Urban Life

Art Detour Is Happening In Downtown Phoenix

One of the truly grand events in downtown Phoenix is Art Detour and it is happening this weekend, March 6-7, 2010. 

If you haven't been, Art Detour is when a hundred or so artists, 60 some odd galleries, a great mix of musicians and several thousand Phoenicians gather to enjoy the arts scene in downtown Phoenix.

Art Detour is sponsored by ArtLink Phoenix, the same folks that bring you First Friday. Over coffee with ArtiLink board member David Appleby, it was clear that there is great passion for this annual event. Despite the ciaos of last minute details, David is excited to share the downtown arts scene with new and old friends.

Here are the details:

What: Your art adventure is self-guided, but ArtLink has maps. You'll amble through several central Phoenix areas including Roosevelt Row, Grand Avenue, Seventh Avenue and the Melrose district. Don't worry, they have shuttles to get you around to the various regions.
When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday, March 6; noon-5 p.m., Sunday March 7.
Where: Shuttles leave from Phoenix Center for the Arts, 1202 N. Third St., Phoenix. This is also where you get your map/guide.
Admission: Free.
Support ArtLink Phoenix: artlinkphoenix.com.

Help For Phoenix Home Buyers

Have you thought about buying a home in Phoenix Arizona, yet you don’t have the money for a down payment and closing costs? Help may be yours under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

The city of Phoenix Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) offers a home ownership assistance program providing $15,000 for down payment and closing cost assistance.  Eligible buyers must be

• Buyers must be able to qualify for an FHA loan.
• Have completed the NSP-required eight-hour Home Ownership Education Class and Credit/Budget Assessment counseling course.

There are a few other requirements to consider:

• Buyers must maintain the property as their principal residence.
• The total household income must be below 120% of area median income. 
• Program participants must contribute a minimum of $1,000 of personal funds for down payment or closing costs.
• The $15,000 is paid back to the city when the home-buyer sells the home or refinances. 

The program targets foreclosed single-family homes, town-homes and condominiums (condominium conversions are not eligible) that meet HUD Housing Quality Standards (HQS).  The purchased home must be a foreclosed home anywhere within the city of Phoenix limits and meet other eligibility requirements.

Many mortgage lenders can assist you with this program. We’ve had good results with:

Judy Giel
MetLife Home Loans
602-494-6000 x222
jgiel@metlife.com

Ron Hall
BNC National Bank
623-293-6970
rhall@bncnationalbank.com

Best to you,

Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777

CityScape Announces Downtown Phoenix Grocery Store Partner

Mayor Gordon was joined by Mike Ebert (Red Development) and Barbara Henderson to announce the long awaited name of the grocery store that will be going in at CityScape in downtown Phoenix Arizona.

The grocery partner will be… a drum roll please… Oakville Grocery Company, a 100+ year old grocery company based in Napa California. Oakville Grocery recently opened in Scottsdale near Kierland and will branch out to offer their special take on food, wine, cheese and sweet things in downtown Phoenix.

Barbara Henderson, Oakville’s General Manager for Arizona, says the company has a passion for food, wine and a great customer experience. When asked about supporting local food purveyors, Henderson said she met with Kimber Lanning of Local First Arizona and shares her passion for supporting the community. Oakville will feature 15 or more local food providers as well as a number of other fine vendors.

The store will be about 9000 sqft and is scheduled to open at CityScape in September 2010.

Now that the wait is over and we’ve found out who will be the second grocery option for downtown Phoenix, we’d love your feedback. I believe it may be a good fit. Certainly, Oakville is not your typical grocery store and may well turn out to embrace the urban/downtown experience with a sense of authenticity.

Willo Historic District in Phoenix, a bit of history and information

I began writing articles about the various historic districts in Phoenix about a year ago. The more I research and write, the more facinated I get. Today's post is on the Willo historic district; Its character and make-up are a real lesson in Phoenix history.

Let’s begin our story with location, make up and size of Willo. Unlike most Phoenix historic districts, Willo is comprised of many subdivisions. Most writers say there are 22 whereas my research suggests 23- 24 in all. Its rough geographic boundaries are Thomas Ave to the North, McDowell to the south, 1^st Avenue to the east and 7^th street to the west.

