Downtown Phoenix parcel set for housing

A Scottsdale-based developer has bought a downtown Phoenix parcel that has stood vacant for years and hopes to build a residential-retail project designed for the growing student and employee population at the Phoenix Biomedical and Arizona State University downtown campuses.

Concord Eastridge recently paid $3.1 million for the 2.89 acres of land on the southeastern corner of Third and Roosevelt streets.

Amy Heisle, spokeswoman for Concord Eastridge, said the project, which will include two multilevel buildings, "is not official student housing, but it is targeted to that student and young professional group."

Steven Schnoor, Concord Eastridge's senior vice president, said Concord Eastridge is focused on development that is linked to colleges and universities.

The property was purchased from ML Manager LLC, successor company to the bankrupt Mortgages Ltd.

For this project, Schnoor anticipates 325 to 350 units will be available, plus 5,000 square feet for retail or commercial businesses. Apartments will vary in size, he said. Details are still being worked out.

"We'd also look to have any kind of commercial business but ideally one that serves our resident community," he said.

The company has built housing near the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va.

"Given all the higher education-related and research-related development that has been going on in downtown Phoenix, we feel that there's a good opportunity and a lack of housing for all the folks that are involved in either the biomedical campus or ASU Downtown," Schnoor said.

The company's purchase is timely. More people will be working downtown within the next five years because of upcoming construction projects at the biomedical campus and possibly at the ASU campus.

Phoenix officials earlier this year agreed to spend $14 million to help the Arizona Cancer Center build a new facility at Seventh and Fillmore streets at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus downtown. About 800 medical staff would work at the center, expected to be under construction in late 2012. The center would serve up to 60,000 patients a year. Boyer Co. of Salt Lake City also is hoping to build a six-story laboratory facility for the biomedical campus, but it is still in the planning stage and arranging funding.

ASU has seen an increase in students at the downtown Phoenix campus. The university believes an estimated 13,570 students take classes in some way at the downtown campus, although ASU officials acknowledge that number can be misleading.

Some of those students who are counted in the downtown population are taking courses at other campuses at the colleges that are headquartered downtown, including the College of Nursing and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, ASU spokesman Marshall Terrill said.

But ASU is still planning to build a law school at First and Taylor streets, which will draw more non-traditional students into the area.

"When we move the law school downtown, that's when we're going to need some different types of housing," said Patrick Panetta, director of real-estate development for ASU.

by Emily Gersema The Arizona Republic Jul. 6, 2011 12:00 AM




Downtown Phoenix parcel set for housing