Southeast Valley Development News

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http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles...eri_11231.aspx

Who would've guessed my sleepy hometown would be in this list...

A new study from the University of Illinois at Chicago ranked the 75 largest cities in America by their government's social media acumen. The university based their findings on “opportunities for citizen participation and information,” according to a press release. These included:

• Hosting of open data portals;
• Comments allowed on blogs and social networks;
• The extent to which online discussions concerned policy as well as city services;
• information on officials, budgets, city council meetings and neighborhood issues.

Here are the top 10 (some of the cities tied, according to the university's scoring system):

1. New York
1. Seattle
2. Virginia Beach
3. Portland
4. San Francisco
5. Kansas City, MO
6. Denver
7. Mesa, Ariz.
8. Louisville
9. Philadelphia
9. Long Beach, CA
9. Sacramento
10. San Jose

Phoenix comes in at 12 while Tucson and Glendale come in at 21.

There's a link for the raw report in the article.

[nickw252]

The Missouri-based Westminster College plans to open a campus in downtown Mesa, which will make it the second school to expand into the city this year.

The nonprofit liberal arts college was founded in 1851 and has about 1,100 students at its Fulton campus, which was propelled to international fame in 1946 when former British Prime Minster Winston Churchill gave his famous “Iron Curtain” speech there. Westminster has gone on to host other international leaders, and its programs have an international flavor.

Westminster anticipates holding its first classes in fall 2013. Mesa and Westminster officials announced their plans Monday as they entered into a negotiation period to formalize the deal.

The undergraduate college has recruited students in the Valley for nine years and chose Mesa because of the area’s growth potential, said President George “Barney” Forsythe.

“Our strategic plan includes moving the college from a regional institution to a national institution,” Forsythe said.

Westminster will start with about 10,000 square feet in the former Mesa City Court, 245 W. Second St. The college expects to have about 560 students in five years and reach full growth potential of 1,200 students in a decade. Forsythe expects some students and faculty will go to both campuses. Westminster plans to hire locally for most positions.

The college is one of more than 1,000 that Mesa notified more than a year ago as the city launched an ambitious effort to bring multiple universities to the area. The first deal was struck in January with Illinois-based Benedictine University, which plans to open a downtown campus in the fall of 2013. Mayor Scott Smith said other announcements should come soon.

Mesa primarily wants nonprofit residential campuses to help enliven downtown. Smith said the city has declined offers from start-ups and was impressed by Westminster’s legacy.

“We were looking for something more than a storefront presence, and that was important to use because we want the colleges that come here to play an integral role in our community,” Smith said.

Westminster will offer three degrees initially in Mesa — transnational studies, international business and environmental studies. It plans minors in pre-med and pre-law, and that all programs will have an international focus.

“Our assessment is that’s what the 21st Century needs, and graduates with a baccalaureate degree,” Forsythe said. “And that is wonderful preparation for the workplace because the nature of work is going to continue to be transformed, so you have to have folks who can think critically about complex subjects and can continue to learn and grow.”

Westminster has been in talks with Mesa for about one year. The college and city officials said they’ll explore student housing for Westminster and other colleges in the coming years at various city-owned or privately owned properties.

Westminster was ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. and The Princeton Review ranked it as one of the best colleges in the Midwest for 10 years in a row.

Its Fulton campus includes the National Churchill Museum and the longest contiguous section of the Berlin Wall in North America.

The bold part shows that Mayor Smith really "gets it." Phoenix is lousy with for profit colleges in strip malls and office parks and what do they do for the community? Nothing.

[snowthedirtbub]

Pennsylvania-based Albright College on Tuesday announced its plans for a presence in Mesa, the third nationally recognized school to do so this year.

Illinois-based Benedictine University announced its proposed expansion in January, with Missouri-based Westminster College following suit last month.

Pending City Council approval Thursday, Mesa will enter into a "memorandum of understanding" with Reading, Pa.-based Albright to finalize an agreement "to bring ... its non-traditional student programs to the Fiesta District and downtown," according to the city.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/m...#ixzz1uzlvfMsi

Man, Mesa is really cleaning up with colleges.

