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In Phoenix And Houston, Effort To Attract Millennials Is Reshaping Downtown

In Phoenix And Houston, Effort To Attract Millennials Is Reshaping Downtown

JANUARY 18, 2018

By Deirdre Pfeiffer, Genevieve Pearthree and Meagan Ehlenz

Read More: http://urbanedge.blogs.rice.edu/2018...ping-downtown/

PDF Cementing Millennials Downtown: Expressions and Impacts: http://kinder.rice.edu/uploadedFiles...ng%20Paper.pdf

Quote:

Millennials are on the cutting edge of a great inversion happening to U.S. urban areas. Many white Millennials and Baby Boomers are leaving their suburban roots for central city downtowns, while people of color and immigrants, who have historically lived in inner cities, are relocating to the suburbs. Living downtown allows Millennials, who are delaying or rejecting marriage and parenthood at higher rates, to have new experiences, meet new people, and be in walkable, amenity rich and transit-accessible neighborhoods.

- Downtowns are changing in response to Millennials, but we know less about how or why these changes are occurring. Our report, “Cementing Millennials Downtown: Expressions and Impacts,” reveals how real estate developers are helping to attract and retain Millennials in the downtowns of two central cities, Phoenix and Houston, which are emerging sites of Millennial migration. We draw findings using data from the U.S. Census, regional media, and interviews with 22 experts involved in Phoenix and Houston’s downtown housing markets. --- As Millennials were moving to downtown Phoenix and Houston during the 2000s and 2010s, new housing was also being built to keep up with demand. Both regions’ downtown concentration of new housing and Millennials increased from 2000 to 2010; downtown Phoenix experienced additional gains from 2010 to 2016. Millennials headed over half of households living in newer homes in downtown Phoenix and Houston from 2011 to 2015, with most in multifamily rentals.

- Downtown housing targeted to Millennials tends to have unique design features tailored to meet Millennials’ preferences, as perceived by real estate developers. Developers in downtown Phoenix and Houston targeted Millennials by creating “authentic,” one-of-a-kind, and context-specific properties. These developers believed that housing was an important part of Millennials’ identity and tried to differentiate their projects from others on the market by working with historic buildings, doing adaptive reuse, incorporating modern design features or art installations, and building on unique sites. For instance, one developer in downtown Phoenix commissioned a local graffiti artist to paint murals reminiscent of Arizona sunsets. Developers in downtown Phoenix and Houston also designed their buildings and chose sites to cultivate an inside/out lifestyle, as they perceived Millennials as engaging in activities outside of their homes that other generations would engage in inside of their homes, such as eating, relaxing, and exercising.

- Constant connectivity and social consciousness are other features of new properties designed to attract Millennials downtown. Developers integrated high-tech features, such as commercial speed fiber, electronic package delivery notification systems, and balcony outlets. These developers also built housing that was energy efficient, made from reusable materials, and located near transit or ridesharing services. Some projects included reduced onsite parking. Overall, housing in downtown Phoenix and Houston has become more innovative as a result of developers’ translation of what they perceived to be Millennials’ preferences into the built environment. --- The symbiotic actions of Millennials and developers in downtown Phoenix and Houston are reshaping these regions’ housing markets. Millennials and developers are endowing downtown Phoenix and Houston with a greater sense of place and diversity of activities. Developers have transformed vacant or surface parking lots into housing, stores, and restaurants.

- Downtown Phoenix and Houston have long been more disadvantaged than the rest of their central cities and suburbs, but their populations became markedly more affluent and educated from 2000 to 2016, with the largest increases occurring from 2010 to 2016. Tax breaks and other policies that encourage luxury housing construction have contributed to this trend. Millennials in the emerging adulthood lifecycle stage are most able to modify their living situations to weather increasing rents and stay downtown; low-income families are least able to adapt, which may reduce the number of housing opportunities available to them in downtown over time. --- Suburban tract home developers are adapting buildings styles from downtown Phoenix and Houston to smaller suburban downtowns, such as Glendale, Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, and Peoria in the Phoenix region and Stafford, Sugar Land, Pearland, CityCentre, and The Woodlands in the Houston region, which may continue to attract Millennials to these places.

- The current expressions and impacts of Millennials’ downtown migration have implications for the future of the Phoenix and Houston regions. There is a looming mismatch between the housing being built downtown and Millennials’ future housing needs. Millennials’ current housing—designed mostly for people without children—will be insufficient as they start families. --- It is important to plan for more diverse housing and family-friendly amenities, so that downtowns are able to retain their social diversity and investment over time. Suburban communities also need to consider how to increase walkability, access to public transit, and their sense of place to capture Millennial interests and investment. Phoenix and Houston have prominent examples of mixed-use, higher density development in their suburbs, but low-density single-family tract homes continue to dominate.

- Even greater innovation in housing is on the horizon in downtown Phoenix and Houston, as developers compete to attract Millennials. For example, a development in progress in downtown Phoenix in 2016 planned to recycle greywater, have its own ride share program, and grow plants on the building walls. These innovations may help to further distinguish downtown Phoenix and Houston as unique destinations to live, work, and play. However, developers’ ability to innovate is shaped by local regulations, such as minimum parking requirements. It is critical for planners to periodically revisit their regulations in conversation with downtown developers and residents to cultivate a space to allow for continued innovation.

.....

Lol anti downtown houston, and retirement community Phoenix. Yeah ok.

Downtown Houston is coming along, although they are discouraging the building of more apartments in the area in general.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaleAle (Post 8066803)

Lol anti downtown houson, and retirement community Phoenix. Yeah ok.

