Phoenix strip mall to become 255-unit apartment tower Article originally posted on AZ Central on May 16, 2025 A strip retail center at Bell and Scottsdale roads could be demolished to make room for a new apartment complex. Chicago-based Fifield Companies submitted plans to redevelop the 4.3-acre site near the boundary between Phoenix and Scottsdale. The site contains a two-story commercial center that, if approved by the city, would be razed to make room for a new housing project. “Following the 2009 economic recession, the Paradise Valley Village has encountered challenges related to the overabundance of commercial and retail spaces,” the development team wrote in the submittal to the city. “Redevelopment of the site will help the Village achieve a more balanced mix of uses while diversifying the availability of housing types and density ranges in the immediate surrounding area.” The development, called the Residences at Scottsdale Crossing, is proposed to have 315 units, with a height of seven stories on the eastern portion and four stories on the western side, closer to the nearest neighborhood, Nick Wood, attorney with Snell and Wilmer who is the zoning attorney for the case, said. Changing retail patterns and online shopping have made some of the strip shopping centers obsolete, and good opportunities for redevelopment, Wood said. He also worked on the zoning case a few years ago for a site on the same corner, just east of the proposed development. The project also involved razing a former retail center to be redeveloped into an apartment complex, planned to total 255 units in a 14-story tower. “There are a lot of strip retail centers that are going away because they’re no longer sustainable,” Wood said. He called the redevelopment plans a “natural evolution” of some retail, pointing to other cases he has worked on in Tempe that involve demolishing retail to build apartment projects. The proposed project would have units ranging from studios to three bedrooms, and the top floor of the building would be an amenity deck with a rooftop pool, fitness center and yoga studio. The developer is in escrow to buy the site, and plans to close on the purchase once the zoning is approved, Wood said. However, the project is very early in the process and does not yet have scheduled hearings. Fewer apartment applications Despite some sites becoming ripe for redevelopment, Wood said, in general, across the Valley, there have been fewer apartment applications.