[nickw252]

Originally Posted by snowthedirtbub

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/m...#ixzz1uzlvfMsi

Man, Mesa is really cleaning up with colleges.

I'm starting to get skeptical about all these announcements. What is really needed is a residential liberal arts school taking up a few city blocks. I'm starting to think instead we're going to just see a bunch of tiny branch campuses or extensions occupying a few small buildings and not creating an actual college atmosphere.

Either way, it's better than proprietary schools.

[Phxguy]

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/mon...9bb2963f4.html
Good news for Fiesta District.

[nickw252]

The term "mixed-use" Has become so ubiquitous that people don't know what it means. I don't see anything in this article that suggests this building will be mixed use - unless they are considering apartments and homeless units to be mixed use. Either way, still both residential.

A New Leaf is moving forward with the La Mesita Project, an affordable, supportive housing initiative in Mesa that will include 80 mixed-use apartments and 16 emergency homeless shelter units with onsite services, community space and light-rail transportation adjacent to the property.

With the help from a low-income housing tax credit award from the Arizona Department of Housing and additional support by local cities and communities, the aging La Mesita Family Homeless Shelter will be transformed in several phases through two re-development plans.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/loc...9bb2963f4.html

[PhxER]

Gateway Airport Expansion

All the construction around Ellsworth and Ray roads in Mesa is about to get more company as soon as 2014. With significant capital dollars already budgeted for the facility in 2013, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport unveiled plans for a $1.5B, 60-gate passenger terminal to handle its growing traffic volume.

Broken into four phases, the Jacobs Engineering Group-concept plan’s first phase could be breaking ground in 2014 start to build 14 gates, parking for nearly 4.4K vehicles and support facilities. The trigger is the number of passengers using the airport – which is growing at a pace to hit capacity in 2016 or 2017.

The terminal project is just behind $20M in capital projects and planning slated for the upcoming year. In fiscal 2013, ADOT’s aviation capital improvement program has more short-term money going to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway than to Sky Harbor. The major airport’s capital boom slows a little next year with the completion of the Sky Train people mover.

Although a 20-or-more year buildout is anticipated, the airport’s plans call for three additional terminal phases. The $145M second phase increases capacity to 18 gates and 10K parking spaces. The capacity at the airport will increase to 4.4M passengers.

The third phase adds 30 gates to accommodate 10M passengers. The nearly $1B expansion also incorporates light rail to the airport. No date is projected for this phase. Adding the last eight gates to handle 20M passengers annually, airport officials see the Phase IV start date sometime after 2030.

Discount carriers Allegiant and Spirit fly nonstop from Gateway to 35 domestic destinations. Spirit recently added a Denver leg to its Phoenix-Las Vegas flight. Officials are coy about whether other carriers might add service – expansion, however, is based on more flights and airlines welcoming passengers to the East Valley.

Driving the airport expansion is a predicted $385M in private development on airport-owned property. Officials see 2.5M SF of office and retail space, plus a pair of hotels with 600 rooms. Over 8,000 non-airport jobs are possible with the expansion.

Read more HERE

[nickw252]

It's a day Mesa feared might never come.

Three summers ago, the Chicago Cubs began making serious noise about moving their spring-training operations to greener financial pastures in Florida.

As that prospect became more real, Mesa sought the Legislature's help in financing a stadium and training facilities to replace Hohokam Stadium and Fitch Park -- not because those parks were horrible, but largely because the Cubs wanted elbow room for an entertainment and retail complex.


The city was stunned when almost every other Cactus League city lined up against the proposal, which perished under the Capitol's copper dome.

Plan B, unveiled two years ago, was to use Mesa's business-enterprise fund to cover the costs, replenishing the fund over time by selling city land in Pinal County.

