Dear Friends,
It's time for my quarterly urban real estate newsletter. I hope your year is off to a good start. I know I've been busy keeping up with the
Valley real estate market. This 1st Quarter 2005
newsletter will contain a some information about the
ASU Downtown Phoenix campus, Bio-medical research industry, and UofA Medical School that's coming to
downtown Phoenix. I thought you might be
interested in what is making downtown Phoenix an exciting place to live.
I would like to let you know that as a native Phoenician I
love what's happening downtown but I also love the whole valley and the unique
lifestyle each area has to offer. So if
you, your friends or relatives are interested in buying or selling a home
anywhere in the Phoenix Metro area, please give me a call.
In the meantime, check out this market. Valley wide there was a 29.5% jump in
existing home sales in 2004 from 2003 breaking records set in previous
years. The median price for an existing
home rose nearly 13% to $174,815 in 2004.
The median price of new homes jumped 14.7% in December 2004 from the
previous year bringing the price to $202,672.
The median price of a new home nationwide is $215,000. Housing experts say they are not seeing any 'irrational
exuberance in Phoenix's housing market' and that
plentiful land and a steady stream of newcomers should keep the market healthy
and they don't look for much slowing in new-home construction through
2009. Metro Phoenix drew 104,000 new residents last
year and expects 111,000 in 2005. Many
people ask if this is a bubble, but our market is still under priced compared
to comparable cities across the nation and most experts don't think this is a
bubble at all.
I know this all sounds rosy and you'll ask yourself, "can I sell my current house and find a new home in a nice
area." There are some nice
properties on the market and I'd be happy to discuss what you would like to
gain from selling or buying and what options there are for you. Remember, as a native, I can help you
throughout the valley with single family homes, townhouses, condo's and lofts.
I hope you enjoy the information I put together here. Please feel free to share this with your
friends and family. They can go to my
website to register to be put on my mailing list or e-mail me direct at Chris@RooPhoRealty.com. I appreciate any feedback so I can continue
to make this quarterly newsletter worth reading. Please contact me anytime.
Downtown Phoenix Update!
The new full-service ASU
Downtown Phoenix campus will serve 10,000 to 15,000 students, with academic buildings,
student and regular housing, retail development, cultural programs and
entertainment venues all part of the mix to develop an active 24/7 environment.
Current plans for ASU Downtown Phoenix campus call for the College of Nursing, KAET-Channel 8, and the College
of Public Programs (which includes the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, the School of Community
Resources and Development, the School of Social Work, the School of Public
Affairs, the School of Health Management and Policy, and the Morrison Institute
for Public Policy) to relocate from the Tempe campus to downtown Phoenix. In
addition, University College will be created to provide
undergraduate students with an alternative to the existing majors. Construction
of the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus is being designed around the planned light rail system, which
will provide a 20-minute commute between the downtown Phoenix and Tempe campuses.
As for the new TGen Biotechnology facility (pictured below left),
their grand opening is a month or two off but they are up and running.
The first of the new downtown 
Phoenix biomedical campus could be 100%
leased this month. Scientists and staff
from International Genomics Consortium and Translational Genomics Research Institute
already have moved in the building near 7th Street and Van Buren. The National Institute of Diabetes and
Digestive and Kidney Diseases are expected to move in this summer. Ultimately the bioscience and medical
research campus will be 15 acres and house more than 1 million square feet of
laboratory and office space including a proposed medical school.
City of Phoenix Art Program to fund artists
The City of Phoenix Art Program to fund artists $500,000 is being allocated for artists who want to renovate
existing studio/gallery space or purchase property to open one. The City of Phoenix Art Program plans to award matching funds
ranging from $5,000 to $30,000. The
money does not need to be repaid to the City of Phoenix Art Program as long as 30% of the building is used for
arts or an arts-related business five years after work on the property is
completed. The City of Pheonix Art Program should really help
artists who are known for living and working in downtown Phoenix.
