Downtown Phoenix Crime? (Scottsdale, Tempe: broker, condo, hotels)

[ms973]

I have been looking into opening my business and was wondering if anyone on this forum is familiar with downtown Phoenix area and if so, would you recommend me opening a restaurant in that area. Sure I stay clear? is there a lot of crime?

[AksarbeN]

I’ve been waiting for your Brazilian Restaurant to get here!

Crime in the downtown area of Phoenix isn’t bad and there are several hotels and of course lots of businesses that are looking for a quick lunch hour place to eat. You could do well with the right location there for a lunch hour and possibly hotel guests for the evening.

Just let me know where you’re going to open up and I’ll try and be your first customer.

[ms973]

Thank you! Yeah we finally booked our trip to come there and are actively looking through various brokers with them sending us listings. Just trying to narrow our results a little. We have listings scattered for all over in a few towns. Should be interesting!

[Cj81]

Downtown is a great place to open a resaurant!! Try to open it near the light rail or downtown ASU campus, it might be slow for a little while but once that train is up an running you will do great. As for crime in downtown, I don't have any statistics but I would imagine it is very low because nobody lives down there right now. Most restaurants are only open during the week because downtown is very empty on the weekend.

[ms973]

I guess I would have to do a lot of research when I am there because closing a restaurant on the weekends, at least for us, would not be an option. We prefer an area where we could have a decent lunch crowd but an even greater dinner crowd. Our restaurant here in NY is in a predominantly commercial area and we are only VERY busy during the hours of 12-3pm then it is a scattered crowd. We prefer the opposite! because obviously dinner brings in the most money. Thanks for your input, greatly appreciated!!

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by ms973

I guess I would have to do a lot of research when I am there because closing a restaurant on the weekends, at least for us, would not be an option. We prefer an area where we could have a decent lunch crowd but an even greater dinner crowd. Our restaurant here in NY is in a predominantly commercial area and we are only VERY busy during the hours of 12-3pm then it is a scattered crowd. We prefer the opposite! because obviously dinner brings in the most money. Thanks for your input, greatly appreciated!!

VB and 16th St is not what I would call downtown. It is east of there in a pretty rundown area that used to be famous as the red light district of Phoenix. "Downtown" is central from 7th to 7th and north from Jefferson to about Thomas. That is where the downtown workers are and eat. The core area (from Van Buren south between central and 7th street) gets a lot of visitors at night for Suns games and Diamondback games. That is a lot of nights each year. Places are packed on game days.

Consider some explosive growth places like Estrella Blvd/Litchfield Rd right near I-10. Not much of a lunch crowd maybe, but you would have a waiting list to serve dog food in the evenings there is such demand for restaurants there. And once the mall is built it will just go up from there.

[ms973]

Thanks for that very useful info. Ponderosa. That area is scratched off my list! and i will look further into what you said about the growth places. Estrella Blvd/Litchfield Rd right near I-10 - would that area be considered Phoenix or does it run into other towns/cities?

[Cj81]

I really do think any resaurant would do well downtown as long as its not a chain. How soon are you looking to open? Right now there are not many people living downtown but that is changing very fast. If you could afford to open up downtown and just cater to the weekday lunch crowds for a few years it would be worth it. There are many condo projects under construction right now and ASU has opened a campus down here too. I think you could do really great downtown in a few years but right now there is just a lot of construction. Maybe you should look into Old Town Scottsdale area or Downtown Tempe. I don't recomend the areas that Ponderosa suggested unless you are looking for an ultimate suburban location. Really downtown is where the explosive growth is happening right now. I live down here and all of the good little restaurants downtown have people waiting to get in on the weekends for dinner. Places like Fate and Carly's not to mention they are packed on First Fridays. We need more of that downtown. By the way , what kind of restaurant will you be opening?

[HX_Guy]

If you can afford to sort of wait it out for a couple years, I think opening a place downtown would be the best idea.

Downtown Phoenix is developing and growing like never before right now with so many projects either under construction or soon to be.

[irwin]

I agree with many on here. Downtown Phoenix has a lot of potential and the ASU move downtown, along with the light rail may be the spark that sets it off. But, at this point, downtown is still dead. Even compared to other cities that are traditionally sprawling (Atlanta, Dallas, Houston), Phoenix's downtown seems small and barren.

It's sad but true. Hopefully that will change, but at this point I am afraid that is mainly the case. It may take a few years for that to change. I know the city government is really trying to push downtown development. But, given the amount of new sprawling edge development going in, I am still skeptical about infill development in the near future, if ever.