Mesa voters gave a big thumbs-up to the idea in November 2010, kicking off intricate and protracted dickering between the city and the Cubs over details of the stadium complex. A new wrinkle emerged last year when the Cubs invited Arizona State University to use the stadium for its baseball program.

The parties still haven't settled all the details, but that won't prevent their biggest kumbaya moment to date -- a formal groundbreaking for stadium construction on Wednesday. The ceremony is set for 8 a.m. at 2202 W. Eighth St. -- the address of the now-closed Riverview Golf Course clubhouse.

City Manager Chris Brady said guests will include members of the Ricketts family, who bought the Cubs in 2009 and endured a full-court press from both Mesa and business interests in Naples, Fla., before deciding to perpetuate a nearly 60-year legacy of spring training here.

Hunt Construction Group Inc. was awarded the overall contract for the stadium project last year, but the work will be authorized one piece at a time in separate City Council votes. The first piece, scheduled to be approved Monday, will pay Hunt nearly $8 million to demolish existing golf course and park facilities, grade the more than 100 acres and install utility lines under the former golf course.

The work is to be finished by November, paving the way for the stadium and other buildings to go vertical with a scheduled completion date of late 2013.

City Engineer Beth Huning said the bid is about $1 million less than Mesa had expected to pay.

Most of the $8 million will come from the $84 million that Mesa voters authorized for stadium construction. An additional $15 million is authorized for ancillary infrastructure, such as street and park improvements.

If stadium spending goes beyond $84 million, the Cubs have agreed to pay those bills. But the city and team have disagreed at times over what should be covered by the $84 million and what should come from the infrastructure fund.

One spat involved the Riverview Park lake, which Mesa will renovate and enlarge. The Cubs had contended all that cost should be assigned to the $15 million. Mesa had argued that since the lake will be part of the stadium complex's irrigation system, some of the costs should come from the $84 million.

Brady said this week that spat has been settled. Mesa calculated how much it will spend on the lake as part of a normal park renovation, and then figured how much extra it costs to enlarge it for stadium and practice-field irrigation.

The Cubs have agreed that the difference will be billed to the $84 million, Brady said.

As the project unfolds, Mayor Scott Smith said, there will be intricate accounting to make sure costs are properly assigned. "The Cubs have found out we're extremely serious about this $84 million cap," Smith said.

Another sore spot in negotiations became evident last month when ASU President Michael Crow complained to Smith in an e-mail about the progress of ASU's own talks with the Cubs.

Brady said this week, however, that ASU and the Cubs are still at the table. Mesa is not directly involved in those talks.

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http://www.azcentral.com/community/m...#ixzz203qXMrI1

[nickw252]

If the Great Recession had been averted, what might the Southeast Valley look like today?

A Mesa resident could be waking up in his 19th-floor Fiesta Towers penthouse condo, and glancing across to a neighbor in an adjacent luxury building.

Families could escape from the heat this weekend with a visit to Waveyard, an elaborate water park that once promised scuba diving and snorkeling in the middle of the desert.

Families attending graduation ceremonies at Arizona State University might have their pick of luxury hotels to stay at along Mill Avenue.

And, in place of dirt lots around Gilbert and Chandler, there likely would be dozens of mixed-use developments and mid-rise office condos.

Instead, a stalled market, developer bankruptcies and crippled lenders put an end to -- or delayed or significantly scaled back -- these and many other ambitious developments the past five years. Here is a look at what might have been around the Southeast Valley.

Elevation Chandler

Original plan: Elevation Chandler was to be a mix of luxury condos and hotel rooms at the south interchange of Loops 101 and 202, the missing puzzle piece that would complement the nearby Chandler Fashion Center, Hilton hotel and Price Corridor. Instead, the developer lost financing to complete the building in 2006, and a botched trustee's sale resulted in a legal battle over ownership that was resolved this spring. For years, the project became an eyesore for Chandler residents and a headache for city officials who could do nothing to intervene.

What exists of original plan today: The skeletal frame of the partially -constructed building remains at the 10-acre site. In May, the Arizona Supreme Court awarded ownership of Elevation Chandler to the investors of Point Center Financial, the project's lender, clearing it to be sold.