Valley Metro Light Rail
The Phoenix area Valley Metro Light Rail (pictured
right is the Roosevelt & Central station) will operate at street level in
its own lane separated from automobile traffic and have a certain level of
priority at traffic signals. The first
section of the Valley Metro Light Rail on Washington between 44th
Street and 52nd
Street will be completed in 2006. Another
section of the Valley Metro Light Rail that will run through downtown Phoenix should be done by the end of 2007. All 20 miles
of the Valley Metro Light Rail that will run from 19th Ave & Bethany Home Road in Phoenix to Dobson Road in Mesa will be completed by
mid-2008. Valley Metro Light Rail trains will operate
18 to 20 hours per day, every day of the week, stopping at stations about every
10 minutes during peak hours and about every 20 minutes off-peak. For more information and maps of the Valley Metro Light Rail go to www.valleymetro.org
Investment
value for downtown?
I'm glad you asked. Just for example; when Esplanade Place opened two years ago at 24th Street and Camelback,
they sold 56 condo's for $550,000 to $2.5 million long before the building was
completed. Now those same units are
selling on the resale market for $825,000 to $2.8 million. In late 2003, the Lofts at Orchid House in
downtown Tempe sold 83 units between $150,000 and $970,000. The resale range today is $250,000 to $1.5
million. Not to mention the speed in
which developments are selling. Tapestry
on Central has sold out each building in days without models; Portland Place doesn't have models either and just
went on the market a couple weeks ago and only has a few left. The interest in downtown Phoenix is strong and if my website is any
indication, I have been contacted once every 2 days just the first of the year. Interest rates fell below 6% again last week
so it's still a good time to buy. Contact
me so we can determine if this is the right time for you. 602-617-5226 or Chris@AZNativeProperties.com
Highrise Condo's
& Lofts Update
What's going on with TrumpTowers at the Biltmore?
Preliminary designs of the Trump hotel are expected to be
approved this spring. Currently the property is zoned for 4 stories, Trump is
asking for 13 or 14 stories but ultimately they want 18 stories. It will have 188 hotel/condo rooms renting
for $400 or more per night; 97 privately owned residential units; two
restaurants totaling 15,000 square feet; and 7000 square feet of retail
space. The 97 residences each would
average 1,722 square feet and sell for an average of $550 a square foot or about
$950,000 per unit. The picture to the
left is a view from the balcony of Marco Polo Lounge where the Trump project
will be built.
Monroe
Place update - you may have heard about the 10
story renovation at First Avenue and Monroe. They sold all but 4 units when they decided
to scrap the whole project and build a much taller building with 150 condos
instead of the 65 that were sold. I'll
put updates on my website as I get them.
www.AZNativeProperties.com
Central
Avenue and McDowell
Have you been wondering what was going to happen on the
Northeast corner of Central & McDowell?
Well I have and I can finally tell you, or at least what's being discussed. There's talk about
three - 25 story residential towers. A
developer from Idaho is in escrow to purchase the
property. I'll add more information to
my website as I get it.
Three high rises you may not have heard
of: Phoenix Resort Towers - To be located on the Southeast corner of 3rd Street and Earll
where a vacant 10 story building sits (pictured right). The current vacant building was occupied by Qwest
for 30 years and designed by popular local architect Al Beadle who died in
1998. Al Beadle fans are disappointed about the plans to demolish the building to build the Phoenix Resort Towers but
it's not old enough for historic protection and nothing can be done to protect
it. The proposed Phoenix Resort Towers are two 25 story
residential towers with nearly 450 residential condos. The tentative price starts at $340 a foot or
about $700,000 for a 2000 square foot unit.
Two other new
downtown high rise condos haven't been named yet.
A San Diego developer is proposing two high rises in the warehouse
district of downtown, both will be 13 stories. Central Avenue and Buchanan street (pictured left) will have 200
condos and Fifth Street and Lincoln (pictured
right) will have 150. Deed restrictions
for both developments are planned that will limit the use of the first floor
retail space to arts-related activities, such as, galleries, an art school or a
dance troupe. Price ranges and floor
plans are not yet available. I hope to
have information in early April. (I
apologize for the quality of these two pictures, I
couldn't get a picture on line so I scanned them from the newspaper).
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