Homes in the area have a wide range of architectural styles. This comes as no surprise since homes were designed and built here over a long period of time. Maricopa County records indicate home building began in 1905 and continued into the 1950’s with a few newer builds here and there. As you venture through the area you’ll find examples of many styles including:

• Monterey Style
• Greek Revival
• Pueblo Revival
• French Provincial
• Spanish Mission Revival
• Tudor Revival
• American Colonial Revival
• Georgian Revival
• Bungalow/Craftsman
• Ranch

 

 

Home building began in the southern parts of Willo during the early 1900's and the boom of revival style homes. The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 in San Diego advanced the notion that revival style architecture was a good thing. The Chicago Fair is likely why we see so many Tudors revivals while the San Diego exposition is credited with the explosion of Spanish Colonial style homes and its cousins such as Spanish Mission and Monterey Revival designs.

The various revival style homes have a sence of playfulness about them. This matches the era, 1890-1928, that included the Roaring 20's, dawn of air travel, a boom stock market and so much more.

Most home building came to a halt when the Great Depression hit. Many of the newer subdivisions fell into financial ruin and land-lots were left unbuilt while people went into survival mode. Does this strike you as similar to Phoenix today as we struggle to emerge from the housing boom and bust of 2003-2010? (I think this will be a topic of a future post.)

Building began again as the Federal Housing Authority brought hope and access to financing,  they also brought new construction standards to the table. The FHA liked building projects that were mass produced and lower priced such as ranch, stripped down French Provincial and Spanish/Monterey style homes. This is evidence in subdivisions such as Lou Mar and Loma Vista where such styles are more prevalent.

I invite you to explore the Willo district and take a step back into our City and Country’s history. Take notice of the difference between the home styles south of Encanto and those to the north west where FHA and post WWII buying trends had a significant influence on style and construction techniques.

For more information about the various Phoenix historic districts, please visit our main site: www.UrbanTeamAZ.com.

Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777

CLICK HERE TO GET TICKETS AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE ANNUAL WILLOW HISTORIC TOUR AND FAIR.  

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2010 Willo Historic Home Tour Information

We are getting close to the 22nd annual Willo Historic District Home Tour. YEAH!  Once a year the residents of Willo, between Thomas & McDowell and Central & 7th Ave, open several homes to the public.

If you have never been, you will want to add this to your Valentine's Day festivities. What better way to celebrate love than to walk hand-in-hand with your dearest and visit homes that also show a lot of love.

The Willo home tour is this Sunday, February 14th, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Besides the charming homes, there is a cheerful street fair to enjoy. Does it get any better than this?...well maybe a beach in the Bahamas. However, if you are not winging your way to some exotic place, come join the festivities at Willo.

Tickets and information can be found on the official Willo Historic District Web Site.

By the way, if you find you want to learn more about the historic neighborhoods of Phoenix, visit our main site's historic homes in Phoenix, AZ info page.

A little tour of the Willo Historic Disctrict...

 

First Friday in Downtown Phoenix, February 5th Was Fun

Hope those who could, did make it to First Friday in downtown Phoenix last night. I almost missed it but things worked out.

My night started at Alta, the Mark-Taylor loft apartments on 4th. Jane Fendelman was doing a CD signing for her hypno-therapy CD's. She is always fun to hang out with... never dull for sure. Catherine Dermody, the GM at Alta, made sure everyone had pizza enough to make the belly happy. (Check back for a full post on Alta, it is a happy place.)

Got to meet Emily Jackson Bates, a massage therapist and yoga instructor at YogaDenPhx next door to Alta. She was offering free chair massages and was very sweet. I'm sure YogaDen will be the topic of a future post when I visit and find my inner downward dog.

My friend Claudia B. joined in the fun and we took off for a view of Roosevelt Row. It was crazy busy. Lots of art, food and PEOPLE. Great to see downtown with so many happy bodies having fun.

The crowds were pretty thick so we headed off to Grand Ave. I think Roosevelt Row was holding most of the people as Grand was pretty quite. We hit Sapna Cafe, Fractal and ended up hanging out with Kate from Modern Cat. I've heard of Kate from her blog and had never met her. We had a great talk about Blogs, SEO, page views and all those bloggy topics people who blog like. Kate's friend Bogi Lateiner of 180 Auto fame was there too. Did you know she is a certified master mechanic... I was impressed. Before we left a friend of Kate's brought her a birthday cake adorned with kitties of course.

