Five key projects transforming downtown Phoenix’s urban landscape

Article originally posted on Phoenix Business Journal on May 19, 2025

The City of Phoenix’s plan to revitalize the downtown area and bring it back to the halcyon days before a mass suburban exodus in the 1970s has been nearly 10 years in the making.

Through the first half of 2025, city government and private investment have utilized a number of tools at their disposal to reignite economic development in downtown Phoenix and other parts of the city. Private restoration along with public push for redevelopment near transit lines are some of the actions taken so far. This sort of development comes in conjunction with the June 7 opening of the South Central Valley Metro light rail extension and has also led the city of Phoenix to issue requests for proposals for future developments along the new or future transit lines.

“Downtown Phoenix was not the it girl she is today,” Chris Mackay, the city’s community and economic development director, told the Business Journal in 2024. “There was a lot of convincing to get people to come to downtown Phoenix. We did not reach the population that we had in 1970 in downtown Phoenix until 2016.”

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