The article goes on to report that the reason behind the shift is multi-fold including, “Empty-nesters don’t need the big house and don’t want to mow the big lawn. High gas prices are making long commutes less practical. The urban renaissance in big cities ranging from New York to Portland, Ore. — and the revival of charming, vibrant downtowns in small cities like Missoula, Mont. — is making the bedroom suburb and the strip mall seem positively dull.”

We at WeKnowUrban agree. I recently drove around downtown Phoenix on a Saturday night and was delighted with all the activities, energy, and people. ASU was showing a movie outside in a park, hundreds of kids were enjoying their prom, urban-ites were knoshing at the many new restaurants in the area (e.g. Sens, Hanny’s, The Pasta Bar, and more), and folks were just milling around. It was great! Such atmosphere is gaining traction in downtown Phoenix and we’ll will see a domino effect; more people will encourage more businesses, more business will draw more people, and the trend will continue.

Folks the pieces are falling into place. If you want to live “urban” give us a call and take advantage of the crazy low prices that are available today.

Phenominal views

There is only ONE condo for rent in the brand new and super cool Century Plaza High Rise and we’re representin’ it.  It’s a one bedroom, one bath, with fantastic upgrades, located on the fourteenth floor on the north side of the building.  Soooo, it has sick views up central avenue and of Camelback Mountain, Piestewa Peak and more.  The rent is $1350 per month which is less than you’ll pay at Summit at Copper Square and just a touch more than Orpheum Lofts so the place should move fast.

Oh, and dont’ forget that you literally walk out the front door of Century Plaza and can catch the rail!

To learn more and check out photos go to our web portal: user name = CenturyPlazaForRent and the password = 1234.  Let us know if you want to see the place.  For a tour give us a call or shoot an e-mail.

It will be interesting to see how the sales go.  We just helped a client buy a two bedroom condominium at The Vale (the crazy green ones at University and Beck) for about $180,000.  It’s owned by a bank so it needs a little TLC ($5,000 worth or so) but its a great floor plan, and again has two bedrooms.   No, it’s not on the light rail but if prices at Vale and other communities stay at this level Regency will have some competition.  Stay tuned…

To learn more and check out photos go to our web portal: user name = CenturyPlazaForRent and the password = 1234.  Let us know if you want to see the place.  If you love it, make a move quick because we believe it will go fast.  Have a great one.

You’ll notice that we have added two new buttons at the top right portion of the page, one FOR SALE and one FOR RENT.  If you’re looking to rent or buy along the light rail and want to see only high rise and loft condos no further than a short biking distance to the rail then you’ll definitely want to check these out.  The two buttons use actual MLS data feeds and provide the most current and accurate information available.  The feeds are updated nightly.

And since so many people interested in living on the light rail are also interested in gasoline prices we have added two new features along that line as well.  You’ll find a button that show you the current high and low prices for a gallon of gasoline in the Phoenix area as well as a graph showing the average cost of a gallon of gas and a barrel of oil for the last six years.  Neither one of these tools is directly related to real estate but I hope that you find them interesting and relevant nonetheless.

Finally, don’t miss the Google Map that we built showing where all the “light rail condos” are.  Click on one of the colored place markers to see additional info and links on each high rise or loft community.

At WeKnowUrban we are constantly adding what we believe are valuable features that our audience will appreciate.  Please send us your suggestions and maybe we can incorporate them into the site.

Yesterday thirteen of us boarded a train at about 10:00 am and rode it to various high rise and loft condo buildings along the route.  During the three plus hours we toured we got on and off the train four times.  And I kid you not every single train during the three hours was full; standing room only.

I took the opportunity to ask my twelve tour partners why they thought the light rail was so much more popular than the bus.  After all, buses in Phoenix are notoriously empty.  Here are some of the answers I got:

• City buses suffer a stigma that the light rail doesn’t share.
• The light rail is easy to use while buses require knowledge of routes and connections.
• Light rails stop more frequently and consistently which may make taking a train bearable even during the summer (we’ll see about that).
• All thirteen of us wants to live on the rail and think that condo values will appreciate better than non-rail condos.

There have been a tremendous number of naysayers but I don’t think anyone would argue that at least for now the light rail popularity is remarkable.

Under Construction and still on track to finish:

27-Story Office Tower with Wachovia as anchor tenant.  Well Fargo is in talks to buy the bank, but already has a tower in downtown Phoenix.

34-Story Hotel and Condo Tower: 250-room Hotel Palomar & 165 Luxury Condominiums

Retail Plaza with tenants: A.J.’s Fine Foods Grocery, Urban Outfitters, Golds Gym, and potentially a drug store.  A steakhouse by Fox Restaurant Concepts will replace the P.F. Chang’s, but P.F.’s could be added on to the project down the road.

Put on hold until the market recovers:

Two towers consisting of 1000 condominiums and a 150-room boutique TWELVE hotel.  This was planned for the eastern block between 1st & 2nd streets.

The 65 apartments units above the retail plaza on the western block between Central Ave & 1st Ave have been halted as well.

Above is a site plan from earlier this year.

As this news does come at an unfortunate time, the Cities of Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa are all ready for the Light Rail opening this weekend and expecting very large numbers to be out.  Go check it out everyone, it is the future of travel not only here, but in every major metropolitan area.  Phoenix is a little late to get it, but it is better now rather than 10 years from now when we are projected to grow by a couple million.  Not only will it be great way to experience the jewel of public transit, but you will also get to be a part of a major transition in the shaping of our future.

As oil and other resources rise in price for a particular society, they are more or less forced to grow in denser environments, with an emphasis on mass-transit.  In most urban environments, rail (subway or light rail) acts as the nervous system of the city and also serves as a catalyst for urban, mixed-use, transit-oriented developments.  As you can see, many quality projects in Phoenix are unfortunately scaling back and even canceling completely.   However, that doesn’t mean something great won’t replace it in the future.  The land near the Light Rail line is too valuable to not utilize the new zoning standards (TOD Overlays and Form-Based Code: more information on that in previous posts) to their fullest extent.  I believe it is inevitable that the LR will spur mixed-use developments all along the starter line and even the future extension areas will see some vertical growth in the coming years.  As for Cityscape, the project will soon glow on the southern edge of the skyline, but not as quickly as previously hoped.

For the week, attendance is expected to top 200,000 with at least 50,000 hitting the streets, and rail on Saturday.   Riding the rail will be free on Saturday.

WeKnowUrban will be in a booth at the Urban Experience Tent at the College Avenue and Veteran’s Way rail stop, just west of ASU Sun Devil Football Stadium.  We’ll be conducting twenty minute WeKnowUrban 101 classes at the top of every hour during which we’ll discuss what “urban living” is, why it’s the way of the future, where the deals are (if any), and whether or not now is a good time to buy.

Please visit the Tempe Urban Experience sponsors.

WeKnowUrban has a booth at the Tempe event where we will be conducting WeKnowUrban 101 workshops. These twenty minute free seminars will cover topics like what is urban living, why it’s hot, is now the time to buy or rent a urban condo, and if so, how to go about it.

Join us as we celebrate one of the biggest things to hit the Valley in decades.