CityScape.
At $900 million, the largest private investment in downtown
Phoenix. - Ever.
A combination office, retail and residential complex at the
city's heart. - Its center.
A chance, the first chance, really, to have a signature
development with ambitions as high as the Arizona sky. In
downtown Phoenix, a struggling player for the past 40 years.
Phoenix, partnering with developers, architects and builders
with proven track records and national reputations. And with
the project comes a grocery store, the first in decades
downtown.
And with the project come the concerns, the worries, the
reservations.
Among the questions as the Phoenix City Council takes up the
project today:
• Will developers reach an accord with the city Parks Board
to provide truly public open space and compensate for the
loss of Patriots Square Park?
Mike Ebert, RED Development's managing partner, is confident
the concerns can be met.
• Will the residential market sustain itself so that
CityScape's proposed 1,000-plus residential units
actually are built and occupied?
Developers suggest many more Americans seek an urban living
experience than was true just a decade ago, and the
successes of other central-city condominium projects affirm
their $900 million gamble.
• Does the hefty $96 million public commitment to purchase
the project's underground parking garage, the largest
incentive subsidy, represent a fair return for the city's
taxpayers?
The city gains public infrastructure while investing in
below-ground parking, a far more attractive alternative in a
city where decades-old concrete parking garages diminish and
harden the downtown landscape. Besides, if the other
elements of
CityScape are not realized, the parking subsidy
doesn't materialize either. The parking purchase would not
be turned over until the first phase of construction is
completed. No general-fund money would be used, according to
city officials.
While the development would receive an eight-year property
tax abatement worth about $26 million, the individual
condominium owners would be liable for property taxes as
homeowners.
• Will the tax abatement incentive become a standard
giveaway for other developers to dangle for their own
projects in the city's suburbs?
• Will it overcommit the city to its downtown while other
neighborhoods struggle with their own challenges?
All these concerns should be addressed by a determined city
staff buoyed by the financial commitment and record of
positive accomplishment by the development partners.
CityScape represents, after all, a singular
opportunity for the city, its downtown, its potential as a
statewide destination point.
Phoenix has looked at scores of projects that promised a
great deal, only to disappoint.
CityScape has the look, the feel, of something
different. And special.
For
More on CityScape, Also read:
4/27/2006 News
4/24/2006 News
|