Chandler Piazza

Original plan: The 18-acre mixed-use project at the southeastern corner of Frye Road and Ellis Street, east of Chandler Fashion Center, was to include a high-end hotel, restaurants and retail space.

What exists of original plan today: Empty lot. The development was partially constructed in 2008, but torn down later. The city kept water lines, power lines and other infrastructure in place for future developers.

Cooley Center at Cooley Station

Original plan: Plans in 2008 had Cooley Center as the heart of Cooley Station, itself a 1,000-acre master-planned, mixed-use development in the Higley area. The 125-acre Cooley Center would have hotels, offices, residential space, retail, grocery, recreation and a "Cineplex," at Recker and Williams Field roads.

What exists of original plan today: Nothing of the center, although construction on homes in Cooley Station continues.

Rivulon

Original plan: Nationwide Realty Investors, which owns the Gainey Ranch Corporate Center in Scottsdale, planned to build as much as 5 million square feet of office and retail space on 250 acres near Gilbert Road and Santan Freeway. The site also was to have two hotels and a residential community.

"We see this as a sustainable development that will provide attractive employment to the nearby workforce and really enhance quality of life by minimizing commute times," Chris Thompson, Nationwide director of real-estate equities, told The Republic in 2009.

Developers noted that the finished project could take as long as 15 years, depending on market conditions.

What exists of original plan today: Nothing, yet.

"Even during the slowdown there still has been activity on these properties," said Kyle Merias,CQ planning manager for Gilbert. "We've had constant communication. It's not like everything just stopped and went away. It's just that nothing moved on to the construction phase."

Photo: http://www.azcentral.com/specials/sp...jects1121.html

Heritage Marketplace

Original plan: The vision for Gilbert's Heritage Marketplace included five buildings for 90,000 square feet of office, retail and residential space. Town officials had estimated that the project would bring as many as 350 jobs and $15 million in annual payroll to the Heritage District. As part of the agreement, Gilbert was obligated to pay $7.6 million to build a 365-space parking garage.

What exists of original plan today: Nothing. The developer's plans stalled, so the town never constructed the parking garage. However, in the past year, an art walk, farmers market, some surface parking lots and Postino's East restaurant -- unrelated to the original plans for Heritage Marketplace -- have cropped up in that area.

Fiesta Towers/Fiesta Lofts/Aquaterra

Original plan: In 2005, a Chicago developer pitched to Mesa officials Fiesta Towers, four high-rise condominium buildings at Westwood and Grove avenues that would have a luxury hotel and units ranging from $189,900 studios to $632,900 three-bedroom suites. The upscale towers would reinvigorate the Fiesta District, attracting young professionals and empty-nesters with gobs of disposable income.

The ambitious project started with two 19-story and two 10-story buildings, then shrunk to Fiesta Lofts. It was downsized even more to become Aquaterra, a complex of 332 condominium units and a 128-room Aloft hotel. Finally, the project shrank to become senior housing, before disappearing completely.

What exists of original plan today: Nothing.

I can't imagine anyone ever paying $650k to live in Mesa's Fiesta District.

Gaylord resort and conference center

Original plan: Original plans for the elaborate $800 million resort and conference center in southeast Mesa, approved by voters in 2009, called for the Gaylord to be operating by the end of 2014. The resort would be the largest in the state, including convention space, a championship 18-hole golf course, restaurants, retail shops and entertainment. City officials also hoped the resort would transform the Gateway area into a destination for conventions and groups.

What exists of original plan today: Nothing. In May, Nashville-based Gaylord Entertainment Inc. sold the Gaylord Hotels brand to Marriott International Inc. for $210 million. Company officials did not say whether it would put an end to the Mesa resort plans, which remain in limbo. Mesa had approved a three-year extension of the original Dec. 31, 2011, deadline for groundbreaking.

