Phoenix Development News (3)

[PHXFlyer11]

So ArtHaus is moving quickly lots of dirt moving and backhoes on site. Just found out my buddy is the super on this project.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by Jjs5056

Wood has shown it will develop more urban-oriented projects in "safer" locations within central Phoenix. It's crazy to me that the developer behind Skyline Lofts is the same proposing a walled-off project inside downtown's boundaries. Nothing they've built since has been as impressive, but even the proposed Alta Thomas is more appropriate and has street entrances into individual units and common areas.

Not a response to this particular comment but with respect to more prominent apartment developers from this list, based on more recent exposure I'm more familiar with #'s - 1, 2, 3, 7, 15, 18 and 20. Holland Partners and Forest City would be the two standouts. Mill Creek has been a shade more impressive but essentially all the rest build pretty much the same type and quality of product. Many are capable of stepping up for a specific project but generally they stick to their bread and butter.

[TakeFive]

As a counterpoint to my earlier ugly, "depressing" education post it's worth noting that the Phoenix Business Journal has had a number of interesting eco-devo articles including this latest one about the Arizona Zanjeros.

(Note to self - watching baseball games is a very slow moving experience)

I can't recall a time when I could sense so much coordinated cooperation among placemakers as I do now. This more positive energy of ideas and effort combined with Phoenix's growing affordability advantage is bound to lead to very good results.

Additionally, in what I'm sure is highly scientific, the flow of business news in the Phoenix Business Journal seems much higher this year.

[azsunsurfer]

That education spending post was completely irrelevant and inappropriate for this forum. I'd kindly point you in the direction of a tax and policy forum where your post might be better suited. Moderator?!?

[dtnphx]

Heard this on the way in to work this morning. For those wanting to know why their aren't many microbreweries downtown, here's your answer and a fix...

Phoenix One Step Closer to Creating Entertainment District

By Kathy Ritchie

As downtown Phoenix continues to infill, some business owners have encountered a law that has hindered their ability to sell alcohol.

In at least three instances, microbreweries wanting to set up shop downtown couldn’t. Now, the city is one step closer to creating an entertainment district that would change that.

It’s currently against the law for a business to sell alcohol if it’s within 300 feet of a church or school. But for some downtown businesses, that law is especially challenging.

Christine Mackay, director of Community and Economic Development with the City of Phoenix, said there are nine churches in the proposed entertainment district.

"So, this would allow, on a case-by-case basis going through a full public process, to allow that liquor license to be considered by the City Council and the state liquor board," said Mackay

Mackay said the full City Council will vote on the measure June 17.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Midweek Musing

Yikes... Mike Sunnucks, Phoenix Business Journal has their lead story today.
Arizona ranks dead last in teacher pay, classroom spending

Sometimes a visual is much more helpful so I found the following at census.gov.

But at least the state is cutting taxes for the corporate and executive crowd with more on the way and transferring a heavier burden to the cities.

spending =/= quality

I don't care if we spend 0$ per student as long as they are getting good education.

[PHX31]

Looks like the Knipe House development won't be coming to fruition for quite a while. The City just issued an RFP for temporary construction staging and a public parking lot.

https://www.phoenix.gov/solicitations/353

[ASU Diablo]

Originally Posted by dtnphx

Heard this on the way in to work this morning. For those wanting to know why their aren't many microbreweries downtown, here's your answer and a fix...

Phoenix One Step Closer to Creating Entertainment District

By Kathy Ritchie

As downtown Phoenix continues to infill, some business owners have encountered a law that has hindered their ability to sell alcohol.

In at least three instances, microbreweries wanting to set up shop downtown couldn’t. Now, the city is one step closer to creating an entertainment district that would change that.

It’s currently against the law for a business to sell alcohol if it’s within 300 feet of a church or school. But for some downtown businesses, that law is especially challenging.

Christine Mackay, director of Community and Economic Development with the City of Phoenix, said there are nine churches in the proposed entertainment district.

"So, this would allow, on a case-by-case basis going through a full public process, to allow that liquor license to be considered by the City Council and the state liquor board," said Mackay

Mackay said the full City Council will vote on the measure June 17.

