Colin Tetreault, senior policy adviser to Stanton on sustainability. “If there’s a concept that works, they can go out and be successful at other places. We really expect to learn a whole lot from this test.”

City officials said Stanton has made filling the city’s vacant lots a priority since he began campaigning. Residents would constantly ask the mayor about vacant lots in their neighborhoods.

Paul Blue,Stanton’s chief of staff, said Phoenix residents want to drive less and want amenities closer to their homes. City officials hope developers respond by building projects in more dense locations as opposed to the outskirts.

“This use of vacant land is not brand new rocket science we’re dreaming up,” he said. “We think we’re doing some smart stuff, but on the East Coast, this philosophy is old and has been for half of a century.”

The initial transformation

The city focused its efforts for the first project on land that once housed the former Phoenix Indian School, which served Native American high-school and grade-school students.

The city partnered with Keep Phoenix Beautiful, a non-profit that focuses on environmental issues, and the Barron Collier Co., owners of the central Phoenix property.

City officials hope this project will serve as the prototype for how groups can temporarily use other vacant properties.

The city reached out to the International Rescue Committee, an international non-profit that serves refugees, because of its history with community gardening in Phoenix. About 80 refugees affiliated with the group will learn how to garden in Phoenix’s desert climate.

“They are high-impact. They don’t just do gardening. It’s kind of a micro-enterprise concept,” Tetreault said. “They educate and provide business and development opportunities. They really were a natural fit.”

John Vosper, the rescue committee’s community and economic development program manager, said the project is not only about filling vacant lots but about diversity and sustainable urban practices. The gardens also could help the refugees launch careers as urban farmers, non-profit leaders said.

“Being in such a central part of the city will raise the profile of refugees in the community,” he said.

Impact of vacant lots

City officials say Phoenix has dealt with an overabundance of vacant lots for decades, a problem rooted in outdated urban planning practices.

“There are a lot of classic reasons — the standard development process, historical leap-frog development, land speculation from the housing crisis,” Tetreault said. “Just our style of development at large. It’s kind of gotten us here where we are now.”

Blue said space did not limit where developers could build in Phoenix like it did in some older, East Coast cities.

“For the past 50, 60, 70 years, we’ve been building at the desert’s edge. If there was a site that was hard to build on, they bypassed it and moved to the next easiest thing to build on,” he said.

The city said the emptiness has given potential developers a negative perception of activity in Phoenix.

“Everybody has their favorite corner (to point out) in Phoenix. It’s kind of endemic that there seems to be a lot of this,” Blue said. “If it’s not adding value, it may be detracting value from the community.”

The lack of development hurts Phoenix financially because the city misses out on potential tax revenue, Blue said. Vacant lots can lead to zoning-enforcement issues that can be costly for the city — such as overgrown weeds and brush — if they’re not maintained.

Long-term goals

The city’s long-term goal is to get the land developed.

“Ultimately, these properties have an end date where they get built with something eventually and add value to the community,” Blue said.

The city does not offer any financial incentive to landowners to use vacant properties. City officials hope potential developers notice the activity and are motivated to build a project.

“There is a lot we’re asking of the partner, to be fair,” said Ruben Alonzo, Stanton’s deputy chief of staff. “For whatever reason, they own the lot and it’s vacant at this moment. But they stepped up when asked. In order to move forward, it required public and private partnerships on these properties.”

Phoenix owns a small percentage of the city’s vacant lots, but officials aren’t exactly sure of how many. Most of them are downtown, Blue said, and the city has plans to develop them.

“For example on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, we have very specific plans for how to develop that real estate over time with medical uses,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re walking the walk and not just asking other people to do stuff (with their land).”

The public art and landscaping in a previously vacant lot on the northeastern corner of Second and Roosevelt streets is an example of what the city hopes to mimic in other lots.

Barron Collier President Blake Gable said he has looked at potential mixed-use projects to bring to his lot on Indian School Road for the past two decades.

Until then, he’s excited about making his land available to the city for temporary projects.

“There are a lot of options out there,” he said. “The trick is just making sure you find the right one that makes the most sense to the community and the most sense economically.”

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoen...enix-has-plans-its-many-vacant-lots.html

[RichTempe]

Sorry if I missed this somewhere, but does anyone know what is happening with the lot west of 16th St. between Washington & Jefferson? I went by on the train today and there is some construction activity going on and the lot is fenced off.

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by RichTempe

Sorry if I missed this somewhere, but does anyone know what is happening with the lot west of 16th St. between Washington & Jefferson? I went by on the train today and there is some construction activity going on and the lot is fenced off.

This is an apartment complex Im pretty sure. I think it was supposed to happen during the boom and be taller, but due to the recession and former Councilman Calvin Goode being a lunatic its been downsized.

