Affordable & Luxury Meet at 17th & Camelback

By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange

An intersection that could once only be (charitably) described as, “Gritty,” is the latest planned development spot spurred on by light rail and associated urban renewal projects.

United Capital Partners, LLC and VIVO Development Partners are proposing to create the C17 luxury multifamily project on the SWC of 17^th Avenue and Camelback Road. The proposal calls for 330 market rate units in a building with a 9.8KSF footprint.

The luxury component will consist of six floors of residential over two levels of podium parking, 4KSF of ground floor gallery/retail and 30KSF of amenity space, which will include a courtyard, pool and poolside ramada.

A consent agenda item went before The City of Phoenix Downtown, Aviation, Economy and Innovation Subcommittee to approve the sale of the city-owned site to UCP for $110K on April 4. According to the request documents, “The Developer proposes a mixed-use, transit-oriented development to include approximately 330 residential units, commercial areas, and 417 parking spaces in an eight-story building. The Project will include the site and surrounding, adjacent land controlled by the Developer. Project value is projected to be $66.3M.”

What makes this proposal particularly interesting, however, is what’s planned in concert with the luxury offering. On the south portion of the property, VIVO intends to create a master-planned, 55+ affordable housing development. “The project will provide approximately 200 low-income housing units intended to address Phoenix’s affordable housing shortage and the City’s rapidly expanding senior population,” according to the proposal documents. “This senior living community has a quieter and less active resident profile requiring substantially less parking thus providing for a more appropriate use to the adjacent single family residential. The community will have lower scale elements along Pierson Street to provide a transition to the single-story residences to the south.”

I find this proposal to be particularly interesting, as it takes into account an obvious truth once somebody says it out loud. Camelback is a lot like Bell Road to the north. It’s incredibly dense and always busy, but depending on which way the wind is blowing, you can spit and hit a substantially quieter lane a block in either direction. (By the way, VIVO is also developing Bell Luxury Senior Living near Bell and 20^th Street. Maybe they have this whole close to high volume but one step removed thing figured out. Good for them and, also, their customers.)

As to the C17 luxury development, there’s no question that component has its sights zeroed in. Again, referring to the development submittal, “This development’s strongest attribute is its prominent transit-oriented location at the doorstep to the 19^th Avenue and Camelback Light Rail Station. C17 leverages its location by creating a residential development that brings new residents to take advantage of this transit-oriented opportunity and provides additional density to promote interaction with retail and restaurants in the Solano neighborhood. Retail, café and artist galleries placed at C17’s ground floor along Camelback will serve as new local destinations for neighbors and pedestrians passing by.”

C17 is looking to attract as wide an income demographic as possible by providing a range of space/floor plans. Unit types are projected to range from studio, one- and two-bedroom offerings ranging from 442SF to slightly larger than 1KSF. Planned amenities total 30KSF and include a central courtyard, pool, two-story fitness center, exhibition kitchen, café, lobby area and business facilities.

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