Circles on Central

[CrestedSaguaro]

Announcememt to be made in the next 2 weeks. The article alludes a few times "other organizations". Why am I all of a sudden worried the Coyotes will end of in Scottsdale?? One thing for sure is Phoenix is looking less likely.

http://www.abc15.com/sports/sports-b...ouple-of-weeks

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by PHX31

Holy shit that youtube video is amazing! The rotating neon Studebaker/Stewart Motor Company sign is simply incredible!!!! (go to approximately 9:00 of the video)

Can anyone going to the meeting tonight (Ronnie??) inquire about that sign and the developer's plan for potentially restoring it? Maybe it's still there under the "Circles" skin. The developer mentioned the ability to restore the rotating showroom floor, maybe the sign could be restored too, rotating and all.

If I were the vocal preservationists, I'd shift my focus from saving the entire building including the north half of the building (unlikely) to compromising with the developer and ask for the restoration of the sign to be included in their development. Imagine how amazing that sign would be restored!!! It's so breath-taking I can't imagine how awesome that would be.

To the vocal preservationists: please compromise, don't take an all-or-nothing stance, the developer could easily demolish everything. Save The Empire! Err, the Stewart Motor Company Sign and the south half!!

So, I'm here and talking with one of the developers before the meeting starts at Circles. I mentioned the rotating sign. They were not aware that it was a rotating sign and they have not been able to check it out to see if it is something that still works or how much it would take to make it functional. But he said if it were salvageable, they would more than love to make it work again!

From the sound of it, what we have seen so far is what the plan is. Stay tuned for more updates...

[CrestedSaguaro]

So, there weren't many preservationists that showed up...maybe about 15. A few of them were in the mid to upper 60's and comparing who moved here first in the 50's. So that shows you who's at the forefront of the fuss over this.

The speakers made a good case on the development. The Southside of Circles IS to be saved and NOT a full building demo that everyone freaked out about. The developers are now even going a step further to try and save the alley-side of the building which wasn't in the original plans (20' of the West side of the building was originally slated to be razed). This seemed to make everyone a little happier.

A GPLET is being sought. The tower will stand 220' and the sections will be staggered (17 and 19 stories similar to the way POTP is staggered 12 and 14 floors).

The renderings that we have seen so far is pretty much the final proposal minus some minor tweaking. The brick circles on the Southside were added many years after the Stewart building was built and ARE NOT part of the original design. These will be removed and replaced with glass to open up the South side of the retail portion of the building. The apartments will start on the 3rd floor with amenities on the second floor. Retail will occupy most of the Central Ave. facing first floor including a restaurant pad on the corner. A seven story garage will be on the alley side with access from McKinley St. The power line towers in the alley will be removed by APS.

Originally, groundbreaking was to commence in June, but has been pushed back to the end of July due to the fiasco to save the whole building. The developers seemed to be very excited about hearing of the spinning sign and are now very interested in making it functional!

That's all I have, but I am very confident about this project and it looks like it is nearly a go at this point.

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by RonnieFoos

So, I'm here and talking with one of the developers before the meeting starts at Circles. I mentioned the rotating sign. They were not aware that it was a rotating sign and they have not been able to check it out to see if it is something that still works or how much it would take to make it functional. But he said if it were salvageable, they would more than love to make it work again!

From the sound of it, what we have seen so far is what the plan is. Stay tuned for more updates...

Thanks for the updates and the fact that you attended the meeting!

If you happen to have the developers info/email, please let me know (you can pm me). I'll talk to them about the sign and send them the video from lavine that Nick posted.

[ASU Diablo]

So I, too, attended the meetings tonight and got to see inside the Circles building and wow...it's beautiful inside. At first, I thought saving the SE corner (roughly about 30% of the building) would be okay and when the developers mentioned the south wall brick facade would be incorporated into the design, I thought fair compromise. But after seeing the inside, I hope >75% of the building can be saved. Even if the ENTIRE south building were to be saved, that's still about 50%. And just wish to clarify Ronnie's comments about the south building being saved, it's just the brick facade. With some work and obviously a lot of money, this building could be something special. The 70 foot long wooden bowstring trusses were pretty cool looking. Took cell phone pics and happy to share if someone can post them up?

