Muertecaza - FYI, there is a dedicated Scottsdale thread.
I'll post your latest post over there and reply.
Quote:
Originally Posted by muertecaza
The parcel on 1st Ave and McDonald in downtown Mesa that was formerly slated for the Goldwater library is now going to be sold to a developer with plans for 5-story, 71-unit senior housing, and 3-story, 24-unit market rate housing.
It's the same developers that did the Encore senior housing on Farmer in Tempe and the similar-looking senior housing buildings currently under construction on the adjoining parcel on the east side in Mesa. I guess if Mesa can't get market rate residential proposals downtown on their own, they can make building at least some market rate a condition of selling the land here.
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Same developers as the two new Farmer Arts projects, too. Their existing projects are all extremely well done and pay attention to detail.
Interestingly, they weren't able to get financing the last time they tried to combine senior housing and market rate units. They won an RFP for the land on 2nd Street between Portland and Roosevelt in Phoenix and proposed senior housing with a brewery in the Knipe House. The community revolved, which I thought was disgusting, over seniors coming to their vibrant, hipster 'hood (the leader of which will be a senior not long from now), so the developer added market rate units before scrapping it altogether. Parking lots are there now.
ASU expanding into every single downtown is pretty annoying. Unless serving completely different purposes (i.e., polytechnic), I don't see the point. Maybe prep schools and/or freshman classes, but I wish they'd focus on ASU Main. The duplicative uses downtown are the ones that are the least urban of all its buildings (the fitness center and student union which are closed to the public).
Phoenix and Tempe should follow Mesa's lead in attracting satellite campuses, but something needs to be done about the public system. GCU is making a name for itself, but for a city its size, Phoenix has very few options for higher education. I always liked Hoover's idea of polytechnic becoming Arizona Tech, and Phoenix College becoming a 4-year liberal arts college.