A California-based realty company is betting on the resurgence of downtown Phoenix’s historic warehouse district.
Granite Capital Investments is moving forward with its Phoenix Ballpark Properties project, a plan to create mixed-use developments between Third and Fourth streets and Lincoln Street and the railroad tracks. The development could bring new apartments as well as office and retail space while preserving two historic buildings.
Granite bought the property in May 2012, and its website estimates the project will be worth $55 million once completed. The company’s president, Peter Kleis, said he believes the apartments will address a growing need for housing in the downtown area, a need in which few developers have shown interest.
“There’s a demand for urban housing, and there’s not a lot of supply in the urban core,” Kleis said.
The expected 275 apartments will occupy the northern part of the property, he said. The goal is to break ground this year and move in residents toward the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016. Granite has also rehabilitated an old warehouse on the southern part of the property to serve as office space and is looking for tenants.
Part of the office’s appeal is its curved bow truss roof, Kleis said, which gives it an industrial appearance.
“They don’t make them like that anymore,” Kleis said of the roof. “It’s kind of historic in nature, and it adds some flavor to it.”
Throughout the process, Kleis has worked closely with the city of Phoenix to preserve two existing buildings that have been designated as historic — an old grocery store and a two-story building. Granite plans to restore both while still maintaining their character then lease them as fitness centers or clubhouses for the apartments.
Robert Graham, an architect and chair of the Central City Village Planning Committee, toured the site to ensure historic buildings would be preserved. Phoenix lacks historic buildings, he said, and not many developers are willing to work with them.
“It’s a specialty,” Graham said. “It requires a mindset of being willing to work with what’s there, rather than trying to make it fit your use.”
The warehouse district and the land now used for the Phoenix Ballpark Properties have been the subjects of a revitalization process before. According to Don Keuth, president of the Phoenix Community Alliance, businesses wanted to create the Jackson Street Entertainment District across several blocks of the area, with apartments, restaurants and other retailers making it a destination. The district had to be scrapped after Mortgages Limited, the group backing the plan, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008.
The Phoenix Ballpark Properties can help revitalize the warehouse district, Keuth said, because baby boomers and millennials want an urban environment. Developers also want to take advantage of land closer to the central city to avoid expanding into the undeveloped outskirts of the greater Phoenix area. The demand from both people and developers can trigger a domino effect once the apartments are completed.
“If we take advantage of that situation and build a product, then I think we create a momentum that will be difficult to change,” Keuth said.
Owners of existing businesses in the warehouse district said they could benefit from new apartments and office space as well. Steve Rosenstein, who has owned and operated the Duce Kitchen and Lounge since 2010, said he believes the area is ready for new developments.
“I think it’s on the verge of exploding,” Rosenstein said of the district. “I think it’s really great.”
Rosenstein also said a booming warehouse district can attract recent in-state university graduates who want to live in an urban setting.
“They love the climate; they love the lifestyle,” he said. “But a lot of the reason that we lose a lot of these people, these kids, it’s because they want an urban vibe. And this is really the only place they can get it.”
Contact the reporter at mseeman@asu.edu
