Quote:
Originally Posted by Arquitect
Are you sure you want the developer of the Hub downtown? They only do student-oriented housing, and you have voiced strong opinions against that.
Unfortunately, we will not see any projects from that group in Arizona any time soon. They are very much a student-housing only company, and basically go from college town to college town building these types of projects. At the moment they are building one in Oregon and another in Nebraska.
The second phase of University House is actually being done by the company that bought the Hub and re-branded it. They are mostly a company that runs and manages these types of projects, not necessarily builds them. My guess is that they entered that venture because the second phase of the project was already proposed, not sure they would be open to going out there and doing it all on their own. But who knows, if it is successful, we might see them take a stab at downtown.
The group I am interested in seeing more of in downtown is Smithfield. I know that JJ, you have voiced concerns about their project for Central Station; but I believe they got the bid because they were the bid that actually would get built. Seeing their work in Arcadia and having met some of their employees, I can see that they are a company that cares about detail and making good buildings, not just a profit. They could have easily gone the cheap route and built another stick-frame stucco apartment complex, but instead chose to go with something a little more expensive and, in my point of view, classy. Looking at their website, their work in Chicago is pretty cool too. I think they are the only company out there right now that would truly be willing to invest in several high rise projects in downtown.
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I don't have a problem with student housing as a blanket rule, just like I don't think every development needs to have a retail component. But, there's certain streets where I feel retail is important for the long-term success of the street/neighborhood. The same is true with student housing. I have concerns with the amount being built in Tempe compared to the amount of market rate and owner-occupied units. For a city that is bringing in a strong employment base, upscale hotels, and has plans for growing further with a streetcar system, I don't think it makes sense to line streets like College and Apache with residential that goes dead each summer and is filled during the year with bodies that have low disposable income. Vibrancy comes from a mix of uses, and I feel at times that the balance is way too heavily skewed.
Anyway, that said, there is a demand for housing downtown and much of that is coming from the growing student population - as evidenced by Taylor Place, the only student housing downtown, being overbooked for the second year in a row. There are multiple market rate and condo projects on line for Phoenix, so adding dedicated student housing into the mix wouldn't make me concerned. My main concern with anything ASU-related downtown is that it interacts with downtown, and The Hub, for all its design flaws, has had a great impact on the College Ave scene with the way it was designed on the ground level. I would much rather a project like that come downtown than for a 3rd Taylor Place, which will demolish a community asset (the Valley Youth Theatre), and cluster all student housing onto 1 small block when I think downtown would benefit from having them spread out - to promote active street life in more than one area, and to less the effects of having a massive empty area in the summer months.
As for SmithGroup/Central Station, I wish the attention to detail you've seen in their work was evident in their plan for that project. The design is aesthetically pleasing - it's tall, shiny and has curves unlike most of downtown's skyscrapers. I wish I could see final plans before commenting further, but the superblock layout of the design is reminiscent of many of downtown's worse dead zones. The fact that the apartment building itself takes up about 1/4 (maybe even less) of the entire lot, and the rest is dedicated to a parking structure is pretty disappointing. Van Buren is zoned for the most intense retail uses, and I do think the lack of retail within a transit hub is a missed opportunity. I don't know how the commercial space is being integrated, but transit offices and an incubator (I've lost count of the amount of incubators we have in this city) don't promote the most active of streetscapes. I also dislike the orientation of the building which will obstruct some great views from the park, and the fact that they're turning Polk into a private drive (meaning the only permeable ground level will be facing a private drive). Their portfolio isn't bad at all and I'm not against them in general - I worked on a project of theirs at GateWay Community College that was impressive - but I can't get that excited over Central Station.
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