Attended the neighborhood meeting shortly after and members and other preservationists expressed serious concerns about the project itself. The main one being is that they don't believe this is a real project and the developer is simply posturing to get the GPLET appproved and then sell off the property with a nice bow. At that point, the entire building could be in jeopardy of demo.

[biggus diggus]

That is a legitimate concern.

[PHXFlyer11]

Originally Posted by RonnieFoos

So, there weren't many preservationists that showed up...maybe about 15. A few of them were in the mid to upper 60's and comparing who moved here first in the 50's. So that shows you who's at the forefront of the fuss over this.

The speakers made a good case on the development. The Southside of Circles IS to be saved and NOT a full building demo that everyone freaked out about. The developers are now even going a step further to try and save the alley-side of the building which wasn't in the original plans (20' of the West side of the building was originally slated to be razed). This seemed to make everyone a little happier.

A GPLET is being sought. The tower will stand 220' and the sections will be staggered (17 and 19 stories similar to the way POTP is staggered 12 and 14 floors).

The renderings that we have seen so far is pretty much the final proposal minus some minor tweaking. The brick circles on the Southside were added many years after the Stewart building was built and ARE NOT part of the original design. These will be removed and replaced with glass to open up the South side of the retail portion of the building. The apartments will start on the 3rd floor with amenities on the second floor. Retail will occupy most of the Central Ave. facing first floor including a restaurant pad on the corner. A seven story garage will be on the alley side with access from McKinley St. The power line towers in the alley will be removed by APS.

Originally, groundbreaking was to commence in June, but has been pushed back to the end of July due to the fiasco to save the whole building. The developers seemed to be very excited about hearing of the spinning sign and are now very interested in making it functional!

That's all I have, but I am very confident about this project and it looks like it is nearly a go at this point.

Nice work! If you get them to install that sign that'd be incredible!

[CrestedSaguaro]

Here's a pano of the interior. I have to admit, I really dig the truss-work. Man if someone would intentionally create a ceiling with natural lighting shining through the wood slats like this, that would just be freaking amazing!

Airo is correct on just the facade on the Southwest portion, But to expand on that, outside of the facade, the trusses and the roof, the building is fairly hollow...more like a warehouse. I believe it was mentioned, that they are looking for a developer or other interested organization that might want the trusses as they are in good shape.

[exit2lef]

The Downtown Devil covered this and a got a good picture of the trusses: http://downtowndevil.com/2016/04/12/...circle-records

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by exit2lef

The Downtown Devil covered this and a got a good picture of the trusses: http://downtowndevil.com/2016/04/12/...circle-records

This was a good article. Seems like some of the preservationists and activists might be "getting it". Hopefully they're coming to the realization that it is unrealistic to expect the entire building to be saved. If they push too hard they're going to lose everything. If that happened that would be insane on their part. Some quotes I found interesting:

The current preservation plan is to maintain the two circular portions of the building and the portion, including the signage, which they hope to restore to be able to rotate again.

But the preservation of the portion of the building is not guaranteed, and according to Empire, contingent on the city of Phoenix providing them with a tax break. Without the GPLET agreement, the building will likely be fully demolished.

Some residents questioned whether the project delivered enough public benefit to justify using GPLET. They also questioned how much of the building should be preserved and whether they are willing to risk full demolition of the building in order to ask that the entire building be saved.

“They’re looking for the GPLET, so that opens the door to negotiation for us,” said Sherry Rampy, president of the Roosevelt Action Association, adding that for community support to occur — whether there is partial or full demolition — the community itself needs to benefit. “As a community we need to figure out what we’re asking for and whether it is all or nothing, sometimes when we ask for all or nothing, we get nothing.”

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by PHX31

This was a good article. Seems like some of the preservationists and activists might be "getting it". Hopefully they're coming to the realization that it is unrealistic to expect the entire building to be saved. If they push too hard they're going to lose everything. If that happened that would be insane on their part. Some quotes I found interesting:

The push to save the entire building is a lost cause. Yea, they're are some cool features to be saved in which the developer IS trying to save those cool portions. However, the building is beyond being able to be restored fully just for a little retail space if there were no major development proposal at all. The cost to restore Circles would be financial mess for anyone to justify tackling without a major developer backing it. The building has a lot of water damage from what I seen, asbestos and lead (which are now being removed), parts of the brick facade will need repaired and resealed, the HVAC system is completely destroyed (can be seen to the right in my pic above) and probably more that we could not see. If this development is pulled out, the building would be left for many more years without any preservation at all being done and will eventually fall in so much disrepair, that ANY portion of it would not be salvageable.

