Phoenix Area Low- and Mid-Rise Development Thread - Page 125

ASU Diablo · #**2481** Posted **Mar 13, 2024, 10:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by halicem

AZCentral finally wrote something up for the Milum property.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/mone...s/72811915007/

The council meeting with them a couple of weeks ago turned quite nasty. At this point the family is really going scorched earth on everyone it seems.

They are way in over their heads. "Elder abuse"? Give me a break LOL

combusean · #**2482** Posted **Mar 13, 2024, 11:27 PM**

That article was a pathetic read...

The fact that they're balking at everyone who does the slightest bit of due diligence and refuse to meet them even halfway suggests they're children, not elders.

MiEncanto · #**2483** Posted **Mar 14, 2024, 4:10 PM**

This whole thing is regrettable. The city has no business interrupting the sale. The preservationists got their pound of flesh. No skin off their back- they don't have to pay the taxes on it or deal with the sale. I guess it'll sit vacant for another 5 years while the owners pay the property taxes.

PHX31 · #**2484** Posted **Mar 14, 2024, 4:50 PM**

/\Agreed. It sucks for all. I hope things get worked out where the owners make a ton of money, as they should, and the best portions of the building are saved and the site is redeveloped overall.

The ceiling/roof is pretty sweet looking from those pictures for sure. The plan that came initially was pretty cool, as I remember.

combusean · #**2485** Posted **Mar 14, 2024, 8:43 PM**

The article brings up a very important point... it being an industrial laundry is a huge liability. It's not going to sell if the owners are unwilling to indemnify a buyer, clean it up, or so much as test for groundwater pollution.

The owners should not have put their retirement into such a white elephant of a site. It sounds like they haven't even bothered to hire an attorney or land use consultant and are relying on off handed advice from the wrong people at the wrong time.

If this thing gets rehabbed, I would be shocked. I really hope this doesn't turn into a demolition by neglect.

PHX31 · #**2486** Posted **Mar 14, 2024, 9:01 PM**

/\I can't read the article again, so I don't remember the details... but I think it said this site was under contract and the buyer was doing due diligence for 2 years (?). You're right, it's past uses make it highly likely to have some sort of issues environmentally... but starting with a Phase 1 ESA from the get-go knowing the laundry uses seems like an obvious thing for the buyer to do, or to at least request of the owner, in the beginning. I'd say the buyers dropped the ball or at least I'd be annoyed if I was the sellers too if the buyers finally decided they need that very important info 2 years into the DD. Even if the sellers are unwilling to do anything like a Phase 1, the buyer should have done it themselves immediately and shown the results to the sellers for leverage or walked away before stringing the sellers along for 2 years.

combusean · #**2487** Posted **Mar 14, 2024, 9:13 PM**

I wonder why their broker didn't point that out prior to all this "DD." That seems like commercial real estate 101 now that I think about it.

I also wonder what the likelihood of the city getting involved before they get sued into issuing a DEM permit and doing their own independent assessment. The family doesn't seem to have the right connections to exposing this massive property to the right markets and go through the typical RFP and redevelopment process. Knowing them so far they probably burned too many bridges.

TllrSkyline-01 · #**2488** Posted **Mar 15, 2024, 2:49 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by halicem

AZCentral finally wrote something up for the Milum property.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/mone...s/72811915007/

The council meeting with them a couple of weeks ago turned quite nasty. At this point the family is really going scorched earth on everyone it seems.

Love to see new developments move forward...the taller the better, but we are a land that 'should' respect property rights. It is their land, and they can do whatever they want, it is none of our business what they intend to do with their money.

Frankly, the original proposals kept some of the historic features of the older buildings, and that was more than enough in my opinion. The city is pushing too much here and should back off rather than keep an old property sitting there for years deteriorating.

combusean · #**2489** Posted **Mar 15, 2024, 2:54 AM**

I get that this is a property rights issue at its core, but demolishing the property doesn't guarantee its development, it just makes the obvious issues with it more obvious.

