Phoenix Development News (3)

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by Skyline Phoenix

Hopefully they are not just in place temporarily for the game.

with team logos on them, I'd assume they would have to be temporary.

[combusean]

Originally Posted by PHX31

Yeah, they probably just leased out the land to someone to stage their construction equipment for some other project.

Even a temporary lease for a construction storage yard is a relatively hefty amount of zoning bureaucracy. Then again, I'm not sure how much this is ever followed around here.

[Tempe_Duck]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

with team logos on them, I'd assume they would have to be temporary.

More than likely. They did the same thing when the game was in NYC. They had miniature statue of liberties around town for each team. When I was there I got most of them on picture, I can share some of them if people want to see them.

[HooverDam]

^Might as well post them, "development" news has been very slow as of late.

I wish the statues were permanent, we need more art of every kind in our Cities core. Even though those aren't particularly inspired, I'd like to have them just to commemorate the event.

Likewise (and I know this will never happen under penny pinching Sarver) I wish USAC would have bronze statues of all the Suns who's numbers have been retired out front in that semi circular plaza. Maybe as this slide into mediocrity the Suns are about to embark on happens the team will do something like that and have Connie Hawkins night, Charles Barkley night, etc to drum up ticket sales.

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by HooverDam

Charles Barkley night, etc to drum up ticket sales.

first 500 fans get a blowjob from a scottsdale stripper!

[Tempe_Duck]

Originally Posted by HooverDam

^Might as well post them, "development" news has been very slow as of late.

I wish the statues were permanent, we need more art of every kind in our Cities core. Even though those aren't particularly inspired, I'd like to have them just to commemorate the event.

Likewise (and I know this will never happen under penny pinching Sarver) I wish USAC would have bronze statues of all the Suns who's numbers have been retired out front in that semi circular plaza. Maybe as this slide into mediocrity the Suns are about to embark on happens the team will do something like that and have Connie Hawkins night, Charles Barkley night, etc to drum up ticket sales.

https://picasaweb.google.com/robert.scheib/NYCBoston?authkey=Gv1sRgCLO30JeYiOiW9gE&feat=directlink


Here they are. 8 of them. I guess I didn't get as many as I thought I did.

[glynnjamin]

^I have the mini versions of the Dodgers and Dbacks Statues of Liberty. They are kind of awesome. They do something like this every year. When the ASG was in Anaheim, they had team Mickey Mouses which I picked up. Will definitely be picking up the Dodgers' cactus this year.

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by glynnjamin

^I have the mini versions of the Dodgers and Dbacks Statues of Liberty. They are kind of awesome. They do something like this every year. When the ASG was in Anaheim, they had team Mickey Mouses which I picked up. Will definitely be picking up the Dodgers' cactus this year.

Baseball fans are weird because collecting corporate logo clad trinkets somehow is cool to them.

Everyone has their collecting vices, I mean, I have sunk $8500 into two bicycles, but at least I can do something with them. I have a friend with over $30,000 in baseball memorabilia and he is obsessed with it, but can't touch it and won't let anyone else open the boxes it is in.

I'm kind of giving you a hard time but at the same time I do sort of wonder why people like to collect things with logos on them. I usually take the logos off of items I buy.

[pbenjamin]

There is one of the statues on display in the entrance area of Chase Field, next to where they display the World Series trophy.

[Tempe_Duck]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

There is one of the statues on display in the entrance area of Chase Field, next to where they display the World Series trophy.

Yeah that's right. There is one there. Most likely is the one I have the picture of.

[HX_Guy]

More details on the Phoenix School of Law move to downtown...

Phoenix law school to move downtown

1 comment by Emily Gersema - Apr. 26, 2011 03:39 PM
The Arizona Republic

The growing for-profit Phoenix School of Law is moving downtown this year into bigger digs at The Tower at One North Central near Washington Street, providing more potential customers for downtown businesses and creating some new jobs.

The school, owned by InfiLaw System, has been growing since it was founded in 2004. It is now in a building at 4041 N. Central Ave., ,near Indian School Road. Its downtown lease, which starts Aug. 1, ,doubles its space for new students and employees.

The school's current enrollment of about 700 students will increase by 350 new students for the school year that begins in August, said Scott Thompson, CEO and president of Phoenix School of Law.


