Just as the Light Rail is opening, which whizzes by both sides of the Cityscape development in downtown Phoenix, comes some unfortunate, but not surprising news. The three block complex was originally planned to consist of luxury condominiums and apartments, two boutique hotels, office and retail space. The developers have announced the project is scaling back and here is a breakdown of the changes that were made:
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.
