Over the last couple years, Phoenix Metro has become slightly notorious for developers submitting glamorous projects to the municipalities only to cancel soon after for failure to secure funding. Key parcels in downtown Tempe, Scottsdale and Phoenix have been constantly changing hands and reformatting their proposed uses (usually decreasing the amount of residential units). After the housing boom peaked in 2005/2006, developers raced to entitle land and complete their projects before the bubble popped. Some projects finished and are now sold out, some barely finished and are hanging on by threads while others just closed sales offices and keep “delaying” construction. To make things even worse, Arizona’s largest commercial lender crumbled over the summer and left several high-profile projects in limbo.

While many companies have suffered dearly from the market collapse, a few companies with thick roots are continuing with plans for cutting-edge projects. The highly affluent region of North Phoenix/Scottsdale surprisingly has a few thousand acres of undeveloped land on the North side of the Loop 101 and West of Scottsdale Road. Westcor, developer of Scottsdale Fashion Center and Biltmore Fashion Park recently purchased a core parcel on the west side of Scottsdale Rd., dubbing it “Palisene”. Last week, they announced that they had signed department store giant Dillard’s to lease one of their anchor slots. Westcor also teamed up with DMB Associates Inc. to complete the One Scottsdale project, located across the street to the future site of Palisene. One Scottsdale is currently under construction with the new Dial Headquarters building on the south side of the slim 105-acre parcel that sits just east of Scottsdale Rd. and North of the Loop 101.

Both projects at build out will consist of nearly 3 million square feet of high-end mixed uses, primarily retail. Palisene has been in planning for several years, but was owned by the state until April. Westcor is planning to build a regional shopping center on the 112-acre squared parcel, where they are now working hard to sign major tenants for their 1 million square feet of space. They also are responsible for 500,000 square feet of retail space across directly across the street in One Scottsdale, while DMB is handling the rest of the 1.8 million square foot residential, retail, restaurant and office complex. Both projects will contain very high-end retailers that serve the demographic of the region. Potential and very probable new residential construction will occur in the last remaining raw parcels and will most likely increase the affluent demographic.

One Scottsdale is on pace to complete construction of its first phase ($150 million Dial Corp.) by the end of the year. Completion dates for future phases are unknown, but will most likely finish around the same time or earlier as Palisene, which is aiming for a 2011 or early 2012 opening.