Leadership needed

Omega Condominiums: At first blush anyway, this proposed 32-story condo looks great. It has ground-floor retail, the parking is part of the building and not a stand-alone garage, and it respects its downtown Phoenix environment (i.e., it doesn't require the destruction of any historic buildings or parks).

Unfortunately, a potential roadblock has emerged in that it will sit atop the parking lot currently in use by the residents of nextdoor Orpheum Lofts. The Orpheum residents claim they were promised parking when they purchased their condos, but once the Omega tower is built their only option will be to purchase parking at $30,000 per stall in Omega.

This problem seems solveable. If there's one thing downtown Phoenix has an abundance of, it's (not people or entertainment options) parking. There are numerous surface and garage parking lots near the Orpheum Lofts that are unused at night. And here's where we need leadership-- if Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is really serious about downtown housing, his office should step in and broker a solution with the Orpheum HOA to find an answer to the parking problem. Hey, I hear the city wants to add a couple more floors to its already-monstrous garage on 3rd avenue (Heaven help us), so maybe there could be some spaces available there?

Orpheum Lofts and new residences. As a side note, it's interesting how the Orpheum Lofts homeowners begged the Parks Board to approve CityScape because they were so desperate for new residents and options downtown (a few so-called "urbanites" even said they were frightened by their downtown environment), but now that a proposed project threatens their own self-interest they're opposed to new development. This is bad news and there's got to be a compromise if downtown Phoenix is to succeed.

CityScape aftermath

The Parks Board voted 5-2 to adopt the conceptual master plan for CityScape. My initial reaction and observation following last night's meeting:


A lightweight board. "New York might have Central Park, but New York also has a lot of other things that I wouldn't want," said Parks Board member Laura Bell in casting her vote to turn over the park to RED. Huh?! Even CityScape supporters would have to admit the board's comments in electing to abdicate their roles as stewards of a park to the private sector were pretty much insipid. Jim Holway was the lone bright spot among that dismal crew.

Class warfare. The young professionals in the room, many of them residents of the Orpheum Lofts, generally supported CityScape (while in general the opposition was older and less well-to-do). I don't get it- haven't any of these young professionals lived in other cities? Don't they realize that trading away the public park for a PF Changs doesn't make our city better, it just makes it generic?

Nobody buys RED's "park." In its presentation on CityScape, RED Development tried to make the claim that the little grassy spot in the middle of the AJ's/B. Dalton's/PF Chang's complex was Patriot's Park. They even tried to say that 20,000 people could attend an event there (even though their diagrams showed half those people would be unable to see the "stage" because their view would be blocked by PF Chang's). But nobody who spoke on behalf of the project tried to defend RED's ploy. Aside from the developers, even the supporters of CityScape seem to concede that Patriot's Square is gone.


Streetside Retail? It's hard to say whether there will be streetside retail. Yes, one of the development team pledged in the meeting that all parts of the project will have street-fronting retail. But earlier in the presentation one of the RED guys mentioned only "retail along Washington and Jefferson." Holway brought up the fact that RED hadn't received any commitment from the proposed tenants to have street-facing retail. And RED's own plan points out "street side retail" only on the new east-west street, and nowhere else in the project (see below). Hopefully-- at least-- there will be street-fronting stores.

Summary. In all, this was no surprise. It's Phoenix! The developers generally rule the day. But they did have to make some concessions. And maybe the people in attendance-- who seemed so desperate for new development-- will get over their civic inferiority complex and not be so desperate the next time a developer proposes some crappy deal to the city.