This needs to get approved right away. I wonder how the new "district" will be laid out? Would it be just a designated area like previously proposed JSED or have a larger footprint spanning multiple blocks in all directions?

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by airomero83

This needs to get approved right away. I wonder how the new "district" will be laid out? Would it be just a designated area like previously proposed JSED or have a larger footprint spanning multiple blocks in all directions?

My guess is that it will have a large footprint. Unlike JSED, which would have attempted to create concentrated blocks of nightlife, this would simply allow for more flexibility with granting liquor licenses Downtown. The existing 300' distance from churches and schools is a sort of one-size-fits-all requirement that works better in suburbs than it does in dense urban environments.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by PHX31

Looks like the Knipe House development won't be coming to fruition for quite a while. The City just issued an RFP for temporary construction staging and a public parking lot.

https://www.phoenix.gov/solicitations/353

Construction staging makes sense since we're finally seeing new buildings go up along Roosevelt Row. Parking lots seem like a response to an imaginary crisis perceived by some business owners -- ironically, the same people who supported the removal of parallel parking on the north side of Roosevelt as part of the current streetscape project.

[KevininPhx]

Originally Posted by Obadno

spending =/= quality

I don't care if we spend 0$ per student as long as they are getting good education.

I completely agree. Education Week ranks the best states for education and Arizona is still not great, but not at the bottom.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by KevininPhx

I completely agree. Education Week ranks the best states for education and Arizona is still not great, but not at the bottom.

Right! Id be more pissed if our education was as — as it is AND we were paying a lot for it.

For the really expensive states like Michigan, New Jersey and new York the really aren't spending that money on "students" its funding the retirement of 40 years worth of retired teachers and administrators,

[Jjs5056]

Originally Posted by exit2lef

Construction staging makes sense since we're finally seeing new buildings go up along Roosevelt Row. Parking lots seem like a response to an imaginary crisis perceived by some business owners -- ironically, the same people who supported the removal of parallel parking on the north side of Roosevelt as part of the current streetscape project.

Baron - developer of Linear and iLuminate - specifically inquired to the City about using the lot for staging of their projects, with the intent of turning it into a community parking lot; I assume this RFP is just a legal formality and that they will be awarded the site. I'm sure the idea gained momentum because of what you referred to - the unfortunate and misguided business owners of Roosevelt Row who continue to be given far too much sway in how property that isn't theirs is developed. A smarter plan would have been to lobby Baron to include a set # of community parking spaces with the garage of either of his apartments, as was done with Hanover in Tempe. While the parking problem is complete fiction, this would at least have a much less negative impact. A restored historic home + apartments targeting a demographic that is pretty much shut out of downtown ("The Row") = bad for the neighborhood; but, a boarded up home + massive parking lot = great idea!

ETA: My god, I just read the actual RFP and can't believe it includes almost all of the land on the west and east sides of 2nd Street between Roosevelt and Portland! What another disastrous planning decision by the City. They obviously viewed the restoration of the Knipe House and development of the land around it into mixed use buildings that brought new residents downtown as important, based on the RFP issued just 2 years. How does fencing off the Knipe House and surrounding it by asphalt for the forseeable future align with that vision? Yes, the permit is only for 18 months, but at that point, the City simply regains ownership and assumes all of the associated maintenance and security costs. And, if they are deluded into thinking they're providing a needed amenity to serve the community, what motivation is there for them to seek investors at that point?

They should have just allowed Baron to use the site for staging and spent the effort on on creating an inventory of all available parking in the immediate area and making that information readily available (signage on the streets, kiosks with store+parking locations, a website and/or app, communication of the inventory to all business owners who could inform customers/patrons of special events through their own efforts, etc.). If they determined to play along with this "need" for "community parking," then at least they could have waited to issue the RFP until after construction finishes, offered only the west side for surface parking with incentives included for making the parking structured and/or mixed use, and issued an RFP for the Knipe House and east lots concurrently to allow one developer to acquire all of the land if desired. I really can't believe that they issued an RFP to pave one of the most important connections to Hance Park from Roosevelt. I just wrote to the email listed and voiced my concerns... at the very least, they should include language indicating that they'll pursue permanent development of the lots and restoration of the Knipe House once those 18 months are finished.

