Because whether or not the true demand is there, you can't lure tenants in Phoenix without parking. It's that simple. And underground is too expensive. No tenants = no new shiny buildings.
I agree with you that the campus could be better integrated with the street (particularly 5th), but I'm skeptical that 7th will ever be more than a thoroughfare for peeps to get from office building to I-10 or points north. Again, decades...I would have rather they opened up the campus entirely to 5th and put the parking on 7th. A wall true, but better than the 'structure' in the garden' creating a dead zone.
As far as a residential component and going up taller...
Who's to say they haven't planned at least the height contingency for future use? Look at all those seemingly similar buildings lined up on 7th. Who's to say that the future build-out of those isn't the same footprint just taller?
For residential, I question whether the ROI is really there for that type of development on this specific campus. The biomed buildings are by default very expensive and nicely finished. To get a similar residential component would then require those buildings to be built to a standard few and far between in downtown Phoenix. And to add to that you have to live within a medical campus? I just don't see it.
I might also interject (off the top of my head) that the types of City/State partnerships they have set up here might require any residential units to have a substantial low income component (or may outlaw residential at all depending on the agreement). So if it's low income, now you have the added problem of building zero return units in a very expensive building.
Doesn't pencil.
I'm simplifying this to a great degree, but most times the things we wish most for particular developments CAN'T be done for reasons that will never and could never be apparent to the general public. Especially those with complicated governmental partnership agreements.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HooverDam
Why can't you get rid of the parking garages? By the City of Phoenix's own numbers we have 10,000 too many parking spaces downtown. People always fear some kind of parking apocalypse, that never really comes in most places. With the LRT right near by, the BioMed area could do fine w/ 1/2 the parking that it has planned.
People live all the time near or right against hospitals all the time, I don't see that being an issue. I'd like to see the City require more residential mixed into the plan. Downtown won't ever be anything without residential.
I'd like to see buildings that face 7th and 5th streets and don't turn their backs on them like most of the current buildings do. I'd like to see more structures in the 10 story range, instead of the 5 story range. They're already acknowledging the possibility of running out of space, so we need to plan ahead. Though I'm aware that way down the line they can/will knock down the Mercado and expand there.
I'm appreciative of the jobs, the dirt lots being filled, etc. I just wish it could be a more urban, integrated and mixed use sort of project.
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