The night ended at Paisley Violin. Got a table on the back patio and listened to Anjonette sing and play guitar. Tried to get a coffee and snack but gave up after 20 minutes or so of waiting. I love the place but getting service on the patio when it's busy and I'm tired is a bad combination.

Hope to see you downtown next month when First Friday happens once more.

Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777

44 Monroe in Downtown Phoenix Faces Foreclosure

It doesn't come as too much of a surprise that 44 Monroe in downtown Phoenix has been given a notice of trustee sale. To me, the project was simply one of those... too much too late. If you've been reading Urban Life for a while you may have caught our post just before the project was completed voicing our concerns.

I am not sure why a developer thought the downtown region would support a project where the low end units were more expensive than many project's higher priced ones. Besides purchase price, the HOA fees were more than some people's mortgage. Add in a completion date over two years past the top of the market and you have a problem Houston.

According to an article on AZ Central, only 14 of the 196 units have been sold leaving a whopping 182 unsold properties in the development. Ooops.

The trustees, Jennings, Strouss & Salmon, have scheduled the sale of the 182 unsold units on April 14th.  Who knows, maybe the new owners will be able to shift the development's price point to a level that matches the income of the region and fill this puppy with happy homeowners who will love 44 Monroe's great location, stellar views and fine amenities. 

Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777

Prior Articles About 44 Monroe on Urban Life:

• How Are Condos doing In Downtown Phoenix
• 44 Monroe... A look at this project
  

University of Arizona Buys Land For Expansion in Downtown Phoenix AZ

Good news for the New Year and future of downtown Phoenix as The University of Arizona purchased 2.6 acres of land for future expansion projects.

The property, located across from the existing Phoenix Biomedical Campus, will be used as part of more than three hundred million in planned expansion projects according to a Phoenix Business Journal article.

The land was purchased from the Plaza Companies, a firm known for its development of SkySong, is located on the NE corner of Van Buren and Seventh Street. A sizeable building located on the property was included in the deal.

We are often asked where one should invest in real estate for the future. It is events like this that confirm are advice to buy in the downtown region is a wise one.

Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777

Top 50 New Years Parties in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale AZ

As we leave 2009 and welcome in 2010 thoughts of celebration and parties come to mind. In case you wonder where you can bring in the New Year, NYE, we’ve compiled a list of 50 places in Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale and Mesa you can join the fun.

Enjoy and we hope you have an incredible 2010.