[Jjs5056]

If I had any hope left that the City was capable of integrating their projects into the greater downtown, it's been erased with just one look at at Fillmore/5th Street and Fillmore/6th Street. With all the land they banked for the PBC, the fact they chose a corner lot close to the western border of the campus for a large parking structure was completely idiotic. If they weren't prepared to develop an urban campus, then they shouldn't have gobbled up all of these sites begin with. There's no reason that parking couldn't be integrated below or within another PBC building. BTW, it almost looks like they put in very shallow retail shells on the west side. But, I'd probably bet on that just being a covered arcade. Regardless, 1 or 2 small retail spaces misses the point. The several garages downtown that have multiple ground-level vacancies are proof of that.

As bad as the garage is, I'm actually more annoyed at how the Cancer Center on 6th Street turned out. This is a great example of how poorly the entire campus was planned.
1) At just 5 (6?) stories tall and taking up only 80% or so of the site, it's completely inappropriate for downtown. With more cancer research/education space being planned, the Center should have been included in a larger, diversified project.
2) — is up with the southwest corner?! From the renderings, I assumed this would be an unnecessary, but attractive and welcoming entrance plaza. Instead, the whole corner is walled off! That entrance plaza was the ONLY feature of the building that gave a nod to urban form, and they've gone and destroyed it.
3) Not a single side of this building creates even a decent pedestrian environment. I understand not everyone will buy into my preference for commercial space, but I don't think anyone can defend a single frontage of the building. 90% of the ground level is just swaths of brick. At least the large plaza would've broken up the mass along both Fillmore and 5th.

By making parking more convenient, and continuing to design buildings that don't encourage pedestrian activity or make commercial shopping/eating possible in the immediate area, they're essentially doing everything they can to ensure that employees and visitors drive to the site, do their business within the 9-5 time of day, and then get back in their car and leave. It was a dumb decision to raze/move the decent amount of historic houses that used to line 4th, 5th and 6th Streets south of Garfield for more PBC land, given the amount of reuse projects filling in the neighborhood. Instead of that momentum spreading to the south, buildings like the Cancer Center will isolate the neighborhood further and destroy the pedestrian-scaled district that has formed. The views from the galleries along Pierce are a good indicator of what we can expect... it will be a great urban experience to be eating at Bliss, or shopping at one of the new live/work units at Prox, surrounded by this:

[Jjs5056]

Meanwhile, Wood Partners continues to — with help from the City, who approved an alleyway abandonment for the Alta Fillmore project. They'd been asked to include the Taylor Paseo within the project and refused; would have been nice to use that public benefit as leverage in negotiating all of these crappy variances.

As far as the "entertainment district," exit is right in that it's merely a way of circumventing the restrictions on liquor licenses due to religious institutes/schools in downtown. Attracting new businesses was a goal of the change, but in reality, I can't see it having much of an impact. It applies to only a select # of empty retail spaces and if someone were truly interested in a venture that required a license, there is a glut of vacancies that wouldn't have posed any problem. I'd be interested in knowing where the 3 microbreweries alluded to were being proposed and why they weren't able to find a comparable space that would have worked.

This is far different from the actions that led to the creation of JSED. Creating an entertainment district along Jackson Street centered along the USAC Paseo was a specific goal written out in a City-produced vision for downtown in the early 2000s, which prompted them to issue an RFP for its creation. That RFP was issued to JSED, which of course ended up going under and its PUD was bought by the developers of the proposed lowrise, single-use Ballpark Apartments. I've always wondered what other responses to that RFP proposed, and whether there might have been a less glitzy version that might have stood a chance at being started prior the recession. It's too bad the City abandoned this goal/vision. While many entertainment districts tend to fail, a plan JSED's that included office and residential uses, would have ensured that it was Disneyland and more of an organic extension of downtown. And, it really was the perfect way to encourage the restoration of the only concentration of historic building stock available in downtown Phoenix and show them off as a unique part of the city's identity. I think that Jackson's current transformation into a hub of 9-5 businesses who are taking advantage of the buildings not for their location or history, but for their low cost, is really lame.