Waveyard

Original plan: In 2006, when Scottsdale-based Waveyard Development announced it wanted to build a $250 million adventure sports park and resort, Mesa and Surprise jumped in line. The developer chose Mesa, and the city's voters overwhelmingly approved the project in 2007.

Waveyard was to open in January 2010 and promised an elaborate water park, including whitewater rafting, surfing and scuba diving. However, the developer could not obtain financing, and not even a deadline extension granted by the city could save it.

What exists of original plan today: Nothing. Mesa retains ownership of the Riverview Golf Course and four nearby ball fields, the land on which Waveyard would have been built.

Centerpoint Condominiums

Original plan: In 2006, construction in Tempe began on what was planned to be one 22-story tower and three 30-story towers near Mill Avenue and Sixth Street, with units starting at $250,000.

Given the situation Tempe was pretty fortunate it got the two towers.

"It'll be on par with Miami's South Beach in the next 10 years," said Ken Losch of developer Avenue Communities in 2006.

lol

The luxury buildings would be the tallest in Tempe, and city officials hoped they would attract the type of residents who would stimulate business and nightlife along Mill Avenue.

What exists of original plan today: The developer filed for bankruptcy in 2008, leaving the project in limbo with the second tower halfway finished. The unfinished condos finally were converted to West 6th Tempe luxury apartments last year. The apartments were marketed to college students, professionals and retirees, and more than 250 residents have since moved in.

University Square

Original plan: In 2006, the Tempe City Council approved plans to transform the 1960s-era brick buildings of Arches Plaza into University Square, a $500 million megaplex that would span a city block near University Drive and Forest Avenue. The project's original plans included a high-rise Westin hotel, office and retail space and condominiums, all part of a larger hope to inject new life into the Mill Avenue District and jump-start similar luxury hotel developments.

What exists of original plan today: Nothing. The project went into foreclosure, and the building gradually deteriorated. Sundt Companies purchased it in 2010 for $10.13 million.

Republic reporters Parker Leavitt, Dianna M. Náñez, Gary Nelson, Luci Scott and Jim Walsh contributed to this article.

Overall most of the cancelled developmends aren't a big loss from an urbanist's point of view.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/m...#ixzz203r4Bia8

[phxSUNSfan]

Groundbreaking for the "Cub's New Digs" and Wrigleyville West photographed for the AZ Republic:
http://www.azcentral.com/photo/Community/Mesa/22772

Story:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...d-stadium.html

[HooverDam]

Frontier Airlines is latest addition to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport

20 comments by Maria Polletta - Aug. 6, 2012 12:20 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

Frontier Airlines on Monday announced it will become Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport's third passenger carrier in November, joining Allegiant Air and Spirit Airlines in offering air service at the Southeast Valley facility.

Daily Denver-to-Mesa service is expected to arrive at Gateway in early afternoon. The plane would make a return flight to Denver in about two hours.

Poll: Do you plan to fly Frontier? | Photos: Gateway Airport


The announcement, which reportedly followed about a year of negotiations, marks a significant step up in Gateway's status as a reliever airport, according to airport and local government officials.

"The third airline ... especially a hub airline, we think is a game-changer," Mesa Mayor Scott Smith said. "You have three airlines and you're not a novelty anymore. You're legitimate."

The addition of Denver-based Frontier will triple the number of destinations reachable via Gateway, as the Denver-based airline serves more than 80 U.S. cities, plus Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Mexico.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, which began serving Gateway in 2007, and Florida-based Spirit Airlines, which came to Mesa this year, are known for bargain fares. Allegiant generally offers point-to-point service to less-traveled destinations, while Spirit serves major cities. Frontier, while still considered low-cost, is a more traditional airline that flies to many major markets.

Although Gateway already offers service to international destinations, current routes are often roundabout and lengthy, involving multiple stops.

Smith said, "The objective was to make Gateway Airport a one-stop destination," meaning passengers could get from Gateway to "anywhere through one change of plane."

