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Originally Posted by crwhiteinaz
I also hate this! I work just down the street from it on VB. With the crap like the Arizona center to my east and something like this on the west it would be the nail in the coffin for VB downtown.
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There sure is alot of negative comments. Arizona Center is a crappy development, but at the same time it has the element of offices, retail and restaurants you all have been talking about. What's the problem over there? Unless we have people living downtown, who will shop there? It's not like the shops or restaurants that are there are anything special or unique. It is like ever other cookie cutter strip mall in this country. Hooters and New York Company crap like every mall around. If we are ever going to have a successful downtown, we need jobs and we need decent class A space. There is alot of competition for companies who have expanded or moved here like Google, Microsoft, Go Daddy and the like. They aren't moving to downtown Phx, they are going to places like Tempe and Chandler where they have nicer facilities and restaurants nearby. Our convention business is not that great, even with a nice newly expanded convention center. Part of the problem is there is not much downtown to do or see at night or on the weekends. Alot of businesses close between 3-6pm. Yes, office only structures do create quietness at night, but then again we need to build some momentum to get things going again. It really is too bad the recession happened. DT Phx would like much different today, but reality is reality and I think we should be happy with the development we do have going on downtown. ASU has been a great addition to DT, but this is still goverment funded building. Private enterprise creates the jobs and this will create jobs for two years while it is being built and it will help a very blighted area of DT phx look better and hopefully will give some incentive and momentum for others to develop restaurants and stores around it. There sure isn't anything happening right now over there. This city is far behind compared even to smaller cities like Austin, Nashville or San Antonio. Lets be happy we have developers from outside who are interested in our city. Yes, we need more apartments and condos and they are coming, but at the same time it takes capital and outside investors who have the resources. There sure isn't many who live here investing in our city. With the new buildings, will come more jobs and hopefully more people living downtown and then more restaurants and stores. I was in Cityscape a few months back and one of the stores there said he was struggling to survive. There isn't enough foot traffic right now at night or on the weekends and this isn't the only city who has struggled with this, but at the same time we have a downtown and a midtown that some idiots created in the 60's and 70's through poor planning and we have to deal with this. Our city would have been much better if the concentration of buildings were together. It is part of the problem we uniquely created through poor zoning decisions.