Phoenix spending $560,000 on First Street face-lift, more storefronts sought
Mike Sunnucks
Senior Reporter-
Phoenix Business Journal
The city of Phoenix is spending $560,000 on street improvements, decorative sidewalks, new trees and pedestrian-friendly upgrades along First Street in downtown Phoenix.
Downtown business owners, hoteliers and restaurants are also talking to the city about other improvements along First Street as a way to link Arizona State University’s downtown campus with CityScape, US Airways Center and the Phoenix Convention Center.
Tom Delaney, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Phoenix at First and Adams streets, said business owners and the city are kicking around a number of ideas.
“The goal is to make it more pedestrian friendly,” Delaney said.
He said there could be more storefronts and restaurant spaces developed along First Street, especially in between Washington and Monroe streets.
There has been some talk of closing at least part of Adams Street near the convention center and Hyatt to make it into a pedestrian mall.
Delaney said that idea is less likely to happen, but there is consensus to perhaps close other downtown streets for special events. “We’re really brainstorming ideas,” he said.
Ideas include narrowing First Street and putting in decorative sidewalks, crosswalks and landscaping to give the area a pedestrian-friendly feel.
Delaney said another goal is to make the downtown area more inviting for convention attendees and tourists.
The First Street road and sidewalk improvements are running from Washington Street to Moreland Street. City spokesman Matthew Heil said the first wave of street improvements will be done by Oct. 25.
That projects echo the $450,000 the city has spent on improvements, bike lanes and narrowing of Grand Avenue just west of downtown.
Delaney said business owners and city planners are looking at downtown development efforts in Denver and San Antonio to get ideas for making First Street into a more vibrant area.
The street connects to US Airways Center and CityScape to the south and ASU to the north. It is already home to a number of restaurants and cuts in between the Hyatt and Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel.
Popular Glendale restaurant, La Piazza al Forno, has recently opened on a new downtown location on First Street and Cartel Coffee Lab moved into a large space in the same building at First and Washington streets. Cartel will expand its hours later this month to stay open later in the evening. The cafe has also started to serve a beer and wine.
That follows up on Duck and Decanter’s First Street location also serving beer and wine and staying open into the evening. Downtown Phoenix for years has been dogged by the reputation of being a ghost town after the workday ends, and a number of downtown restaurants still close before dusk.
Several of CityScape’s restaurants — which stay open at night — sit on the First Street side of the development.
However, there are some empty storefronts and underused blocks on the downtown stretch of First Street. The Burger King restaurant at First and Washington streets closed recently, as did another franchise location near Arrowhead Town Center in Glendale. The Matador Restaurant space has been vacant since it closed last year after a fire and revelations of the ownership’s financial troubles.
Delaney said what to do with the former Mexican restaurant space is part of the greater discussions about First Street. He said the space could be divided up into more than one tenant.
Like other parts of downtown, improvement efforts will have to deal with so-called dead blocks that abut parking garages or sides of buildings without storefronts, as well as homeless transients and panhandlers who populate the area during the day.
Heil said the city is trying some new ideas as part of the current street improvements.
“Large-format original local artwork will also be mounted on the south and west face of the Hyatt Regency Hotel,” he said.
The project will also be Phoenix’s first foray into something call a parklet.
“This project will install Phoenix’s first parklet at Matt’s Big Breakfast on First Street and Garfield Street,” Heil said. “A parklet is a platform constructed within an on-street parking space to provide an area for people to sit and relax.”
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