Work on Phoenix’s City North project moving ahead, developer says
Apr 30, 2020, 1:34 PM
(City North Photo)
(City North Photo)
PHOENIX – Construction on a 100-hundred-acre mixed-used project in north Phoenix is moving ahead despite the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the developer said Thursday.
City North is being built next to Desert Ridge Marketplace, near 56th Street and Loop 101.
Plans call for 2 million square feet of office space, 2,600 residential units, 500 hotel rooms and 1,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
Crown Realty and Development said it’s been able to continue the construction, which started in June 2019, because the land acquisition was funded without debt.
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“Contractors will be paid on time because we have no debt at City North and have funded every penny from cash,” Robert Flaxman, the company’s founder and CEO, said in a press release.
Flaxman was in the news last year for his role in a headline-grabbing, widespread college admissions scandal.
In October, he was sentenced to one month in prison for allegedly paying $75,000 to cheat on his daughter’s college entrance exam. He’d pleaded guilty in April to charges of bribery and fraud.
Crown, which is based in Costa Mesa, California, has been active in the Valley, developing the Montelucia Resort in Scottsdale and redeveloping Mountain Shadows in Paradise Valley.
The company acquired rights to the City North property in January 2019 for $54 million following a long-running bankruptcy case. Bankruptcy court had placed the value of the land as high as $121 million, according to AZBigMedia.