Thompson said that with the continued increase in students and the addition of new certificate programs and specializations, the school will need to hire more people, adding to its current 100 faculty and staff members., "I would probably say in the neighborhood of about 40 jobs in the next four years" will be added, Thompson said.

Colliers International negotiated the lease on behalf of Mitsubishi Estate New York. Colliers officials said the law school is renting 205,130 square feet of space, filling eight floors of the 20-story building.

The school has filled about 93,000 square feet of space at its current home, said Jay Hoselton, the Cushman & Wakefield real estate representative who has assisted the school with moves since it opened.

Hoselton said the school had been searching for two years for new property to rent or buy that would accommodate its students and employees and allow for expansion.

The school's search narrowed to downtown about six months ago for "the light rail, the downtown amenities, housing, central location, the courts, and the law firms," he said.

Marty Shultz, chairman of the Phoenix Community Alliance, said the school's shift downtown is the latest of a series of moves by law firms and other related businesses that have filled offices close to Maricopa County Superior Court and Phoenix Municipal Court.

Also, "if you look around downtown, you see a number of old houses and small buildings that are also now being inhabited by smaller law firms that specialize in land use," Shultz said. "This is a wonderful concentration, a critical mass."

Shultz is among several community leaders and businessmen who have been trying to draw more businesses to the downtown area.

Arizona State University plans to build a law school downtown, and is raising money for the project.



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/business/articl...arizona-move-downtown.html#ixzz1Kkbb3eRQ

[PhxDowntowner]

Originally Posted by scottkag

The thing on McDowell (the Max and Lucy Building) is between 1st and 3rd ave. It is mixed use, with an office and gallery down and a private home up. Extremely cool building.

It's called After Hours Gallery, owned by Mike Oleskow and Russ Haan.

[PhxDowntowner]

Originally Posted by PHX31

You're right... I meant to say 5th Ave, but it's really closer to Central. We need more smaller mixed use buildings in northern downtown like that. Everything doesn't have to be a super-development and take up half or a whole city block.

As long as "smaller" is just in reference to the footprint, not the height, because we can still build meaningful height on 1/3 acre parcels. We MUST build height (i.e. density) where ever we can downtown. We will fail without it.

[PhxDowntowner]

Originally Posted by HooverDam

PHX31, you're right that the Westward Ho does have spots for ground floor retail but all of them are empty. No one is likely going to want to put their store, bar, whatever in a smelly building full of Seniors who are in HUD housing.

I so want the Ho to be converted to an upscale boutique hotel like it should be. I'm happy to have the Seniors downtown, but it seems like a building expressly built with their special needs (handicap accommodations and the like) would be better suited for them.

All the bars along Central are still open, or were as of me moving in January, so a nightlife type destination going into Circles would certainly help build on that synergy. The more I think about it the coolest use for Circles I think since its so big would be a traditional dance club/ballroom type place. There's nothing like that in CenPho, there's Kats Korner in Mesa and another place up on T-Bird and the 51, but a big dance hall that could bring in swing, big bands, salsa, etc. to downtown I imagine would be really popular.

Finally on the subject of the public market, I sure would like to see it expand to that surface lot bounded by Central, 1st St, Fillmore and Pierce. A large Sky Song style shade structure over that lot would make it into a great permanent public market. I'd love it to grow into a market like most other big cities have with lots of international options, vastly more produce as well as more non grocery items.

They could also use the underground portion of that lot that apparently once was home to a bowling alley for restrooms and facilities. Then I'd like to see Pierce closed off between Central & 1st and used as a permanent home for food trucks that can continue to augment the market.

All of that would free up the inverted L shaped lot (bounded by 1st, Central, Pierce and McKinely). I think it would be terrific for a public garden and citrus orchard to then be built there. The things grown there could of course be then sold at the outdoor market or in the market store.

We'd really be looking at something special along Central if all of that happened. Going from the CBD, to the park, ASU downtown, the rehabbed Post Office as ASU student Center, a public market that takes up an entire city block, the Ho back to its full glory and then a strip of night life spots all before hitting the Central/Roosevelt station. It would be awesome.

(1) It should probably be offices above and directly adjacent to the clubs, because of the loudness and the timing of said loudness. But alas our city planners will never realize this nor will they ever be that coordinated in their zoning and design guidelines. "Free" market knows best.

