A familiar problem still haunts downtown Phoenix

I saw a curious headline recently in the Arizona Republic: "Event Center could add life to downtown." Curious, because downtown is brimming with "event centers," from the convention center to hotel ballrooms to (I guess) what’s left of the star-crossed and badly located Bentley Projects. The story was actually sad and illustrative.

If I read it correctly (and one never knows, now that editors have become graphics clerks), the owners of relatively historic buildings at Madison and Fifth Avenue lost the business leasing their space. Now, they "are working to make the Fifth Avenue and Madison Event Center one of downtown Phoenix’s premier spots." (Editors used to prevent reporters from using embarrassing hyperbole; also, is the address in the story correct?). The "center" can be used for "weddings, bar mitzvahs, business corporate outings…" Surely, the next McCormick Place.

At least the owners aren’t tearing the buildings down, an act of city-encouraged vandalism that has devastated downtown Phoenix. But here’s a small but telling example of what holds back the center city: lack of private investment. I hate to sun on ASU’s parade of finishing one dorm tower — heavy lifting in an education-hating state, to be sure. But until a simple older set of buildings such as these on Madison are used by businesses doing daily commerce, downtown will remain an underachiever.

Let’s play compare-and-contrast. Seattle, a city one-third the population of Phoenix and surrounded by plenty of suburban crap, too, has a downtown full of older buildings actually being used by businesses. And not just restaurants, although there are some 600 downtown. This on top of the chic retail core, condos, skyscrapers that dwarf Phoenix’s Chase Tower (and in the Sea-Tac flight path), sports stadiums, train station, underground transit tunnel, port, etc. etc. Unlike Phoenix, government is a small part of this lively, livable, dense downtown.

It’s important to remind newcomers that Phoenix once had a real downtown. It was killed by sprawl, poor public policy, hundreds of bad choices, the dying out of the old stewards and Phoenix’s Alpha Problem: more land than brains. It’s taken years to reverse some of the damage, but Phoenix still trails behind its successful rivals. It even pales next to Oklahoma City.

Why does this matter? Because in the global competition for talent, people want choices, including real downtowns and real urban (and, no, Mill Ave. won’t do). Every metro area offers miles of suburbia, same as Phoenix. The most competitive and successful also offer real downtowns.

Put down the suicide pills. I’m not trying to make Phoenicians feel bad. The point is that a real downtown needs business investment. Phoenix has a few heroes, such as Barry Schoeneman’s fabulous Men’s Apparel Club and the long-lived Michael’s Jewelers. It needs more, and bigger ones, too. Where was the full-court press to get more banking operations on the abundant empty land, rather than sending them to the suburbs. (Oh, I remember, they were trying to rename downtown).

I know, I know. So many impediments: greedy land-bankers, defeatist suburban zoning, multiple sub-basements of cluelessness at City Hall, and, most of all, a lack of powerful businesspeople who want to invest downtown — not in a taxpayer-subsidized real estate scheme, but in real commerce. Now comes word that a couple of suburban projects will be pulled from the debris of Mortgages Ltd., but nothing in the central city.

ASU, light rail, the new convention center, the biomed campus (if they get moving) — all these are important boosts to the central core. But only attracting more private investment and businesses will leverage these projects to give Phoenix the downtown it must have in order to have a successful future. So far City Hall has resisted making downtown the easiest and cheapest place in the city to do business. Such a simple answer. But in a divided, segregated migropolis of 500 square miles, so difficult to accomplish.