Developers, real estate agents and business owners gathered at the Playhouse on the Park auditorium in Midtown’s Viad Corporate Center Tuesday evening to discuss adaptive reuse and infill in downtown Phoenix.
Local First Arizona and the city of Phoenix hosted the discussion for people who are new to the adaptive reuse game as well as those already involved in hopes the two groups would come together and start a conversation about what could be done.
This discussion is the third in an ongoing series of community design workshops by Reinvent PHX, a collaboration between the city and multiple national and local entities to develop districts along the light rail line.
Adaptive reuse “is reusing an existing building and adapting it for a different use,” said Jim McPherson, a member of the Board of Directors for the Evans Churchill Community Association.
Local First Arizona director Kimber Lanning opened the discussion by focusing on how the adaptive reuse process has changed over the last few years. Phoenix needs policies in place to attract economic development and the higher educated work force that other cities have, she said.
“We weren’t competing well with Austin or San Francisco,” Lanning said.
The Office of Customer Advocacy’s Adaptive Reuse Program was created by the city of Phoenix as a pilot program in 2008 in order to offer personal assistance for anyone trying to adaptively reuse property. The office is designed to be a liaison between the designers and the city.
Eric Buskirk, project manager for the Office of Customer Advocacy, was on hand at the meeting to help answer questions from the audience about how to get in contact with the office and to explain exactly what the office does. He attended previous meetings in the series as well.
“This is the third in the series and I think, of all of them, this has had the most interaction,” he said.
During the discussion, panelists Leslie Lindo, Cavin Costello and Greg Esser spoke of their respective projects in Phoenix.
Lindo, executive director of Project Rising, said her organization selected three areas for their incubation project in November: the Luhrs Arcade on the bottom floor of the Luhrs Tower, the Adams Street lot next to the restaurant Hanny’s, and the vacant Matador Restaurant on Adams and First streets.
At Project Rising’s kickoff event in December, the organization selected the winning ideas suggested by community members. Those members are currently learning how to work with investors, Lindo said. Once the program is finished, the projects will be then presented to investors.
Costello, chief designer for the Ranch Mine, explained to the audience the techniques his firm used to adapt a rubber stamp factory into the bar and independent movie theater, Film Bar. He also covered the design plan for a residential property the firm is designing for local developer, Boxwell Southwest.
“Infill and significant renovations and additions are financially feasible when you look at the overall value of the house rather than cost,” he said.
Esser, board vice president of the Roosevelt Row Community Development Corporation, remembers when most of the Roosevelt Row area was boarded up. He described one house in particular that was called “Uncle Buddy’s Crack Shack.” After years of work from the development corporation, the area has changed, Esser said. Fifth Street was even voted the best downtown street by Phoenix New Times in 2007.
“I think for people to begin to learn from one another’s experiences and help each other find and define new solutions to really help advance a more vibrant city is one of the key roles that this (discussion) plays,” Esser said.
McPherson attended the discussion and thought it had a great turnout.
“You look around and it’s just interchange of, you know, exchanging cards, talking about projects,” he said. “It’s opening doors to the possibilities that are out there.”
At the end of discussion, Kimber Lanning returned to the stage and named eight lots in need of development in downtown Phoenix, flashing images of the areas on the screen.
“It ain’t pretty,” she said. “But it could be.”
Contact reporters at knasiff@asu.edu
