Downtown Phoenix is going green! Today the Phoenix City Council is expected to pass a portion of the Urban Form Project that includes the Connected Oasis. This is a blueprint for increasing downtown shade, parks, and foot traffic. The Connected Oasis plan is beautiful…check it out by clicking here.

UrbanLiving360.com

The light rail line keeps on growin’! Work will begin soon on another 3.2-miles starting just south of Bethany Home Road stretching north on 19th Avenue to Dunlap Avenue. It will connect to the 20-mile Metro light-rail line, which will start running in late December. Utility relocation starts this fall with the first track probably to be installed in late 2009 on a project scheduled for completion by 2012.

To clear a path for this light rail section, in May 2007 Phoenix began to buy homes. So far 38 residential properties have been purchased at a price of $7.4 million. The city is buying four remaining residential properties but more could be added as the light-rail design for the route is completed

City officials say 15,135 residents live within a half-mile of the northwest extension, with 6,855 housing units in the area, and this will allow many north-central Phoenix residents to more easily travel downtown and as far as Tempe and Mesa. The Metro light rail will run south from Bethany Home Road, wind its way through central Phoenix and downtown and go east on Washington Street to Tempe and Mesa.

On Monday, the Phoenix Historic Preservation Commission approved a proposal that would set aside $500,000 to preserve two iconic, 1920s-era downtown Phoenix skyscrapers. The proposal would also allow the developer to raze buildings on the south side of the block to make room for a future hotel.

Hansji Urban bought the Luhrs block for $28 million last year. The block was built by a pioneer-era Phoenix clan. The patriarch, German immigrant George Heinrich Nicholas Luhrs, built the 10-story Luhrs Building in 1924 and he broke ground on the 14-story Luhrs Tower in 1929. The area is bound by Central Avenue, First Avenue, Jefferson Street and Madison Street, nestled between future developments, CityScape and the Jackson Street Entertainment District

The City Council could consider the proposal as early as June. If approved, Hansji Urban would get $500,000 in city grant money to help preserve the vacant Luhrs Building, which needs many repairs. The plan would also protect most of the one-story span along Jefferson Street that links the Luhrs Building and Luhrs Tower. Other buildings on the south side of the block - including a 1950 parking structure and a 1951 Luhrs Tower annex that faces First Avenue - could face the wrecking ball.

The firm plans to invest $1.3 million to rehab the outside of the vacant Luhrs Building, which needs the most repairs. Luhrs Tower is occupied and needs less work. Bringing the Luhrs Building up to code and other upgrades could cost another $8 million. Ultimately, Hansji Urban, which is affiliated with an Irvine, Calif. hotel developer, plans to build a hotel on the south side of the block. The proposed hotel, which would take a year and a half to plan, could rise as more 200 feet tall.

Recent talks between Banner Health and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have revived hopes for a comprehensive cancer center in Downtown Phoenix. Houston-based M.D. Anderson serves 80,000 cancer patients a year as one of the country’s oldest and largest cancer centers. The collaboration between the two major players is seen as a positive sign for metro Phoenix, currently served by branches of two noted cancer clinics.

High-end business travelers will not be the only ones to benefit from the addition of Hotel Monroe to our turf. Sure we love witnessing the transformation of this historic Valley Bank Building into a luxury boutique hotel taking shape at Monroe Street at Central Avenue. But what really gets us going is picturing ourselves meeting friends at the underground wine bar, The Vault, then deciding whether to grab a bite at the bistro, splurge on fine-dining or head straight for the rooftop bar for some star-gazing, all on site. (And of course, hopping the light rail home!)

Located on Monroe Street at Central Avenue, Hotel Monroe is on track for a late November opening according to Grace Communities, also the developers of downtown Phoenix’s 44 Monroe high-rise condo project. We’ll be ready when they are, so save us a table: Happy hour, anyone?

After a long year, the Phoenix City Council has made a decision about the fate of a Downtown Phoenix parking garage, the controversial Jefferson Street parking garage. Both the Phoenix Suns/Arizona Diamondbacks and the Jackson Street Entertainment District groups want it but the City Council has decided that the sports group will purchase it for $20 million dollars. However, the city council has stipulated that they must negotiate with the principals of Jackson Street Entertainment District about wrapping the south side of the garage with shops and multifamily housing.