(2) How many square feet of space is underneath the Ho? That would be some pretty awesome location for a small (10k sqft) grocery a la Fresh & Easy. Perfectly centralized to the urban residential and close enough to the Public Market to trip chain on foot. That would be the worst nightmare of McDowell's Safeway.

[PhxDowntowner]

Originally Posted by PHX31

yeah, the were going for a grant or they won some money which would have closed down and improved pierce. It included some really nice improvements on top of the small ones they recently made with the additional shade structures.

Construction on this is starting early June. I haven't seen the design so, this being Phoenix, I'm just crossing my fingers.

And I don't know, but I assume the 1st St. Streetscape project's construction will then start shortly after that (for which I <i>have</i> seen the horrific designs ).

EDIT: apparently html doesn't work here.

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by PhxDowntowner

As long as "smaller" is just in reference to the footprint, not the height, because we can still build meaningful height on 1/3 acre parcels. We MUST build height (i.e. density) where ever we can downtown. We will fail without it.

We will fail at what?

[bwonger06]

Originally Posted by PhxDowntowner

As long as "smaller" is just in reference to the footprint, not the height, because we can still build meaningful height on 1/3 acre parcels. We MUST build height (i.e. density) where ever we can downtown. We will fail without it.

As has been brought up numerous times, height is very, very overrated. What we need is to have buildings occupy empty parcels. Look at DC and Chicago (not downtown). What you see is there are a lot of great building-street interaction yet most places will top out at 4-5 stories. Heck I would rather have a lot of nice one-three story places in that northern stretch if it meant building out the empty parcel. Mill is a great example of how height does not equal urban success.

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by PhxDowntowner

(2) How many square feet of space is underneath the Ho? That would be some pretty awesome location for a small (10k sqft) grocery a la Fresh & Easy. Perfectly centralized to the urban residential and close enough to the Public Market to trip chain on foot. That would be the worst nightmare of McDowell's Safeway.

Do you mean on the ground floor or the underground portion? I don't know the precise answer to either unfortunately.

To clarify, from my understanding the underground portion is all under the block bounded by Central/1st/Fillmore/Pierce and there's a tunnel/walkway connecting it to the Ho. I don't think that underground space consumes the whole block though, maybe about half of it.

But the ground floor of the Ho facing Central would be a great place for a smaller grocery like Fresh & Easy, Sunflower or Trader Joes. Sadly I can't imagine that ever happening as long as the Ho is HUD housing, it makes all that potentially great ground floor retail total poison it seems.

E: Rough estimate according to the Google Area Calc: It looks like the two ground floor retail spaces that flank the hotel entrance facing Central are each about 2,800 sq feet, so they'd both be too small for a grocery store. Now if that entry way was converted to the entry for a supermarket and people just had to enter the hotel off of Fillmore, maybe that could work.

Additionally between the Ho and the nightclubs just North of it is a surface lot with some service entries and such. That area roughly totals 14,500 square feet according to the area calc. A new structure could be wedged in there pretty easily for a market and still have space left over for delivery trucks and such.

Finally, the portion of the Ho that directly abuts 1st Ave and Fillmore could also be a possibility. If I recall correctly it was once the "Thunderbird Room", a huge ballroom/event space. Its since been subdivided into a bunch of apartments for the Seniors. It looks like its potentially over 15K square feet and its big boxy shape may work perfectly as a Grocery. However if the Ho were converted back to a hotel perhaps they'd want to revert that space a ballroom for meetings, conventions, etc.

E: Also check out my thread of photos I took on a tour of the Ho a while back: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=168086

I can't recommend highly enough going to the Ho sometime and asking if Earling still gives tours, you should take one for sure. Its sad most Phoenicians haven't been able to experience the great building.

[Vicelord John]

Or look at central los angeles. One of the densest places ive ever been and most buildings are 2-3 stories.

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by PhxDowntowner

As long as "smaller" is just in reference to the footprint, not the height, because we can still build meaningful height on 1/3 acre parcels. We MUST build height (i.e. density) where ever we can downtown. We will fail without it.

I disagree, we need the largest footprints possible (minimal setbacks) for buildings. Height in the northern area of downtown is not needed at all.

I'd rather have a 3 story building or series of buildings take up 75%-90% of a parcel than a 25 story building take up 25% of a parcel.