The activists that are still against this are fighting for an entirely DEAD block that barely even sees foot traffic outside of the homeless passing through. Circles is a major vandalism target making things even worse. What nearby businesses that are there now are struggling. This block needs more than what can be done by just saving the Circles building as it sits. If Circles were surrounded by busy development in a block that has life, it would be a different story. But this is not the case.

[dtnphx]

What bothers me most about this (more than them demolishing part of the project) is how fucking ugly the highrise building proposal is. It doesn't tie into the historic building and is just so ordinary-looking. Someone said in an earlier post that the design for the building is pretty much the way it's going to look even though it shows it to be over 30-stories tall? I think not. Looks like shit, IMO.

http://motleydesigngroup.com/wordpre...-Picture-2.jpg

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by dtnphx

What bothers me most about this (more than them demolishing part of the project) is how fucking ugly the highrise building proposal is. It doesn't tie into the historic building and is just so ordinary-looking. Someone said in an earlier post that the design for the building is pretty much the way it's going to look even though it shows it to be over 30-stories tall? I think not. Looks like shit, IMO.

http://motleydesigngroup.com/wordpre...-Picture-2.jpg

The image you posted is not the design. The development is to be 19 stories tall. Here's the correct rendering.

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by RonnieFoos

The push to save the entire building is a lost cause. Yea, they're are some cool features to be saved in which the developer IS trying to save those cool portions. However, the building is beyond being able to be restored fully just for a little retail space if there were no major development proposal at all. The cost to restore Circles would be financial mess for anyone to justify tackling without a major developer backing it. The building has a lot of water damage from what I seen, asbestos and lead (which are now being removed), parts of the brick facade will need repaired and resealed, the HVAC system is completely destroyed (can be seen to the right in my pic above) and probably more that we could not see. If this development is pulled out, the building would be left for many more years without any preservation at all being done and will eventually fall in so much disrepair, that ANY portion of it would not be salvageable.

The activists that are still against this are fighting for an entirely DEAD block that barely even sees foot traffic outside of the homeless passing through. Circles is a major vandalism target making things even worse. What nearby businesses that are there now are struggling. This block needs more than what can be done by just saving the Circles building as it sits. If Circles were surrounded by busy development in a block that has life, it would be a different story. But this is not the case.

All very good points. So do you think most of the people there understand this (except a couple of the staunch preservationist hold-outs that are unreasonable IMO)?

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by PHX31

All very good points. So do you think most of the people there understand this (except a couple of the staunch preservationist hold-outs that are unreasonable IMO)?

Honestly, it was hard to tell. Most only nodded or half smiled when hearing the presenter speak. Few questions were asked. I was speaking with one older gent and I could tell was not going to change his mindset. He was attempting to compare Circles with the Hayden House (Monti's) in Tempe. Circles is not the Hayden House and not even close to that piece of history.

I will note that I only attended the Circles meeting. I do not know anything beyond that and did attend the other gatherings and what came of those.

[ASU Diablo]

Fence around Circles building and there were some workers doing exterior work and removal of planters. Also, saw some workers on the roof where the rotating sign sits

[Red Robot]

The north half of the building is being demolished this very moment.

[CrestedSaguaro]

Circles demo pics. Confirmed with the construction crew it is still just the North half of the building.

[CrestedSaguaro]

[QUOTE=Red Robot;7409489]The north half of the building is being demolished this very moment.

Ha! I bet I probably just walked right by you!

[ASU Diablo]

holy shit...they just gave a big FU to all the neighborhood associations and historic preservationists. If I recall correctly after attending RAA meeting, there were still other dates and meetings w/ Developer on how to proceed and take in community feedback. Kinda shitty but oh well. Does this put in jeopardy the GPLET? I can't see the community supporting it after they pulled this stunt