MiEncanto · #**2490** Posted **Mar 15, 2024, 6:08 PM**

I'm sympathetic to requirements for special zoning treatment in downtown areas, industrial clean up issues, and even preserving significantly historic buildings (not boring crappy buildings with perhaps 1 interesting feature as we have here). What grinds my gears is individuals who have zero financial skin in the game dictating terms to owners at risk and causing them financial hardship. "Well I think you should do XX with the property." Excellent idea: please buy the property and execute your vision!

azcats · #**2491** Posted **Mar 15, 2024, 11:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MiEncanto

I'm sympathetic to requirements for special zoning treatment in downtown areas, industrial clean up issues, and even preserving significantly historic buildings (not boring crappy buildings with perhaps 1 interesting feature as we have here). What grinds my gears is individuals who have zero financial skin in the game dictating terms to owners at risk and causing them financial hardship. "Well I think you should do XX with the property." Excellent idea: please buy the property and execute your vision!

Don't know much about this but, what I'm reading here. Maybe, they need a good land use attorney?

I hope I don't live long enough to see our country become like this: The Bolsheviks confiscating Zhivago's home. (See clip of Zhivago returning home in 1965 movie: Dr. Zhivago).

combusean · #**2492** Posted **Mar 15, 2024, 11:48 PM**

No reasonable attorney is going to put up with their entitlement and laziness. They're too arrogant to realize their incompetence... they need a skilled therapist right now more than they need an attorney.

MiEncanto · #**2493** Posted **Mar 18, 2024, 4:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by combusean

No reasonable attorney is going to put up with their entitlement and laziness. They're too arrogant to realize their incompetence... they need a skilled therapist right now more than they need an attorney.

Did I miss something? I didn't get all that from the article. Or are you pulling from other sources?

PyroD · #**2494** Posted **Mar 18, 2024, 5:24 PM**

It looks like the previous proposal nearly went through and that the developer did their due diligence on the property. The owners seemingly just got impatient with the process and cancelled the sale.

ASU Diablo · #**2495** Posted **Mar 22, 2024, 8:58 PM**

Anyone have any updates on the old Los Olivos Car Wash lot? If I recall correctly, didn't a Chicago developer purchase the lot from the Chilean group?

J_PHX · #**2496** Posted **Mar 25, 2024, 6:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ASU Diablo

Anyone have any updates on the old Los Olivos Car Wash lot? If I recall correctly, didn't a Chicago developer purchase the lot from the Chilean group?

Looks like there was a pre-app (4/7/23) and a site traffic impact analysis (6/30/23) for a proposed multi-family project "Exeter" 146 unit multifamily development

combusean · #**2497** Posted **Mar 28, 2024, 2:52 PM**

The lot was purchased in 2022 and put up for sale with an attached "project."

https://www.crexi.com/widgets/322/pr...ument=download

ASU Diablo · #**2498** Posted **Apr 12, 2024, 4:20 PM**

Well didn’t see this coming…

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...n/73223260007/

Quote:

Commission votes against historic overlay

The city filed for a historic preservation overlay to be applied on the property, which would halt any demolition for a year.

The Planning Commission voted 4-3 to recommend the overlay be denied, with one member abstaining from the vote, saying the commission had not been provided enough information to decide in the case. In the commission meeting, Kevin Weight, a planner in the city’s historic preservation office said the case was “tough” because the property owners opposed the overlay.

The matter still is required to go before the Phoenix City Council for a final decision, but if the council agrees with the commission, Weight said, there would be nothing stopping the city from issuing a demolition permit and allowing the building to be razed. The council is scheduled to discuss and vote on the historic preservation overlay at its May 1 meeting.

PHX31 · #**2499** Posted **Apr 12, 2024, 4:32 PM**

Is the property worth more with or without the buildings on site? Or is it just that it will be easier for the owners to sell because there will be more potential buyers?

Whether or not the buildings are there, the ground would still possibly be contaminated somehow and the DD of a sale would still likely include an environmental assessment.

combusean · #**2500** Posted **Apr 12, 2024, 9:23 PM**

The lot is not worth anything right now because the owners are idiots. They refuse to do basic things like provide relevant assessments/estimates on the building itself, and their history of working with past potential buyers and preventing them from doing their own due diligence like any environmental cleanups scares any future potential buyers. Based on their mentality, I doubt any broker is seriously interested in helping them sell this rather than the basic motions of listing the property at their price because they know it's not worth the effort.

The owners expect to just walk away with a check and life just doesn't happen like that in this industry, especially with a building that's this old, complicated, and its past use as an industrial property.

Demolition is just one outcome, and it's far from the last step needed to be even sold, much less redeveloped.