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.

Mike Lafferty, president of Lafferty Development, Inc., will build 11-story Union Square on the SE corner of 12th Street and Washington in Downtown Phoenix. With a light rail station of each side of this project, Union Square will include 280 condos, public and business meeting rooms, a 175-room hotel, and street level retail. His intention is to engage the neighborhood residents and adjacent property owners to create a business district that encourages more live/work/play activity in the area. To lead the charge in accomplishing this goal, he hired “the best urban planner known to God” according to Lafferty. She is Dana Crawford, the brain behind Larimer Square and other projects in Downtown Denver. We can’t wait to see her magic in Downtown Phoenix!