[PHXflyer]

[QUOTE=Jjs5056;7051204]
3) Not a single side of this building creates even a decent pedestrian environment. I understand not everyone will buy into my preference for commercial space, but I don't think anyone can defend a single frontage of the building. 90% of the ground level is just swaths of brick. At least the large plaza would've broken up the mass along both Fillmore and 5th.


Even worse....it's not brick. It's appears to be a cheesy tile facade. Brick would've been a massive improvement

[biggus diggus]

Biggus Diggus does not like the building pictured two posts up in the Google Street View shot. It's not only (in my opinion) a bad, bland, ugly building, but it has zero interaction with the street at all and it's kind of sad to look at.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by Jjs5056

As far as the "entertainment district," exit is right in that it's merely a way of circumventing the restrictions on liquor licenses due to religious institutes/schools in downtown. Attracting new businesses was a goal of the change, but in reality, I can't see it having much of an impact. It applies to only a select # of empty retail spaces and if someone were truly interested in a venture that required a license, there is a glut of vacancies that wouldn't have posed any problem. I'd be interested in knowing where the 3 microbreweries alluded to were being proposed and why they weren't able to find a comparable space that would have worked.

I've heard speculation the DeSoto Market would have been a great home for a brewery, but that was hard to do given the church next door. Breweries need a lot more space than a typical retail spot, and they need a bit of height for the tanks.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Jjs5056

If I had any hope left that the City was capable of integrating their projects into the greater downtown, it's been erased with just one look at at Fillmore/5th Street and Fillmore/6th Street. With all the land they banked for the PBC, the fact they chose a corner lot close to the western border of the campus for a large parking structure was completely idiotic. If they weren't prepared to develop an urban campus, then they shouldn't have gobbled up all of these sites begin with. There's no reason that parking couldn't be integrated below or within another PBC building. BTW, it almost looks like they put in very shallow retail shells on the west side. But, I'd probably bet on that just being a covered arcade. Regardless, 1 or 2 small retail spaces misses the point. The several garages downtown that have multiple ground-level vacancies are proof of that.

As bad as the garage is, I'm actually more annoyed at how the Cancer Center on 6th Street turned out. This is a great example of how poorly the entire campus was planned.
1) At just 5 (6?) stories tall and taking up only 80% or so of the site, it's completely inappropriate for downtown. With more cancer research/education space being planned, the Center should have been included in a larger, diversified project.
2) — is up with the southwest corner?! From the renderings, I assumed this would be an unnecessary, but attractive and welcoming entrance plaza. Instead, the whole corner is walled off! That entrance plaza was the ONLY feature of the building that gave a nod to urban form, and they've gone and destroyed it.
3) Not a single side of this building creates even a decent pedestrian environment. I understand not everyone will buy into my preference for commercial space, but I don't think anyone can defend a single frontage of the building. 90% of the ground level is just swaths of brick. At least the large plaza would've broken up the mass along both Fillmore and 5th.

By making parking more convenient, and continuing to design buildings that don't encourage pedestrian activity or make commercial shopping/eating possible in the immediate area, they're essentially doing everything they can to ensure that employees and visitors drive to the site, do their business within the 9-5 time of day, and then get back in their car and leave. It was a dumb decision to raze/move the decent amount of historic houses that used to line 4th, 5th and 6th Streets south of Garfield for more PBC land, given the amount of reuse projects filling in the neighborhood. Instead of that momentum spreading to the south, buildings like the Cancer Center will isolate the neighborhood further and destroy the pedestrian-scaled district that has formed. The views from the galleries along Pierce are a good indicator of what we can expect... it will be a great urban experience to be eating at Bliss, or shopping at one of the new live/work units at Prox, surrounded by this:

The city just wants people downtown...anyway possible.

It doesn't matter that the streetscape is horrible, if people come downtown we can worry about that later.

You are reverse of the strategy the city ahs employed, nobody goes downtown, so why make it even more difficult to do so.

[KevininPhx]

Originally Posted by biggus diggus

Biggus Diggus does not like the building pictured two posts up in the Google Street View shot. It's not only (in my opinion) a bad, bland, ugly building, but it has zero interaction with the street at all and it's kind of sad to look at.

I half disagree. It's a beautiful building. But as much as I like how it looks, it seems designed to keep people away from it.