Ups and downs at downtown restaurants; downtown project and dirt lot list updates

The 101 Bistro/Pita Jungle experiment has apparently come to an end, as the landlord exercised its rights of forcible entry and detainer and changed the locks on the doors and kicked out the tenant. All the cool patio seating is gone, as well as every trace of the restaurant inside. Too bad; Pita Jungle seemed like a perfect concept downtown.

Around the corner, Thai Elephant appears to have extended its hours and is open until 9 p.m. on weeknights and weekends.

Girlfriend of Downtown_resident and I tried out The Bread Fruit (Jamaican restaurant) a few nights ago and were somewhat disappointed. However, I'll leave the restaurant reviews to Silverbear and the Railfood blog. Maybe they're just working out the kinks in the first few days; at least we didn't have to wait an hour to be served like you do in Jamaica.

The Downtown Phoenix Project List and Downtown Phoenix Dirt Lot List have been updated.

Downtown Phoenix Dirt Lot List

The flip side of the flurry of construction downtown is the continuation of one of downtown's decades-old pastimes: land banking. In this unfortunate scenario, investors (who often live out of state) purchase a lot in hopes of reselling it at an unrealistically high price and tear down whatever building sits on the land to avoid paying the accompanying property tax. This is possibly the single biggest problem facing downtown Phoenix today, as the empty lots are not only ugly, but the continued tear-down of old buildings has led to a dearth of older commercial buildings that small businesses can occupy.

Tracing the evolution of the countless empty lots in downtown and uptown Phoenix today would be next to impossible, so I'll limit my list to those empty lots that have appeared since I moved downtown in 2004. Please let me know if you can think of any more.

Downtown (and Uptown) Phoenix Dirt Lot/Parking Lot List
[updated August 6, 2010]

1. Dirt Lot covering entire city block at Portland Street and First Street; created 2009
2. Jewel Box parcel at Central Avenue and Fillmore; created 2008
3. Dirt Lot at Portland Street and Second Street; created 2007 [former home of the 1909 Morin House, threatened when the Orcutt Winslow partnership planned to tear down the building and moved to Fifth Avenue where it filled a former dirt lot]
4. Dirt Lot at McDowell Road and Fifteenth Avenue; created 2007 [controversial teardown of the Palmcroft Apartments in favor of a proposed four-story complex; probably the highest-profile Proposition 207 victim; thanks to Mark for the mention]
5. Dirt Lot at Central Avenue and Willetta Street; created 2006 [small commercial building that housed a graphic design business, razed for the never-built Artisan Haus project]
6. Dirt Lot at Central Avenue south of Central High School; created 2006 [former Holiday Inn razed for the never-built Cresleigh Village project]
7. Phoenix Biomedical Campus; created 2005 [I know the city moved or demolished several homes in the Fifth Street/Sixth Street area north of Fillmore so that land could be quickly "assembled" for expansion of the campus. The land is still vacant.]
8. Sahara Hotel/Ramada Inn; created 2010-? [The city is tearing down this mid-century modern hotel in hopes that the site will someday house ASU's law school. In the meantime...stop me if you've heard this before...the site will be a parking lot.]

Downtown Phoenix Project List

[list updated December 20, 2014]

Below is an attempt to list the current, future, and already completed projects. The list is not static as I'm sure I've missed some projects (especially in the "rumored" category). I also tried to draw a line and only included projects finished after 2000 in and around downtown (south of I-10, between about Tenth Street and Tenth Avenue, and north of Lincoln), and I excluded single-family home renovations-- there are just too many to list. Your input is always welcome...

Under Construction (as of December 20, 2014)

Residential
1. Townhomes on 3rd (10 townhomes), Third Avenue south of Roosevelt Street

Office
[none as of this time]

Hotel
1. Foundry Hotel, total rooms unknown, Central Avenue and Portland Street
2. Mariott Hotel, 320 rooms, Central Avenue and Jefferson Street

Academic
1. ASU School of Law, Second Street and Taylor Street

Retail
1. Hanny's renovation, restaurant in rehabbed department store, First Street and Adams Street
2. Security Building, first floor renovation


Yet to break ground/rumored (as of April 29, 2008)

Residential
1. Portland on the Park, 170 condos/four buildings up to 14 stories, roughly Second Avenue and Portland Street
2. Phoenix Transit Center apartments, 476 apartments/34 floors, Central Avenue and Van Buren Street
3. Roosevelt Street apartment project, Third Street and Roosevelt (south side)
4. Roosevelt Street apartment project, Third Street and Roosevelt (north side)

Office
[none]

Hotel
1. Hilton Garden Inn, Central Avenue and Monroe Street


Completed [this section under development]

Residential1. 215 McKinley (2007), 12 condos, Second Street and McKinley Street
2. Stadium Lofts (2005), approx. 30 condos, Second Street and Buchanon Street
3. Artisan Village (2005), 105 condos, square bounded by Seventh Street and Fifth Street and Roosevelt Street and Portland Street
4. Orpheum Lofts (2005), 88 condos, First Avenue and Adams Street
5. Fontenelle Lofts (2005), 7 condos, Third Avenue and Roosevelt
6. Roosevelt Commons (2004), 48 apartments, Fifth and Sixth Streets at Roosevelt Street
7. Lofts at Fillmore (2000), 18 condos, Second Avenue and Fillmore
8. Roosevelt Square (2000), 414 apartments and 10-15 condos, square bounded by Central Avenue and Third Avenue, Roosevelt Street and Portland Street
9. Portland Place Phase I (2007), 54 condos/6 stories, Third Avenue and Portland Street.
10. PRD 845 (2007), 12 condos/4 stories, Seventh Avenue and Roosevelt Street
11. Summit (2008), 165 condos, Third Street and Jackson Street.
12. CityScape apartments (2014), Central Avenue and Jefferson Street

Office
1. Phelps Dodge Tower (2001), Central Avenue and Washington Street
2. Collier Center (2000), Third Street and Washington Street

* = development offends historic preservation standards or other sound urban planning principles