Arizona’s biggest parking garage is going up in the middle of Phoenix in one of its oldest shopping centers — Park Central Mall.
The 10-story parking garage with 551,000-square-feet space will have more 2,000 spaces for the new $100 million Creighton University medical school, apartments, restaurants, office tenants and another hotel.
Construction is scheduled to start on a Hilton Home2 Suites/Tru with 207 at Park Central later this year.
Park Central, built in 1957 at Central and Earll avenues, has been surrounded by asphalt parking lots. Sometimes the lots are more than half empty, since the former mall’s big retail tenants such as Dilliard’s moved out more than 20 years ago.
The former mall, in the heart of midtown, languished as the rest of the area drew new residents, developments and retail and office tenants.
Then a few years ago, Plaza Cos. and Holualoa Cos., which redeveloped the rundown south Scottsdale mall Los Arcos into the Skysong ASU Innovation project, struck a deal to buy Park Central and begin its renovation.
The city supported developers move to revitalize the aging mall, but asked for more parking for Park Central that the light rail runs along.
The city and developers formed a Community Facilities District to fund the parking garage at 150 W. Catalina Drive. Phoenix-based Kitchell is building the garage with 12,000 cubic yards of precast concrete that will be topped off later this week.
"This is not a typical parking deck, given the collaboration, the financial structure, the transformational opportunities it provides,” Plaza Cos. CEO Sharon Harper said.
The big parking structure will fill in for lost surface parking to the new school, apartments and other developments at Park Central.
Arizona’s biggest garage is currently the East Garage with about 1,500 parking spots in downtown Phoenix at 601 W. Washington St., real estate market watchers say.
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8040. Follow her on Twitter @Catherinereagor.
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