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

This June, Scottsdale developer Grace Communities expects to finish the first dozen floors of its 34-story Downtown Phoenix high-rise, 44 Monroe - the tallest residential building in Arizona. By August, the rest of the building interior will be completed. The 196-unit condo tower will bring more full-time residents to downtown, a key component of long-term plans to bring vitality and foot traffic to the neighborhood. Cost: $160 million. For a hard-hat tour of the building, call 480-232-9699.

If you have been watching the delightful resurgence of 7th Avenue, turn your eyes east to 3rd Street. Several high-end residential and non-franchise boutique-business developments are planned in an area known as the Third Street Promenade, between Steele Indian School Park and Downtown Phoenix.

Among the developers is Urban Dencity, a Scottsdale-based architecture and design firm. The company hopes to build Soleil, a four-unit residential project at Third Street and Mulberry Drive. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom townhouses would be nearly 3,700 square feet each and would start at $1.35 million. All the units would have outdoor lap pools, roof decks and 10-foot ceilings. They also hope to build Forma on Third Street at Windsor Avenue. The two-bedroom lofts would have a pool and large patio and roof decks. Urban Dencity also will take advantage of the area’s potential business options with a mixed-used development on Third and Flower Streets. This development would have luxury condos on the top floor as large as 3,000 square feet and commercial projects on the ground floor. A restaurant, a wine bar, a little market. Hope so!

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!

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.

Relax on your upstairs terrace at Portland Two and take in the spectacular view of Downtown Phoenix. Located at 7th Street and Portland, these contemporary townhomes are just about ready for move-in. Sporting exposed ductwork and other lofty elements, these large spaces range from 1,600 to over 2,165 square feet. And, to top it off, they have attached 2-car garages, a rare thing indeed in the heart of downtown Phoenix!

CityScape is real and is going to happen! Construction begins next month, first move-ins 2009, and completely finished by 2011. There will be 1200 condominiums, 2 boutique hotels (400 beds), 600,000 sf Class A office space with Wachovia Financial as their anchor tenant, and 250,000 sf retail/restaurant space including AJs Fine Foods and PF Chang’s. At $900 million, this is the largest private investment project in the history of Downtown Phoenix. We are so proud of you, Phoenix!