Quote:
Originally Posted by combusean
^ The complaints you listed about downtown are the reason investment is needed elsewhere. Downtown is a concrete mishmash of perpetually vacant lots, crummy buildings, and pockets of activity that isn't turning around quickly. All the sites that are available step on some other building. 2007 was the biggest boom in real estate downtown in decades, yet huge numbers of sites sat dormant with no proposals attached to them.
The reason why is that downtown isn't worth its land values and not really worth retrofitting for brand new high-rises--not yet at least. You have to clean up its perimeters with higher incomes because those radii are formulaic that anybody looking to expand downtown is looking at.
I'd like to have a chance at one good retail street in Phoenix, or maybe see new lots in the central city that actually got developed without insane overzoning leaving them vacant forever.
What's your alternative, anyways? That the 200 acres directly east of downtown sit as a polluted industrial transportation site until the end of time?
And Cohoots wasn't downtown, they were in Eastlake.
And you talk like moving an arena 3 blocks is going to kill any part of one neighborhood. Huh?
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CO+HOOTS is expanding and was looking exclusively at downtown for their new location until Mackay convinced them to go to Midtown. Their current Eastlake location is irrelevant.
I completely understand what you're saying in some regards, and no - my alternative is not to let the area lay in its current state forever, but to let private market demands and private developers invest into the area as the benefits of dense urban infill will have been seen by the success of projects like the ones being built in Garfield. In the meantime, the City - instead of playing real estate developer - could focus on projects like making 7th Street less of a highway, designing PBC to connect to both the east AND west, etc. to allow the development east of downtown to support the core instead of blocking them out. And, they could also enforce things Urban Form so that the chance of a street lined with retail could actually be a reality instead of blocks of loading docks and garages (can you imagine the type of design that would fly on 9th/Jackson?).
Look at what's been done at 111 Monroe; a private developer renovated what was once unusable, outdated office space and attracted a ton of employers with jobs that are perfect fits for the demographic that is wanting to live/work/play in urban areas. The ground floor, which had a pizza joint and dentist, now has a brewery, record store, antique store, wine/cheese shop, and coffee shop. Similar successful renovations have been done in Midtown (Thomas/Central (or 3rd? with the mural and MOD), for example). Meanwhile, there are more residential projects under construction just north of downtown than ever before, and the number of adaptive reuse projects filled with cool, local businesses is amazing- Milkbar, Songbird, Be+Coffee, Street Coffee, Sutra Yoga, Antique Sugar, VELO...
So, I'm not sure how why you act as if downtown is in some type of holding pattern until the surrounding neighborhoods gentrify. Even the southern part of downtown is seeing more action than ever with ASU's art program moving to Grant, The Croft, R&R, several architects, Training Institute... A development of cheap low-rise crap east of 7th Street will most definitely compete with - and crush - the remaining warehouses which are viable options right now for businesses who want to be downtown and can't afford high rise prices. How is that a good thing? And, yes, I do think moving the arena will kill the Warehouse District. What chance does it have if you replace one of its only sources of energy and visibility with a giant empty shell and superblock? A new mixed-use arena in its current location is a chance to connect Jackson to Jefferson with a mix of residential, offices, and retail that could finally spark something. This + LRT = exactly what you say has to happen: giving neighborhoods (that exist - unlike any new faux urban-or-not 'hood potentially built on 9th/Jackson) like Central/Grant Park access to services, schools, jobs, and making them an affordable option for middle-class Phoenicians.
Maybe I wasn't clear and I should have reiterated that my issue is if *the City* assembles land and RFPs it in the 9th Street/Jackson area. Developers, over time, investing in that area would be great, of course. But, nothing the City has done makes me believe that something under their watch can be built on that land that will benefit downtown. Because, thanks to projects they've commissioned like PBC and Chase, that area is in no way even connected to downtown despite its proximity. There are so many other areas that the City can focus on to position downtown AND these surrounding neighborhoods as good opportunities for investors. In fact, I'd be happy if the City, State, and County never touched another piece of downtown land or its buildings and instead focused solely on attracting investment. Together, this combo has already wasted enough of downtown's potential: The Security Building (County), The Warehouse District (west of Central; County), Phoenix Biomedical Campus (City; I have no doubt that there'd be proposals out for the land between 4th - 7th Streets, Garfield - Fillmore, if it hadn't been land-banked for these shitty buildings which could have fit into 3-5 towers south of Fillmore), the lack of accountability for much of ASU's design (City)... luckily, their RFPs are almost always a bust (where's that crane for Central Station?).