Downtown Phoenix to get more apartments

Crews are prepping a downtown Phoenix property to lay the foundation for 325 apartments that a Scottsdale-based developer anticipates will house a number of college students after it is finished in 2013. Executives of Concord Eastridge said they see opportunity in the increasing number of students moving into the downtown area to take classes at three major campuses: Arizona State University's downtown Phoenix campus, with nearly 16,000 students; the University of Arizona's College of Medicine and Pharmacy College campuses, with 560 students combined; and the Phoenix School of Law, with an estimated 1,000 students. Adding to the potential economic boost is a future Arizona Cancer Center that will focus on clinical research, and Northern Arizona University, which this fall will open physical-therapy and physician's-assistant programs to draw 49 students to the downtown biomedical campus. Community leaders welcome the $52 million apartment project south of Roosevelt Street, between Third and Fourth streets, as a sign of revitalization. The historical area has had a smattering of dusty and empty lots since the 1970s and 1980s, when land speculators and property owners thought they could make it big by razing and selling properties near downtown Phoenix and what eventually became Interstate 10.

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