With Frontier, "I can literally go in, change planes (in Denver), and I can be in Boston, I can be in New York, I can be in Chicago, I can be in Mexico. Or I can go to Denver and pick up a United (Airlines) flight that's going to Germany or to somewhere else," he said. "Once I get to the hub, my options expand almost exponentially."

Scot Rigby, a lead Mesa economic-development official, said the Mesa-Denver daytime travel schedule, once it begins, will be an opportunity to catch business-travel clientele in addition to leisure travelers.

"For us, that's a big thing for businesses that are here in this Mesa market or the East Valley -- for businesses now to be able to look at Gateway as a viable option for their employees to get out, as well as their vendors to go back in," Rigby said. "It means shorter time from the gate to their doorstep, or from their doorstep to their client's doorstep."

Intel Corp., for instance, has facilities in both Chandler and the greater Denver area.

Frontier will be the first airline to serve both Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Gateway. Southeast Valley officials believe the move speaks to the area's value as its own, expanding market.

Mesa spokesman Steven Wright compared Gateway's evolving trajectory to that of Los Angeles-area reliever airports, including those in Ontario and Burbank.

Gateway has barely been able to keep up with growth over the last few years and expects to serve 1.2 million passengers in 2012.

Gateway executives in June released a $1.5 billion, 20-year expansion plan for the airport after projections showed that its existing terminal would reach capacity three years earlier than expected, in 2014. The terminal will be expanded to eight gates just before Frontier begins service Nov. 15, immediately followed by construction to bring the terminal up to 10 gates.

Airport officials recently got approval to accelerate some components of the renovation, including the creation of more ticket-counter space and relocation of the security area, which also will help accommodate the arrival of Frontier.



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/m...#ixzz22ot1wqMZ

Good to see Gateway continuing to grow.

[N830MH]

Originally Posted by HooverDam

Good to see Gateway continuing to grow.

Yes, I agree as well. I think they should be done extremely very well. They will continued to bring more capacity growth.

Here is the official announcement from Frontier Airlines:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fly-fr...180000006.html

Only 1 daily RT. This route will goes on effective Nov. 15, 2012.

[phxSUNSfan]

Intel building a new R&D facility that will eventually employ 1,000 people. Would be nice to get some of that type of action within the "Discovery Triangle" between Phoenix and Tempe.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...-facility.html

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by phxSUNSfan

Intel building a new R&D facility that will eventually employ 1,000 people. Would be nice to get some of that type of action within the "Discovery Triangle" between Phoenix and Tempe.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/ar...-facility.html

Does anyone know how it is that Chandler became such a high tech center? Do they have special tax breaks for high tech firms? Was it just the ease of building big warehouse type plants on the top of old cotton fields? Is it to the point know where Chandler just has a high tech reputation, so more high tech companies locate there?

I too wish more of these sorts of facilities would be in the "Discovery Triangle" and help redevelop that area, reduce job sprawl, keep people near public transit, etc. But I don't really know specifically what PHX can do to compete with Chandler in this area.

[phxSUNSfan]

Originally Posted by HooverDam

Does anyone know how it is that Chandler became such a high tech center? Do they have special tax breaks for high tech firms? Was it just the ease of building big warehouse type plants on the top of old cotton fields? Is it to the point know where Chandler just has a high tech reputation, so more high tech companies locate there?

I too wish more of these sorts of facilities would be in the "Discovery Triangle" and help redevelop that area, reduce job sprawl, keep people near public transit, etc. But I don't really know specifically what PHX can do to compete with Chandler in this area.

A lot of it had to do with the cheaper land and the East Valley Real Estate Industrial Complex's influence on the Intel recruitment. I would say that Chandler does have a small reputation as a high tech cluster thanks to Intel's concentrated workforce, but there are still more of these types of jobs in Tempe, Phoenix and Scottsdale.

Because of Intel's presence in Chandler there was nothing Phoenix could have done to attract them. Nevertheless, the City really needs to step up their recruitment efforts. The "Discovery Triangle" has heavy high tech employment (relatively speaking) because of inherited industry already located within that region (Honeywell, Motorola/Nokia, ON Semiconductor, Microsoft, etc).

