Phoenix City Council OKs rezoning of Metrocenter Mall for housing, shopping
Jun 6, 2016, 2:11 PM
(Screenshot)
(Screenshot)
PHOENIX — The Phoenix City Council approved rezoning in and around Metrocenter Mall for a development that will include apartments and office spaces as well as shopping and dining.
InBusiness reported that the area off Interstate 17 between Peoria Avenue and Dunlap Road could have buildings with a maximum height of 180 feet or 15 stories and the maximum square footage of the space 1.6 million square feet, double its current area.
“This is a landmark moment that we have been working toward for quite a long time,” Warren Fink, COO of Carlyle Development Company, owner of Metrocenter Mall, said in a prepared statement.
“After several years of collaboration with the City, the community and its leaders, we now have the official green light to redevelop this valuable infill site in a very significant way, first and foremost by bringing in dynamic new uses that will make this a true urban village for Phoenix residents.”
The mall buildings, as well as a 10-acre site dedicated to the construction of a new Walmart Supercenter, would take up about 83 acres of the space in the plan.
The rest of the area encompasses land and some businesses around the mall’s loop road, including the amusement park Castles-N-Coasters, College of America and a former Sports Authority.
The mall opened in 1973 and underwent renovations in 2007, but has slowly been left behind by shoppers in favor of bigger, newer suburban malls, such as Arrowhead Towne Center.
Carlyle bought the property in 2012.
“I grew up just a few blocks from Metrocenter, which has been an important part of my life and the lives of so many other Phoenix residents,” Mayor Greg Stanton told InBusiness.
“It feels good to help this area maintain its vitality as one of our Valley’s most important and recognizable retail and employment areas.”
