Quote:
Originally Posted by azsunsurfer
Gilbert is definitely an urban center...there are more people downtown on a given Tuesday night than most of Downtown Phoenix's core streets after 7pm. I know I live and work in both but I digress...
I thought the developers of The Standard for some reason owned the whole block? I thought it was remnants of that major redevelopment that was proposed during the boom that at least took the entire north block. Then it will be interesting to see what potentially could be developed on that loan block on the corner. Jack in the Box has no desire to sell even for a redevelopment as we've seen in Downtown Chandler.
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An urban center to me is more than just a busy nightlife. If you can't live there, can't find a professional job there, can't buy necessities like food, clothing, home goods, etc., it's not an urban center, it's a destination that people drive to and then leave. No different than a mall. It may have urban design elements, i.e. no setbacks and so on. And, that's great that what's there is so busy, because that means maybe one day there will be demand for the rest. I'm not arguing with you or trying to degrade Gilbert in any way. I might have a crazy definition, and I'm not saying it is right by any means.
7th Street
The M7 project took up the land north of the Jack in the Box from Mill - 7th. When it went under, the parcels were sold, and one developer got the middle chunk (Wexford) and another got the exterior lots. In requesting a time extension, the owner of the exterior lots mentioned he was trying hard to work out a joint venture, so it's disappointing that Wexford was unwilling. I can't see how having Mill Ave frontage wouldn't make a pretty big impact on the project, and it means those lots will stay empty for quite some time, don't you think?
According to someone working on the
Farmer Arts project,
1) The 13-story residential building is likely to be denied at the upcoming meeting as a vocal minority opposes its height and lack of parking. This is a project on the streetcar line in a city that paid for a study that showed a parking surplus... this should not be an issue. If anyone is able to go support it, they should. It's the only high quality tower geared toward professionals and at some point, the city needs to go up.
2)
The City has been telling them to expect a proposal any week now for the Mosaic lot; this person was under the impression that the 6-story building we've seen renderings of was denied and that the new project is supposed to be more along the lines of Mosaic. Take that with a grain of salt... I believe that a project with Whole Foods is going to be proposed, but I think everyone has assumed it will be a tower and it won't be, which would be ridiculous when the garage next door is up to, what, 8 stories?
3) SRP is fighting hard against the railway path, which is why The Yard has yet to do their part. I think that path is a great feature and the kind of touch that shows a developer/architect is taking their site into consideration. If it gets killed, that sucks.
4) Developers wanted to replace the library (which the city pulled due to budget) with an incubator type of space but the city didn't want that either. So, now, they are thinking of turning one of the offices' floors into a makerspace, which would be a good addition to the area IMO.
5) The City wanted the projects flipped - residential on 5th and office on University. What do you guys think? I think that anything over 8-10 stories on 5th would've been out of scale, and if the Mosaic lot is developed, that'll be a dense cluster with W6 in there, too, which would help support the grocer. The office building is also fairly small and surrounded by live/work and office anyway, so I think it's fine as is.
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I don't see this developer wouldn't have bought at least the parcel along Mill to 1) eliminate the chance of a tower blocking views one day, 2) have Mill ave frontage, and 3) be able to offer more than ~3,500 square feet of retail in such a prime location. It seems short-sighted, and even the original project had a small midrise-ish portion along that area before transitioning into the towers:
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