tagged w/ city north
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Clint Bolick
likes to call CityNorth "a ghost town."
Bolick, attorney for the Goldwater Institute and opponent of the economic-development agreement between Phoenix and the new development, has considered it a bad idea from the start.
But a look beyond the shops and restaurants at the project at 56th Street and Loop 101 in Phoenix shows plenty of activity.
Hundreds call it home
Hundreds of people spend much of their lives here, living, working and even playing.
All 99 residences along High Street are leased.
The 320,000 square feet of available office space is more than 20 percent occupied, with an additional 7 percent leased but not yet announced.
That's a total of almost 89,000 square feet that is full or will be soon.
The people who handle office leasing at the site say they have proposals out to tenants who would take up 103,000 square feet, and initial contacts made with businesses that would take up an additional 235,000 square feet.
The effort comes at a time when office occupancy in the Phoenix market is declining, not increasing.
Good deals are there to be had for office tenants at CityNorth, but a spokeswoman for Related Urban Development, which manages High Street, says they are not giving the space away.
"We're trying to keep our lease rates up, consistent with other new buildings," said Najla Kayyem, vice president of marketing for Related.
Plenty of deals
Deals fluctuate based upon term, size, use and creditworthiness of tenants, Kayyem said.
These items are all taken into account in determining concessions. Kayyem said the final amounts are competitive for the market.
The largest tenant so far is Capital Processing Network, a credit-card processing company serving small and midsize businesses. It has 56 employees in 18,136 square feet.
The price had little to do with Chief Executive Jeff Stephan's decision to lease the space, he said.
What he liked is the easy access to the office for clients, employees and potential employees; the new construction with upgraded communications hardware; the great views of mountains to the north and east; and an office space that is bright, with floor-to-ceiling windows, and cheerful.
CityNorth has edge
Jerry Roberts, executive vice president and office specialist for CBRE, is working on CityNorth leases. He says the process has gone well in a market that has lost tenants overall.
Compared to other new office buildings along Loop 101, CityNorth has an edge because of its amenities, including easy access to shopping and restaurants, he said.
"Even in this down cycle, we have always had deals to work on," he said.
Who's moving
Roberts pointed out that the market lost 900,000 square feet worth of tenants in the third quarter this year, while CityNorth has added almost 100,000 square feet.
The leases are all a minimum of five years, Kayyem says.
Troy Bohlke of Niche Focus Group, a business-development company, said it all worked out for him.
"We were meeting regularly at Press Coffee, and we talked about getting an office here, but we thought it would be out of reach," he said.
But a friend who lives at the site spoke with a leasing agent and found out the costs would not be too high.
Niche moved in two weeks ago.Clint Bolick
likes to call CityNorth "a ghost town."
Bolick, attorney... more
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