Blog Archives
Ouch! Orpheum battles Omega over downtown Phoenix parking spots
[Source: "Developer, Orpheum residents trade ire," Jahna Berry, Arizona Republic] — The residents at an upscale downtown Phoenix loft project were booted from the building’s parking lot this weekend, days after some condo owners accused the parking lot’s owner of “wrongdoing” in court papers. On Friday, signs appeared in the Orpheum Lofts that said “due to an insurance issue” residents could no longer park in the next-door parking lot. On Monday, any remaining cars were towed, residents said.
This week, several residents at 144 W. Adams St. scrambled to find a new home for their cars. Noah Lewkowitz usually takes a bus to his job at a Tempe architecture firm, but is driving to work this week because he has no place to park. ”It was nice to have my car right below my window where I can see it,” said Lewkowitz who rents a one-bedroom apartment. Residents will have to pay $40 to $80 a month to park in nearby garages, he said.
It’s the latest flashpoint in a long-simmering parking dispute at the Orpheum Lofts, where condo owners have paid anywhere from about $150,000 to nearly $1 million for their homes. Buyers purchased units in the refurbished Art Deco building and parking was included, residents say. The lofts’ developer, however, sold the lot to W Developments. W plans to build [Omega] condos on the parking-lot property but has allowed owners to park for free on the lot for a year and a half, said the company’s principal, David Wallach [also the developer of The Summit at Copper Square]. When the condos are built, each owner may have to pay more than $30,000 for a space in the high-rise’s parking garage. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]
Downtown Phoenix condo craze cooling off
[Source: Jahna Berry and Matt Dempsey, Arizona Republic] — The once-sizzling market for high-rise downtown Phoenix condos has cooled. Phoenix leaders have touted condo dwellers as a crucial part of downtown’s resurgence, saying residents would help sustain nearby shops and their foot traffic would inject the neighborhood with 24-7 vitality. Now, plans to attract those condo dwellers have questions marks.
Although downtown Phoenix real estate has fared better than housing on the suburban fringe, developers say condo sales have slowed to a trickle. Among the signs of a slowdown.
- CityScape, a $900 million mixed-use development, added apartments to the development and pushed back plans for condos to later phases of the project.
- Some planned condo projects have become apartments, including Jet, a proposed 36-story development, and Alta Phoenix, a 375-unit project under construction.
- Nearly 30 of 165 condos at the Summit at Copper Square are unsold. At 44 Monroe, 130 are sold and 66 are for sale.
Countywide, condos sales are down 37 percent compared with the market peak in 2005, when more than 19,000 condos were sold. [Note: To read the full article, click here.]
