CityScape = Collier Center

Anyone disagree that by January 2011, CityScape will only comprise two blocks of (mediocre) retail and a single high-rise? (A carbon copy of the Collier Center, as I originally suggested in February 2007?)

Granted, this is a position on which I'd like to be wrong. But the signs all point one way-- the most telling coming a few months ago when the project's developer, RED Develoment, split the incentives in its development agreement so that it could receive half of the promised millions from the city even if it only built one tower at CityScape. Right now, RED is saying that it's building the office tower on the block on the east side of Central and Washington streets, but that the hotel/condo tower will follow in a few months.

We'll see. Any project that depends on condo development in a significant way is probably DOA in this market. And the need for hotel rooms downtown will be significantly blunted by the opening of the city-owned Sheraton.

In any event, the Arizona Republic needs to stop exaggerating the scale of this project. I've seen story after story-- one ran today-- that refers to CityScape as a "sprawling, $900 million project spread out over three blocks." Again, while I'd love to be wrong, this project is not going to spread over three blocks-- my understanding is the project partner that was to develop the block between First and Second streets has already dropped out; it's definitely not going to amount to the $900M touted by the developer in order to gain city approval.

Ultimately, I don't care all that much whether one tower or two is built, although I'd prefer two. My hope was to finally get a project in downtown Phoenix that engages the street with quality retail. My expectations all along have been very low on that front, so if CityScape only ends up producing one more downtown tower, I won't be much more heartbroken. It's too bad. Much as I'd like, I just can't get excited about this project.

ASU students don't miss a chance to bash downtown

In a repeat of a story that was written in January 2007, the Republic spoke to several ASU students who were very dismissive of downtown Phoenix and the new ASU campus. The consensus, as it was in 2007, seems to be that "there's nothing to do downtown," and that there's no "campus feel."

In some ways, I can sympathize with the comments about the lack of a campus feel. When I looked at colleges, I definitely wanted the wide open green spaces of a traditional college campus; I couldn't imagine going to school at an urban campus like Boston University or NYU.

But I can't relate to the sentiment that there's nothing to do in downtown Phoenix. There's plenty to do if one looks hard enough-- granted, it's not spoon-fed to students like a walk down chain-laden Mill Avenue. And more than that, the ASU students who populate the downtown campus in 2008 need to be leaders who relish being urban pioneers. Instead of complaining, what about taking over a cool but unknown downtown bar like Seamus McCaffrey's or Lost Leaf on Wednesdays or Thursdays, and causing the rest of the city to take notice and follow along?