The final agreement also asks the principals of the Sun/Diamondbacks to develop the historic Sun Mercantile Building and a hotel in the area so that it is consistent with the Jackson Street developers’ plans. Last year, they had to scuttle plans to build a $200 million W Hotel on land between US Airways Center and the garage.

The proceeds of the $20 million sale will go to CityScape to help fund the $900 million complex of offices, hotels, shops and restaurants.

Today, the Phoenix Business Journal reports:

The metro region’s key growth areas for commercial and mixed-use real estate in the near future are downtown Phoenix, the light rail corridor, downtown Mesa and the southwest and southeast areas, according to a new report from Colliers International. The annual report, called 2020 Vision, was released Wednesday by Colliers at its meeting at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa.

The most immediate growth is expected in and around downtown Phoenix’s bioscience community and along the 20-mile light rail system from northwest Phoenix through downtown to Tempe and Mesa, said Colliers Managing Director Mike Fitz-Gerald. In downtown Phoenix, where more than $3 billion in public and private redevelopment projects are under way, officials are awaiting a final decision from Florida pharmaceutical executives interested in opening a regional office in downtown Phoenix. It would open with 20 employees and expand to as many as 300. Fitz-Gerald and Colliers Associate Kevin Lange declined to identify the Florida company. They are anticipating an official announcement from the company soon.

Lange said the Florida company’s president and chief executive officer, during their recent visit to Arizona, were courted by a team of representatives from the offices of Gov. Janet Napolitano, Mayor Phil Gordon, Translational Genomics Research Institute, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and The Plaza Cos. Lange said the meetings with the Florida executives “just a couple of months ago” took place at Mayo Clinic Hospital and at TGen before they ended up in the offices of GPEC President and CEO Barry Broome.

Lange said the Florida executives, who visited San Diego and other cities, were attracted to downtown Phoenix because of the existing 28-acre bioscience community northwest and northeast of Van Buren and Seventh streets. Its members include TGen, UA College of Medicine, UA College of Pharmacy; ASU School of Nursing; Arizona BioMedical Collaborative, the proposed Phoenix Biomedical Plaza and a proposed teaching hospital.

Fitz-Gerald and Lange said they are receiving more inquiries from developers and investors interested in property within about 2 miles of the bioscience community and other new work in downtown Phoenix. “They want to be as close as possible to the biomedical campus,” Lange said.

He also briefs callers about properties along the light rail system, which is scheduled to open in late 2008. “The light rail corridor has become very important,” Lange said.

On March 19th, the Phoenix City Council will most likely approve a great new urban-chic boutique hotel called aloft. Nestled between 44 Monroe and CityScape, this 107-room W Hotel brand will sit on the SE corner of Central Avenue and Adams. Of particular interest to us Downtown Phoenix residents is that its ground floor retail could include a much needed downtown drug store. We aren’t the only ones excited- check out this You Tube video about aloft in Green Bay.

Other aloft brand hotels are scheduled to open in the Phoenix metropolitan area:
Chandler - Opening February, 2009
Glendale - Opening October, 2008
Phoenix-Airport - Opening March, 2009
Tempe - Opening January, 2009

Have you noticed all the construction cranes in Downtown Phoenix? The Phoenix Business Journal explains part of it by reporting that office space in downtown Phoenix will grow by 42 percent through 2011. An Integra Realty Resources study states that current inventory sits at 4.94 million square feet, with another 2.05 million feet expected to be built between 2008 and 2011. That number puts Phoenix 11th among U.S. cities for downtown construction, which is expected to total 88.5 million square feet nationwide over the four-year period.

New York tops the list with an expected 20.8 million square feet of new construction, followed by Washington at 9.69 million. Rounding out the top 10 are Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Houston; Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; Salt Lake City; and Seattle.

The report also shows downtown Phoenix vacancies at 8.5 percent, compared with a national average of 11.1 percent. Detroit has the highest vacancy rate at 24 percent, while Charlotte has the lowest at 3.5 percent.

On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration ruled that the three-square block Downtown Phoenix project, CityScape, poses no risk to aircraft that fly in and out of nearby Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Monday’s FAA ruling helps clear the way for one building, with hotel rooms and condos, to rise as high as 510 feet.

“We initially issued a Notice of Presumed Hazard because the structure heights exceeded several FAA obstruction standards,” said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. After further review, the agency concluded that the projects “punches up” into an airspace buffer, but doesn’t have a negative effect on flights.