New tallest building FINALLY coming to Phoenix! (Scottsdale, Peoria: insurance, casino)

[silverbear]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

Kimpton plans to open Phoenix boutique hotel

The Kimpton deal is great news. Up to now, I've had mixed feelings about CityScape because most of the restaurants and retail announced are the same chains that are already scattered throughout the area. Kimpton, on the other hand, makes each of its properties unique and generally includes a one-of-a-kind chef-driven restaurant in each hotel. The Kimpton in Scottsdale (FireSky Resort) reportedly has a great restaurant called Taggia, and I expect that Kimpton will bring an equally interesting flair to Downtown. In fact, I'd rather have a Kimpton downtown than a W. Kimpton is upscale and modern without being pretentious or trendy.

[HX_Guy]

There will also be a TWELVE brand hotel going in a separate tower slated to begin construction mid 2008, but still part of the CityScape project.

The groundbreaking for the first phase is tonight.

[june]

Originally Posted by silverbear

There's actually been a lot of criticism of Cityscape by Phoenicians due to the issues you have mentioned. Here's the best critique I've read from a Cityscape opponent. I don't agree with all of it, but it makes some good points:

Life in Downtown Phoenix: Cityscape: No thanks

Personally, I have mixed feelings about Cityscape. I definitely don't think that Phoenix is too crowded. In fact, I'd like to see increased population density and less sprawl. For that reason, I welcome new high-rise living options. Still, the negatives about Cityscape for me are the following: 1) Phoenix needs to leave behind the notion that a single high-stakes project will turn Downtown around. 2) Downtown development should ideally focus on the unique rather than the same chains that flourish in suburban areas.
Phoenix needs a real city like all the other states. Like make a broadway district like manhatten or a china town with loads of street vendors and delicious restaurants and museums. When you live in the burbs you sometimes need to go to a different kind of surrounding for a day or 2!





















With all that in mind, I think Cityscape is a useful, productive development, but it can't be viewed as the entire strategy for Downtown. In must be viewed alongside the emerging clusters of galleries, independent restaurants, pubs, etc. as part of a multi-faceted downtown strategy.

Phoenix needs a real city like all the other states. Like make a broadway district like manhatten or a china town with loads of street vendors and delicious restaurants and museums. When you live in the burbs you sometimes need to go to a different kind of surrounding for a day or 2!

[june]

Originally Posted by june

Phoenix needs a real city like all the other states. Like make a broadway district like manhatten or a china town with loads of street vendors and delicious restaurants and museums. When you live in the burbs you sometimes need to go to a different kind of surrounding for a day or 2!

And maybe add in a large park for walking jogging and concerts.

[HX_Guy]

The article from The Business Journal pretty much sums the groundbreaking party up. Really there was nothing new announced that we didn't know already, aside from them starting construction in 3 weeks.

They did a very well job with the whole event. There were over 600 people there and was pretty "star studded", at least with local well knowns. As mentioned, Jerry Colangelo was there, Pat McMahon was the presenter, and I saw Al McCoy of the Phoenix Suns walking around. The renderings were on huge banners, probably 20' in height setup to give an actual impression that you were on the street looking at the project. It worked pretty well to give that illusion.

To sort of recap, before all the photos...


- They have reduced the number of floors on the main tower. The rendering shows 38 floors, but I was told it will be 35 floors, making it even shorter. The main reason seems to be they wanted to reduce the number of condos as they don't feel there are enough potention buyers in the market for 2-3 bedroom luxury condos.

- The official groundbreaking was today, October 22nd, at 4:30 PM. Actual construction starts in November, about 3 weeks from now

- Wachovia is anchoring the office tower (which seems to be 26 stories from the rendering)

- Kimpton hotel, called The Palomer is going in the main tower, with residential condos above

- AJs Fine Foods will be the first grocery store in downtown in decades

- PF Changs China Bistro will open an urban restaurant

- The main tower will have only 2-3 bedroom condos, which means expensive $$$

- The third tower planned, on the southern part of the eastern most block, will contain a TWELVE hotel, a signature restaurant, and an additional 30,000 sq ft of retail

- Three towers will all go up at once. The Wachovia tower and Patriot's block will start first, while the main tower and a third tower on the eastern block will start around mid 2008, while the Wachovia tower is still going up

- The fourth tower isn't planned to be under construction until 2010

[silverbear]

The Wachovia news is particulary good. Right now, Downtown is a relatively small employment center compared to many downtowns elsewhere in the country. It's refreshing when a company establishing a new operation in Phoenix chooses to locate Downtown rather than in a more sprawlish location.

[HX_Guy]

Initially Wachovia will only have 100 employees in the tower spread out over 70,000 sq ft in three floors. They plan to double the number of employees, but that still doesn't seem a lot to me. How many Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase employees are there in their respective towers?

I'm particularly excited about the grocery store. I think that has been a big missing piece in a lot of developments downtown, along with residential.

[silverbear]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

How many Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase employees are there in their respective towers?

Probably a lot more than 100, but Wachovia has to start somewhere.

[Magnum Mike]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear about the reduced height of the main condo tower! That's too bad. I thought we were going to break the 500-foot barrier with City Scape!

It would have also been wise to stick to the original plans of 50-floors, because when the real estate market rebounds, the costs of building those extra floors will have been definitely much cheaper, so the developer would have made more and bigger profits in the future.

[PhoenixMan]

im glad to see some developement in downtown finally. Maybe we'll have a skyline to be proud of before too long.