Gene Urban and Ron Urban
The Urban Team

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1. Club Dwntwn, 702 N. Central, Phoenix -- 602-258-8343 
2. Alice Cooperstown, Downtown Phoenix, AZ. Think Alice with be there?
3. Angels & Outlaws - 6990 E. Shea Blvd. – Scottsdale – This is a Raven Events Sponsored Party
4. Axis/Radius Nightclub, Downtown Scottsdale. The 2010 Space Odyssey Party
5. BAR smith, Downtown Phoenix AZ. Fuse Friday event.
6. Bobby C’s, Downtown Phoenix. On a light rail stop and jammin with Jazz
7. Boulders Resort, Carefree, AZ. party will be at Latilla. The Boulders is a Wistoria Resort property.
8. Carefree Station Grill, Carefree, AZ
9. Cave Creek Coffee Company & Wine Bar, Cave Creek, AZ. One of the stops in the Big Cave Creek NYE party.
10. Cherry Lounge & Pit, Tempe, AZ… dance in the NY.
11. Children’s Museum Phoenix, Downtown Phoenix. A family NYE event. Play in the NY.
12. Club Red, Tempe, AZ. Blunt Club Hip Hop event.
13. Compound Grill, Phoenix AZ. Featuring the music of Tea Leaf Green.
14. Cream Stereo Lounge, Scottsdale, AZ. Circus Acts and more at this NYE party.
15. D'Arcy McGee's - Tempe Marketplace – Tempe. Bring in the NY Irish Style. Live music and dancing.
16. Estate House, Scottsdale, AZ. Nick Heward & The Elements of Style are on the stage this NY’s.
17. Fat Tuesdays Tempe, AZ. Be part of the Fiesta Bowl week of Parties.
18. Fiesta Bowl Block Party, Tempe, AZ.  The PARTY of NYE parties in Arizona featuring the Doobie Brothers. 
19. Franciscan Renewal Center, Paradise Valley, AZ.  They’re hosting a 3-day retreat to bring in the NY. Starts Wednesday.
20. George and Dragon - 4240 N. Central Ave. – Phoenix. They’re celebrating NYE twice.
21. Hard Rock Cafe,  Downtown, Phoenix. There is always a party at the Hard Rock…
22. Hurricane Bay - NW– Phoenix
23. Hyatt Regency Phoenix, Downtown Phoenix. Party with the Groove Merchants resort style.
24. JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort, Desert Ridge, Phoenix. Two restaurants to choose from and the Robert Street Band.
25. Lon’s at the Hermosa Inn, Paradise Valley, AZ. Gourmet dining and the Chris Putrino Band. They played at our wedding.
26. Majerle's, Downtown Phoenix. Lots of action at the original downtown sports bar.
27. Margaritaville, Glendale, AZ. Party at Margaritaville and go on to the Westgate Rocks parrty
28. Martini Ranch, Scottsdale AZ. Special Guests Halo Machine.
29. Matadors’ Ultra Lounge, Phoenix
30. McFadden's Glendale, Glendale AZ. Party at Westgate.
31. Mondrian Scottsdale Hotel – Old town, Scottsdale. Lingerie and Cupcakes are on the bill in this ultra Urban setting.
32. Myst Nightclub, Old Town Scottsdale, 2010, a party for the Gods with DJ MCB
33. Phoenix Symphony Hall, downtown Phoenix. Ring in the New Year with the symphony.
34. Saddle Ranch, Scottsdale, AZ.  Not sure what they are doing this year…
35. Sangria Luxe Lounge, Glendale, AZ. Get dressed in White and come to the White Castle wonderland.
36. Sassi, North Scottsdale, AZ. Fine Italian food and music by the Frank Smith Quartet.
37. Sky Lounge, Downtown Phoenix. Lots happening here for the downtown dweller.
38. SKYE, Peoria, AZ. Enjoy Motown in Raymond’s or Terry & Anne Davies in the Platinum room.
39. Stars Ballroom, Mesa, AZ. Take your baby out dancing ballroom style.
40. Stone Rose Lounge - Fairmont Scottsdale. Five Diamond Resort Fun
41. Suede – Scottsdale, AZ
42. Sugar Daddy's, Scottsdale, AZ… it’s closed so I don’t think the party will be happening here.
43. Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe, AZ. Dinner and jazz with off-Broadway star Joe Bousard & Laurie Fagen
44. Tempe Improv, Tempe, AZ.  Laugh in the new year with Charlie Murphy and friends.
45. The National Comedy Theatre, Mesa AZ. Call for details on the show.
46. The Rhythm Room, Phoenix, AZ. Get rid of the 2009 blues with the Fremonts.
47. Venue of Scottsdale, Old Town Scottsdale, AZ. Celebrate new years and help the Leukemia Society.
48. Westgate City Center, Glendale, AZ. A lot of options at Westgate for all ages including Westgate Rocks.
49. Wildfish Restaurant, Scottsdale, AZ. You know the food is good… let us know how the party was.
50. Wrigley Mansion, Phoenix, AZ. The dinner is already sold out, but there will be music in the bar.

If you party to much to drive, local cabs, Execucars and light rail will keep you and others safe.

Have a great night and even better new year.

FQ Story Historic District a look at revival homes in Phoenix, AZ

We just completed an article about the FQ Story Historic District in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. You'll find the complete text on our main web site, UrbanTeamAZ.com.

FQ Story is one of the sweetest historic districts in all of Phoenix and well worth taking a walking tour through. I like to catch a bite at the Original Hamburger Works and park at the 7th Ave and Lynwood entrance. Water in hand you'll be on your way to a wonder walking adventure. Afterwards, you may want to pop by SideBar for a cool refreshment... its a great locals hangout.

Rather than re-post the article on our main web site, just follow the link... UrbanTeamAZ.com. We have a bit of neighborhood history, a virtual tour and a look at the various homes currently looking for a new owner.

Enjoy,

Gene Urban
The Urban Team at Realty Executives
602-234-5777