Monday, October 22, 2007 - 4:33 PM MST
Wachovia to anchor CityScape office towerThe Business Journal of Phoenix - by Jan Buchholz Phoenix Business Journal
Wachovia Corp. announced Monday that it will be the anchor tenant in the 600,000-square-foot CityScape office tower in downtown Phoenix.
The complete CityScape project -- a 2.5 million-square-foot retail, residential, office and hospitality complex spanning three city blocks -- is being built by RED Development, which has offices in Scottsdale and Kansas City, Mo. The project is in the spotlight this week, with a big groundbreaking celebration scheduled for Monday night.
Wachovia, based in Charlotte, N.C., announced several weeks ago that it was planning to locate its Arizona headquarters in downtown Phoenix, but declined to say where until now.
"Wachovia has the naming rights (to the office tower)," said Michael Ebert, owner of RED Development.
Wachovia, the fourth-largest bank in the country, has been moving into the Phoenix market slowly with several acquisitions. But officials decided to make a big splash with this move, putting the bank's name on a downtown office building scheduled for completion in November 2009.
"There's a lot of options in the Valley, but we thought downtown Phoenix made the most sense," said Bill Morgan, Wachovia's regional vice president for Arizona.
RED Development also announced Monday that Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, based in San Francisco, will build a 250-room luxury boutique hotel at CityScape called Hotel Palomar. Other marquee names committed to the project are AJ's Fine Foods, Twelve Hotels & Residences, and P.F. Chang's China Bistro.
Ebert said other tenants will be named in the next couple of months, and a signature restaurant will be among them.
"We're far along with negotiations with a restaurant not currently in the market," Ebert said.
Like the convention center expansion, the CityScape project will involve massive excavation work, which will begin by mid-November. Hunt Construction, also the contractor on the convention center project, will handle the excavation and construction on the middle block of CityScape, which is bounded by Central Avenue, First Street, and Jefferson and Washington streets.
Bids are being reviewed for a general contractor on the remaining parcels, which will include retail space, more hotels and restaurants, and residential units.
"Retail is really the common thread of this project," Ebert said.
Patriot's Square Park will be closed in December to make way for the western block of the CityScape development, including renovations to that block's underground parking structure. Although the garage will remain open, its capacity will be limited until that portion of the project is completed in late 2009.
Architecture for CityScape will be more shiny and edgy than seen thus far downtown.
"We think the contemporary steel and glass will make a bolder statement," Ebert said.
David Krietor, Phoenix's deputy city manager, said that with CityScape and the Jackson Street Entertainment District planned nearby, downtown will never be the same.
"You're going to see a huge transformation of downtown Phoenix within the next couple of years," Krietor said.
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and also retailers that we don't have in other parts of town or in AZ yet, but I don't know if they will be able to sell them on downtown. Puma and Armani Exchange are going to Scottsdale Fashion Square for example and those are two that I would have loved to see at CityScape.
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