Cityscape construction thread

[HX_Guy]

The article from The Business Journal pretty much sums the groundbreaking party up. Really there was nothing new announced that we didn't know already, aside from them starting construction in 3 weeks.

They did a very well job with the whole event. There were over 600 people there and was pretty "star studded", at least with local well knowns. As mentioned, Jerry Colangelo was there, Pat McMahon was the presenter, and I saw Al McCoy of the Phoenix Suns walking around. The renderings were on huge banners, probably 20' in height setup to give an actual impression that you were on the street looking at the project. It worked pretty well to give that illusion.

To sort of recap, before all the photos...

- They have reduced the number of floors on the main tower. The rendering shows 38 floors, but I was told it will be 35 floors, making it even shorter. The main reason seems to be they wanted to reduce the number of condos as they don't feel there are enough potention buyers in the market for 2-3 bedroom luxury condos.

- The official groundbreaking was today, October 22nd, at 4:30 PM. Actual construction starts in November, about 3 weeks from now

- Wachovia is anchoring the office tower (which seems to be 26 stories from the rendering)

- Kimpton hotel, called The Palomer is going in the main tower, with residential condos above

- The main tower will have only 2-3 bedroom condos, which means expensive $$$

- The third tower planned, on the southern part of the eastern most block, will contain a TWELVE hotel, a signature restaurant, and an additional 30,000 sq ft of retail

- Three towers will all go up at once. The Wachovia tower and Patriot's block will start first, while the main tower and a third tower on the eastern block will start around mid 2008, while the Wachovia tower is still going up

- The fourth tower isn't planned to be under construction until 2010

[MJLO]

Originally, Cityscape was said to contain a tower, maybe two cresting at 500' feet. With the reduction in floors, I assume that the tallest tower will be now shorter than the Chase tower. Is this wrong? Will we in AZ ever get anything taller than Chase built? They say the downtown office market is hot so why can't we get more office towers? Or at least something in the 500 range. I know i'm just being bitter.

[nuplanner]

I agree MJLO, they seem to get the approval for 500', but the market and the FAA had a lot to do with it. I wish we could start seeming things a lot higher than Chase, but it does not look like it will happen for a while

Question:

When I went to a suns game, just south of the b of A (collier center) building are two story shops and stuff. On the east side of 3rd and Jefferson is concrete. I know it leads down to the parking area, but has anyone heard of something being built on top of this? I heard another tower would go up, but that seemed to be scratched by collier people. Anything new?

[MJLO]

I'll have to check it out. I'm headed downtown to get some Photos of what's going on at city scape and some other projects. I'll look into that as well.

[nuplanner]

did you find out what I was asking about that concrete area?

[vwwolfe]

did you find out what I was asking about that concrete area?

[vwwolfe]

Here's a plan of what the Collier Center was intended to be. Notice nothing like the final project.

[cueball1914]

Some of this looks really ambitious, does anyone have an update??

[nuplanner]

wow, thanks for that. I have heard that they were going to do those other towers, and the hotel, but they partnered with the cityscape project. I think that will be a spot for future development.

Now about a building being over 500 feet. The market is changing, and I think within the next 10 years or so, you will see a building north of Chase be built over 500'.

[MJLO]

I know that they have scaled cityscape down quite a bit. Especially with Wachovia being absorbed by Wells. But does anyone have a rundown/ update of the current state of cityscape. I've been in Detroit for a month now, so i'm not up to speed on anything back home. Last I had seen when i was downtown, cityscape was just a big hole

[MJLO]

anyone have any pics to update Cityscape progress?