[vertex]

^^^Don't forget PayPal, Orbital Sciences, Microchip, EMC, Wells Fargo, Pearson, Amkor, Mitel and Freescale.

I've lived down here for 3 years now. After living in Tempe for so long, I can say that Chandler is a more mature version of Tempe.

Granted, there's no light rail and no sports teams (unless you count Hamilton HS football). On the other hand, the downtown is booming, the population is diverse (a mini UN, thanks to the tech-based presence), it has a great restaurant scene, and the best real-estate rebound in the valley.

[phxSUNSfan]

Originally Posted by vertex

^^^Don't forget PayPal, Orbital Sciences, Microchip, EMC, Wells Fargo, Pearson, Amkor, Mitel and Freescale.

I've lived down here for 3 years now. After living in Tempe for so long, I can say that Chandler is a more mature version of Tempe.

Granted, there's no light rail and no sports teams (unless you count Hamilton HS football). On the other hand, the downtown is booming, the population is diverse (a mini UN, thanks to the tech-based presence), it has a great restaurant scene, and the best real-estate rebound in the valley.

Um, I would say it would only be a slightly more "mature" version because of the family-friendly perception of Chandler's cookie-cutter tract homes and master planned sprawl.

I consider Chandler a suburban version of Tempe given that it is nearly devoid of any type of public mass transit or dense, urban infrastructure. Tempe, after all, has much more densely populated (year round, non-student population) areas than Chandler despite Tempe's share of fairly large undeveloped parkland. Tempe also has a larger, more diverse workforce. Chandler can't really compete with the university's impact on the local economy.

Chandler's "downtown" is as faux as they come and has supplanted the small historic main street: it would be like Tempe building the Marketplace on Mill Ave. rather than a few miles away and calling it downtown...an unauthentic "central district" in other words.

[PHXguyinOKC]

downtown Chandler is not a tempe market place. the town was designed in the 19 teens to have a park with businesses surrounding it. that park is in the same spot and a lot of those shops are the original buildings built in the teens and 20's... nothing unauthentic about that. as far as supplanting the historic 'main st'... Arizona decided the realign Hwy 87 in the 40's to run down Arizona Ave and cut the park in half (as it is today) and the 'main st' are still all around the park where downtown is.
Chandler is trying to broaden downtown from Chandler Blvd to Frye Rd and has done a decent job. Some of what it has built on the north end of downtown is pretty crappy stucco architecture but they have a vision for mixed use development along Arizona Ave. They also made AZ Ave narrower and put on street parking.
Downtown Chandler isn't unauthentic, it's unique.

[combusean]

As for why Chandler became the "tech hub" that it is, Air Products' industrial pipelines along the Price Rd corridor had almost everything to do with it. Tho I'm not sure which came first, Intel, Microchip, Motorola et al. or Air Products.

[phxSUNSfan]

Originally Posted by PHXguyinOKC

Downtown Chandler isn't unauthentic, it's unique.

It's a smaller, cheaper version of Old Town Scottsdale...well trying to emulate some of Old Town. The very few old buildings that are in Chandler have been exceeded and overshadowed by the crappy architecture found in that city. I will say that Chandler City Hall is unique and ultra modern. I understand that some people like the stucco cookie cutter look but IMO, it isn't appealing. And for some perspective, both Chandler and Tempe were very small by 1930. Only 1,300 people in Chandler and 2,600 in Tempe. But Tempe and Mill Ave. were much larger by 1970. Aerial of "downtown" Chandler (from 2012):
http://stokes-r-us.smugmug.com/Photo...48_TjWG2-L.jpg

Motorola has been in Phoenix much longer than Intel has been in Chandler. Motorola was in Phoenix (Research and Development Lab) pre-1955. Intel wasn't even a company until 1968. I believe Intel began operations in Chandler in the 1990's and I think Motorola was in the East Valley (Mesa because of Williams AFB) before any of the other companies Combusean listed.