Downtown Phoenix is no stranger to art and ongoing construction. Rarely does the community get to see a combination of the two.
Proxy333, located at Fourth and McKinley streets, is a 118-unit, six-story community building that incorporates both urban street art and the historic aspect of the foundation of the land.
Bryan Fasulo, regional property manager, works with Pinnacle Living which will manage Proxy333.
“We are bringing this lot’s historic role as an artistic hub into the 21st century,” he said.
Fasulo said the development’s close proximity to Roosevelt Row and the First Friday Art Walk was an important factor.
“We knew that was very much our clientele and our demographic, so being integrated in that and just being downtown as a whole was huge for us,” he said.
The property of Proxy333 was a one-story, multi-tenant building built in the ’60s. The art-oriented businesses that were there during this time decorated the building with graffiti and murals.
“Getting developers to do a little something to recognize what they’re destroying and to pay some service to fact that some of the vibrancy on North of Van Buren has to do with the artists who have been living and working there for 25 years,” said Robert Diehl, arts advocate for downtown Phoenix.
The developers are working to add to the vibrancy.
“Everything we’ve done is to integrate ourselves in the local Phoenix downtown community to show that we’re not trying to take away from it, we’re trying to add to it,” Fasulo said. “We want to make the downtown area a better place for people to live and still integrate that local Phoenix feel into it.”
Noe “Such” Baez, also known as Such Styles, a Phoenix graffiti artist of 32 years, has created several murals and pieces that will be displayed throughout the building.
His work will appear in the leasing lobby, fitness center, recreational deck area and public restrooms.
“You can see how street art is global now, and for the building to incorporate the idea of street art is a solid move,” Baez said. “I’m really proud of the whole situation and how it has unfolded.”
Baez said his oldest son, Champ, works with him and has been extremely helpful in the process, “He can handle the aerosol can very well; he’s going to be a very strong instrumental tool when we do this art piece.”
Baez and his son will soon begin working on one of the remaining pieces for the community.
“We want it to be one of our best pieces,” Baez said.
In addition to local artists, incorporation of local brands is important to the developers.
“We are actually bringing Cartel Coffee in as our brand, so we have coffee for our residents,” Fasulo said. “Cartel Coffee is a local brand and we’ll have their cold brew in the summer.”
The other unique amenities of Proxy333 include a tranquil rooftop lounge, third-floor podium area with a pool, hot tub, bocce ball court and concrete ping-pong table, Fasulo said.
Another feature of the building is the two-story live-work spaces with frontage windows. “They will be accessible to public, in some kind of retail function,” Diehl said.
These live-work spaces, where the retailer lived upstairs above their place of business, were very common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Diehl said.
“They are reintroducing that here,” he said.
Fasulo said Pinnacle Living is proud to be a part of the downtown Phoenix culture and consider the complex a community.
“Complex is something you have; community is somewhere you live,” Fasulo said.
Contact the reporter at jlott3@asu.edu