[Vicelord John]

It's called Washington pointe

[RichTempe]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

It's called Washington pointe

No doubt brought to us by the developers of Roosevelt Point. Funny

[Vicelord John]

Bummer. It's more fucking low income dirty senior housing.

http://www.acanthusarchitecture.com/work/senior-housing/

[Don B.]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

Bummer. It's more fucking low income dirty senior housing.

http://www.acanthusarchitecture.com/work/senior-housing/

How is this a "bummer?" And I don't know where you got "dirty" out of this project, which is better than a dirt lot.

*sighs*

--don

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

Bummer. It's more fucking low income dirty senior housing.

http://www.acanthusarchitecture.com/work/senior-housing/

Not sure what else you expected near Eastlake Park.

The City did a real nice job on the parks renovation, but that hasn't been a premier residential area in the City since when....the 20s? I know at one point it was a big deal, the Streetcar went there on one end and the State Capitol at the other end.

[Vicelord John]

I didn't expect "premier" but maybe just normal apartments.

The senior housing by me is grosser than gross. I can only assume this will be the same.

[nickw252]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

Bummer. It's more fucking low income dirty senior housing.

http://www.acanthusarchitecture.com/work/senior-housing/

I don't often agree with VLJ but here I do. We need more market rate housing aimed at young professionals and students in buildings that are better than this 3 floor POS.

I think the Lofts at McKinley came out well but c'mon, I don't want downtown to turn into Sun City West with all this senior housing.

[Arquitect]

Originally Posted by nickw252

I don't often agree with VLJ but here I do. We need more market rate housing aimed at young professionals and students in buildings that are better than this 3 floor POS.

I think the Lofts at McKinley came out well but c'mon, I don't want downtown to turn into Sun City West with all this senior housing.

I couldn't disagree more with this statement. Not all old people are the same, so downtown would never become sun city. There are some older people who love to live in urban environments, and would be a great addition to downtown.

What downtown needs is not just young professionals and students. It needs diversity! Look at what makes old European cities great, and even some older American downtowns. It is having a diverse population, with diffetent groups that have different needs and different life styles. This leads to many different types of businisses opening, a constant life in the area, and great communities.

Only developing student and market-rate housing will cause phoenix to be just a hippster and yuppy spot. With overpriced mini stores and restaurants, but not a place that is always full of life. The business would greatly suffer in the summer when all the students take off. These people are important in the area, but if you really want a grocery store downtown and a more livable environment, you need that diversity.

Market-rate and student housing will come along because it follows the money. Developers are starting to realize that downtown is a great investment. So, if it is a project in which the city is involved (either by donating land, giving special tax cuts or adjusting the codes, or putting money into it), i think it should be senior housing, or low income housing, or serve any other community that has a role to play downtown, but wont be represented if only expensive condos and student appartments are available.

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by Arquitect

Only developing student and market-rate housing will cause phoenix to be just a hippster and yuppy spot.

[combusean]

I never thought I'd say this, but as I've gone from an owner-occupier to out-of-state investor in Phoenix I guess I have to: there is far too much affordable housing that's gone up lately compared to market rate units. I had always expected the Lofts at McKinley to be affordable housing, but now the 2nd Avenue crappy office building has gone that way. Washington Pointe could have been a bellwether project for actually turning that neighborhood around but now it won't.

Throw in Roosevelt Pointe and there's no new housing that's been built for normal people in Downtown Phoenix for years and years. The lack of news or construction activity for market rate projects feel like Downtown Phoenix is still a risky overall long shot and makes me question why I'm still bothering. Look at CityScape's residential component just drag on...

And while downtown should be able to be big enough for everyone, at this point it's really all about the fact that the area median incomes are never going to get up to respectable levels to attract retailers at this rate. It's supposed to be a self-feeding cycle: residents attract retailers which attract new residents which attract more retailers, etc, but it feels like it's just not going to happen.

[Vicelord John]

Sean just said, in greater detail, what I said in my earlier posts.

He is right. This bullshit senior, subsidized, whateverthefuck housing needs to take a chill pill and let some people move into the area that will actually help our local economy grow.

[nickw252]

Originally Posted by combusean

but now the 2nd Avenue crappy office building has gone that way.

What office building is this? Are you talking about the apartments that are being worked on right by the Native Connections building under construction?

[soleri]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

oh yeah, minority housing too.

How do the injuns get away with that shit, but I could never build a whites only apartment.

Oh, you can. Just price them high enough and you'll get the desired outcome.
Downtown Phoenix, however, looks the way it does because the people with money already voted with their feet. They like their high-end properties not only outside downtown but outside central Phoenix, too. In my neighborhood near 7th Ave & Camelback, the only construction going is senior/social housing. The great gold rush of yuppie gentrifiers never happened. And this points out that the market is a harsh mistress. You can tweak it with incentives and abatements but you can't make something vital that died years ago. Native Americans may not be your desired demographic but they are alive. And they have long memories.

[Vicelord John]

Soleri misses the point.

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

oh yeah, minority housing too.

How do the injuns get away with that shit, but I could never build a whites only apartment.

Thank your Federal government. You also can't operate a casino on your land and live tax free.