Living Downtown Phoenix is different than other major metropolitan cities in the US.  Phoenix

Park Central Mall 1960's

downtown is relatively small within 90 square blocks.  There was a streetcar but in October of 1947 there was a terrible fire that destroyed most of streetcars.  Since it cost so much to rebuild and city buses where all the rage, the city decided to abandon the street cars and buy city buses.  By the end of the 1960's, Park Central Mall at Osborn Ave and Central Ave took all the larger stores from downtown.  At the same time, cars were more popular than ever and many family's had 2 cars so they could move out of the downtown area.  Thus the beginning of the end of downtown Phoenix.

Downtown Phoenix is still one of the hottest markets in the metropolitan area.  Residents have been coming back for over 15 years.  With the Great Recession over more housing units are being built.

There are over 20 apartment and condominium complexes currently going up in downtown Phoenix. As reported on AZCentral.com “According to Downtown Phoenix Inc., a non-profit organization that helps the city’s development efforts, about 9,000 people are living in downtown Phoenix with 6,465 housing units. While 1,584 apartments units are under construction, another 1,257 apartments are under pre-development status and approximately 1,200 housing units will be coming in the next six months.”

There is housing all over downtown and as you see, more is coming.  If you like the urban life you really have choices in downtown Phoenix.  I really enjoy a little bit of a neighborhood feel but with restaurants and shopping just outside my front door.  So I choose to live in the Roosevelt Row Arts District in the historic Evans-Churchill Neighborhood of downtown Phoenix.  This area has commercial and residential zoning mixed together.  In fact, my condo has both zoning's so I live above my office, pretty cool.

The science and research area has the UofA medical school and T-Gen and Arizona Biomedical Collaborative is just south of the Arts District.  There were talks about a downtown hospital but the Great Recession stopped the talks and I haven’t heard anything new lately.

Of course there’s the sports and entertainment area which covers most of downtown on the east side of Central Ave.  There’s the Convention Center, Ball Park, Basketball Arena and all the sports bars around them.  There’s also Symphony Hall and Herberger Theater too.

Executive Towers

If you like the high-rise life, we don’t have a lot of high rise condos but we have a wide selection.
From mid-century Executive Towers and Regency House, both impressive addresses in the early ‘60’s when they were built.  To humble but fun Embassy Condos that was originally a hotel.  The drive up front door had the pool above in and was very chic in its day.  There’s also the Summit at Copper Square and 44 Monroe for contemporary high rise living.

Before there Tempe Town Lake was in the Valley, the Salt River flowed year around. We call the native people of this area Hohokam.   They lived in the Valley around 300 BC and here until after 1200 AD.  Nobody really knows where they went but what we do know is they dug out canals for watering crops.  The canals we have today throughout the valley are mostly in the same place the Hohokam dug over 2000 years ago.

When Phoenix started to grow it was obvious we needed to make sure we always had enough water.  Over the years dams were built along the Sale River to create Saguaro Lake, Roosevelt Lake, Canyon Lake and a few more.  The Valley has 3 rivers that store water for us, the Salt River, Agua Fria River and the Verde River.

Because we dam up the Salt River it's dry most of the time.  When I was growing up and until the drought we are currently in, Salt River Project (SRP) manages valley water and would let water out of the lakes each spring if needed.  This gave us a river for a few days until they turn the water off.

Maricopa County has been voting to do what's called the Rio Salado Project along the whole river as it goes through town for as far back as I can remember.  Since Tempe is landlocked with limited resources to increase income for the city, they decided to do Tempe Town Lake.  This is basically Tempe’s portion of the original idea, but good for them.

The lake runs along the south side of 202 freeway through Tempe.  In a way, the lake has breath more life into Tempe.  They were doing OK but Tempe is landlocked.  Without being able to build or annex land they can't grow or the taxes would be too high for their residents.  So they built a lake.  Great idea I think.

525 Town Lake

The communities along the lake and walking distance are very popular.  There are various sizes and price ranges to fit most budgets.  Remember this is ASU's main campus territory so there's a lot of competition for residential properties.   525 Town Lake is both affordable and facing the lake with nice views from the south shore.

Bridgeview Condos on Tempe Town Lake

There are 3 mid-rise residential condos on the east side of Mill Ave that face Tempe Town Lake.  Bridgeview is a high-end condo with many amenities.  Most of the condos have nice to fantastic views of the lake.  The community also has a private pool, spa and workout room.

Don't forget all the fun you can have right outside your front door when you live on the Tempe Town lake.  From kayaks and canoes to walking along the short.  There are festivals on Mill Ave all the time and they have triathlons that use the lake.

Of course, downtown Tempe and ASU main campus is right there with all the entertainment, college sports and shopping they’ve always had.

The Triangle has been getting a lot of press.  It's a new name for an old neighborhood. It's been known as the Grand Ave Arts District for awhile.  I found a New Times article about Grand Ave Arts District published in January 2016 and makes no mention of The Triangle so I think the idea is new, I know I only heard about it a month or two ago.

The Triangle is located south and east of 15^th Ave / Grand Ave and Roosevelt Street.  It’s been known as the Grand Ave Arts District for a long time but I like this new name.

I did some searches for the history of this area and didn’t find anything.  Of course, I’m not a Historian or Librarian so if you are or know anyone that has information about the history of this downtown area of Phoenix, please let me know.

In the meantime, the residents of the area are doing a fantastic job of making this former rundown area a great place to live, work and shop.  It’s been up-and-coming for more than 10 years but to really improve there’s got to be money.  In this case, the City of Phoenix has done some but it’s the developers, property owner, residence and yes Artist.  Artist are known nationwide for moving into these area because they are inexpensive and they can sell their creation, so let’s give them some credit.

