Peter Corbett
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 25, 2008 05:58 PM Scottsdale residents will get their first full look Tuesday at the latest plans for a $600 million luxury hotel with resort residences that would add to the city’s emerging downtown skyline. Scottsdale Canal Development, a Scottsdale partnership, is planning the 72-foot-tall Solis Scottsdale Hotel & Residences about two blocks east of Scottsdale Fashion Square.
The project, originally labeled the Waterview at Scottsdale, will include 240 hotel rooms, a spa, shops and 165 residences. Two previous plans encountered opposition by neighbors and city staff because the project was too dense for the area northeast of Camelback and Scottsdale roads, southeast of the Arizona Canal.Neighbors also complained about a Salt River Project electrical substation that developers wanted to move close to their homes.
That plan was scrapped.
Development partners Mark Madkour and John Wanninger now plan to move the utility yard to a site northeast of Indian School Road and 68th Street. They also would add a 1-acre park on the northern edge of their 11-acre project.
“This should clear away some of the objections,” Madkour said.
However, Scottsdale nightclub owner Tom Anderson said he an other neighbors strongly object to moving the substation near their businesses at 68th Street and Indian School Road.
Scottsdale’s planning staff has not yet reviewed the latest proposal.
Scottsdale Canal Development still needs Scottsdale City Council approval for its project.
Move pleases neighbor But neighbor Helen Cooner said she was pleased the substation would not be moved next to her home. She feared electromagnetic radiation from the substation would be a health risk. “We never should have been put through this,” she said of the developers’ original plan.
Jeff Lane, an SRP spokesman, said the substation move would eliminate a need to bring a new power line northeast along the Arizona Canal, which would have torn up recent canal-bank improvements.
“This is a good site for all parties concerned,” Lane said of the location at 68th and Indian School.
The luxury hotel and residences along the canal would replace a mix of homes and aging apartments.
Other projects It is part of $1.5 billion in downtown redevelopment projects – completed or under way – since 2003. That includes mid-rise condominiums and the seven-story W Scottsdale Hotel, which is set to open in late May.
In all, there are nearly $3.3 billion in public and private improvements either done in the past five years, in progress or planned in southern Scottsdale, south of Chaparral Road, according to a recent city report.
The Solis Hotel, an emerging 5-year-old brand from the Atlanta-based West Paces Hotel Group, would add yet another stylish hotel to downtown, joining the W, Hotel Valley Ho and Mondrian Scottsdale.
But first the developers must gain city approval of the project at a time when citizen complaints are rising over the height and density of downtown development.
Scottsdale Canal Development has cut the density of its project 14 percent, adding open space between the residential buildings. Plus, the height of the northernmost structure was cut from 65 to 38 feet, Madkour said.
City planners previously objected that the 65-foot buildings would create a canyon effect for pedestrians along the canal bank, which would be improved through the site.
Those improvements would allow pedestrians to walk along the canal and over a pedestrian bridge to connect with the Safari Drive community and Scottsdale Fashion Square to the west.
Scottsdale Canal Development would spend about $24 million for the bridge, canal-bank improvements and relocating the substation, Madkour said.
Tues public meeting to disclose the plans is set for 5:30 at the Scottsdale United Methodist Church, 4140 N. Miller Road.