Its not at all what you think it is, the retires live in specific suburban retirement communities, Downtown and Central Phoenix has been undergoing probably one of the most dramatic transformations in the country.

Don't feed the troll. Can't even spell "Houston"

Quote:

Originally Posted by JManc (Post 8066868)

Don't feed the troll. Can't even spell "Houston"

it's jon houson, the anti-downtown advocate in Phoenix.

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/grumpy-guy-1815832.jpg
thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/grumpy-guy-1815832.jpg

This story gives no comparative context. So millennials are attracted to central Phoenix and Houston, and there has been substantial migration to the center cities and a boom in residential construction.

This has been true for many cities including Denver, Seattle, Portland, Austin, and D.C. for a decade or more and for many other cities since the end of the Great Recession.

How does Houston and Phoenix compare to those cities and to other cities undergoing similar urban transformations such as Dallas, Pittsburgh, Philly, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Atlanta and others? Booming downtowns filling with millennials are commonplace across the country.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePhun1 (Post 8066846)

Downtown Houston is coming along, although they are discouraging the building of more apartments in the area in general.

How are they discouraging it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by CherryCreek (Post 8066918)

This story gives no comparative context. So millennials are attracted to central Phoenix and Houston, and there has been substantial migration to the center cities and a boom in residential construction.

How does Houston and Phoenix compare to those cities and to other cities undergoing similar urban transformations such as Dallas, Pittsburgh, Philly, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Atlanta and others? Booming downtowns filling with millennials are commonplace across the country.

Its obviously picking cities boom sunbelt cities that traditionally have shunned urban development, why would it pick places like Atlanta and Seattle that developed in much different times and in much different ways than Houston and Phoenix?

What would that show?

It's great that Millennials are moving to the downtowns and helping to reinvigorate them but that is only half the battle. They are young and educated but the vast majority will eventually have at least one kid and the downtowns must also have good public schools and a safe environment because if they don't then those same Millennials will move back to the suburbs to ensure their own kids get a good education in a safe community.

Getting young people to move downtown is one thing but keeping them there is another. The real metric is not how many are moving their but how many are staying.

@Mhays

There was an article in the Houston Biz Journal about it some time back. They said that too many semi-luxury apartments were being built in the Houston area and some civic leaders were trying to discourage builders from building them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CherryCreek (Post 8066918)

Same thing going on in Houston and Phoenix as in those other cities. Author probably just zeroed in on these two. The type and level of development around the country in growing areas is more or less the same.

@ ThePhun1: And developers are ignoring them. Civic leaders want low(er) income housing and developers are moving forward with higher end projects.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Obadno (Post 8066865)

Does downtown Phoenix have a height limit due to the airport being nearby? I've been traveling there for work the past couple years and notice the skyline is somewhat "flat".

Quote:

Originally Posted by COtoOC (Post 8067164)

Does downtown Phoenix have a height limit due to the airport being nearby? I've been traveling there for work the past couple years and notice the skyline is somewhat "flat".

Yes it does but it isn't as limiting as the skyline would have you believe.

The further south you go the more extreme the height limits but they are like 50-60 floors and our tallest is ~40 floors. and as you go north the height restrictions disappear pretty rapidly.

The reason Phoenix doesn't have height is because there was never demand for height and what little existed downtown from its days as a farm town in the 1930's and 1940's was pretty much left desolate after the 1970 in favor of suburban sprawl, Until recently.

So you wont ever see buildings in phoenix much above 60/70 floors in the downtown core until planes take off vertically.

Of course you can have 100 stories up in midtown if there was demand.

What about mountain nimbies worried about the view.

Quote:

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K (Post 8067209)

What about mountain nimbies worried about the view.

Surprisingly I haven't heard a lot of NIMBY's complain about mountain views because the tall buildings aren't really close to any mountains and don't block anyone's views (yet)

There are a number of high-rises under construction and im sure some of the existing ones with nearly 365 degree views of the mountains and surrounding city wont be too happy when a they are staring into someone else's condo instead of out across the city.

What we have had are a number of eclectic business owners who have been downtown for years that are mad its becoming gentrified because apparently they preferred prostitutes and heroin addicts instead of hipsters and Yuppies. They even may have killed a 20 story apartment building that had begun construction because a neighboring tap-house wanted to preserve his view from his patio (my conjecture its officially about tax breaks to developers)

But yes, downtown has finally some attraction and development and there are already NIMBY's complaining that it still isn't entirely a half abandoned ghost town of methheads

You all do realize that this is just another one of the OP's attempts to drum up forum conflict by posting an article about two cities that very rarely generate any sort of rational discussion, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ssiguy (Post 8066963)

Nah, not really. You do know more young people come of age every year, right? Once the older ones start to have kids and move out the new young people take their spot. And the cycle repeats

BTW I heard downtown Phoenix was becoming pretty cool. My friend moved there about a year ago and was hella excited about it, taking the train, walking places etc

I doubt they change much.

It's not like millennials are some sort of urban panacea. A 20-something who grew up in a suburban subdivision, and only knows that lifestyle, is just as likely to move to the burbs as their parents.

In fact, the large numbers of suburban-raised professionals moving to the city are probably why some cities, like Chicago, are building dense yet auto-centric developments downtown, with enormous parking requirements. You can take the millennial out of the suburbs, but you can't take the suburbs out of the millennial.

Even my fiancée struggled with the concept of grocery shopping only for what you need for dinner that night and maybe breakfast the next morning, rather than loading up the trunk of the car with all kinds of crap once a week per the typical suburban family.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001 (Post 8067275)

Nope!