The Containers on Grand are a new hit.  They start with empty shipping containers.  You know, the kind they put on ships.  Then they turned them into beautiful and unique apartments.   If you like unique living you should check out The Triangle, it's very unique.

Shops in The Triangle do open for First Friday Art Walk along with Roosevelt Row Arts District.

Van Norman is new to the area and own’s Van Norman Development Company.  He’s 24 years old and has four parcels in downtown and completed Grand Ave Lofts last year.  As Van and others like him bring more residents into the area it’s going to get better and better.

The Phoenix Garfield Historic District is very eclectic, at least the properties are.  There are large and small  and old and new single family homes and apartments.  The apartments are mostly 1 bedrooms.  The community has gone from a nice lower income working class neighborhood of the 1930's to gangs and such in the 80's and early 90's to the historic community that is it now.

How it Garfield get here?  Well, Garfield was developed from 1883 to 1955. The neighborhood was one of the first additions to the original Phoenix townsite. It is also an excellent example of a “streetcar subdivision,” where residential development was directly related to the establishment of a streetcar line through the neighborhood.

In 1895, the Phoenix Street Railway extended their streetcar line through the Dennis Addition. Called the Brill Line, it ran along Pierce Street to 10th Street and then north to the Brill Addition, which was located just north of the Dennis Addition.  Brill is now located on the north side of I-10.  Most is Good Samaritan Hospital (where I was born).   It goes east to 16th Street and there are some very cute homes there, but I digress.

One of the best kept secrets of Central Phoenix is Rito's Mexican Food.  They are celebrating their 41st anniversary in Oct, 2017.   The place is just south of Roosevelt on 14th Street.  Don't look for a sign, they don't have one.  Just look for a bunch of cars parked outside. It's cash only and take out only but nobody cares.  They are soooo good and they cater.  That's Rito's below.  You can see the building from Roosevelt.  I absolutely love their red chili and their tacos.

The Garfield Historic District contains primarily modest bungalows and Period Revival style homes but it also includes a noteworthy concentration of older turnof-the-century structures, including the largest concentration of “Pyramid Cottages” in Phoenix.

Commercial establishments and small businesses also flourished at that time, particularly at the corner of 10th and Pierce streets where the streetcar line turned north.

American Way Market is on the corner of 10th Street and Pierce in the Garfield Historic District.  This is known as the Four Corners of Garfield.  The building is being renovated and will be Gallo Blanco restaurant.  Across the street at the Four Corners the Welcome Diner is coming down from Roosevelt.  Locals will drive a lone way for these two restaurants and the neighbors will love this.  These buildings have been there since the 1930's and the Phoenix Street car turned west on Pierce and north on 10th Street right here.

Sunnyslope Phoenix Arizona is on North Mountain's southern hillside overlooking Central Phoenix and West Phoenix.

Sunnyslope was always the “The Top of Central” to me.  There was a restaurant through the little tunnel at the north end of Central Ave where it stops at North Mountain with the name.  It's long since closed (I think in the late 1990's) and custom homes have replaced it, but that's where my memory goes back to.

Sunnslope History

The History of Sunnyslope is very interesting, at least to me. Founded around 1911, it was never incorporated after 4 attempts.  In 1959 it was annexed into Phoenix.  It’s well known that people with allergies, asthma and tuberculosis were told to move to the desert for their health.  And many did in Sunnyslope.  I remembering hearing it was originally a tuberculosis “camp”.  Considering how people profile others, I’m assuming that may have been a ‘label’ that was put on Sunnyslope because there were a lot of patients that lived north of the AZ Canal where there was no water that nature didn’t give them.

The Dreamy Draw

The other item about Sunnyslope I remember was the restaurant that is now Aunt Chiladas.  In the 1960’s it was another Mexican food restaurant called George’s Olay.  George was a friend of my family’s in the 60’s and we use to have dinner there all the time.  My favorite was bean burro enchilada style. Yum yum….  This building was a saloon in early Phoenix when the mercury mine in the Piestewa Peak desert preserve was being mined.  The area between the mountains where the 51 freeway now goes was called the Dreamy Draw.  There are still some signs of it and a park at the 51 and Northern named after it.  But I digress, the miners use to come out of the mine and into the saloon with a dreamy look about them because they were probably high from mining mercury, hence the name Dreamy Draw.

Location

This really is a great location with great easy access to the whole valley.  I-17 is west and just down Dunlap Ave, the 51 is just east on Northern Ave.  Mid-town, downtown and I-10 and directly south on Central Ave.  And since I live downtown I often forget to look north.  Just north on 7^th Street is the 101.  From Sunnyslope you really can get anywhere with the 101 loop down to I-10 in 20 mins-ish.

Residential Properties

The area is filled with great homes with great bones and structure.  Many are smaller homes because the miners or patients that mostly lived there in the early days didn’t have a lot of money.  In the 1950’s many track homes were built along 12^th Street north from Northern Ave.

In the past 10 years, and helped by the Great Recession, many homes have been remodeled, updated, enlarged and so on.  Many investors have been buying homes, updating and flipping since the 1990’s and into 2000’s but when the market was at the bottom in 2010 and 2011 homes were selling for less than $60,000.  That was crazy.  Those homes in 2016 can sell from $150,000 to $250,000.

One great community that was hit by the Great Recession but have come out of it nicely is 10000 North Central.

This is a very nice community.  It’s gated and on the south slope of North Mountain, right in the (approximate) geographical center of the valley.  Just down the hill to mid-town and downtown Phoenix.

You’ll get more square footage in this community starting at over 1800 square feet and going to over 3300 square feet.

Since N Central is on the side of the hill you have excellent views.  Some of the homes have great views of the valley from their courtyard too.