Proposed 165 ft. Office Tower at Biltmore Fashion Park Moves Ahead Article originally posted on AZ Central on April 19, 2024 A proposal to build a tower at the Biltmore Fashion Park in Phoenix is moving forward after the Phoenix Planning Hearing Officer agreed it met city plans for the area. Macerich, the owner of the shopping center, and Phoenix-based developer RED Development submitted an application for a new tower on the southeast corner of the shopping center in early 2024. The tower is proposed on the corner of 26th Street and Camelback Road, on what is used as a surface parking lot. Tower could be offices or hotel and apartments The plan allows for two options of buildings to be considered on the site. The first option, which was originally proposed, is primarily an office tower with a mix of retail and restaurants on the bottom floor, Ed Bull, an attorney representing the development, told the Phoenix Planning Hearing Officer. If the developers were to build that option, it could reach a maximum of 140 feet in height. The second option could include a hotel, residential units, retail and office, Bull said. That tower could reach 165 feet in height. Macerich and RED Development have not indicated which option they might choose to develop, and have not released details about the plans, including the number of units that could be included in a potential residential project. The site is already zoned to allow towers reaching up to 165 feet, so the project does not have to go through the rezoning process. Neighbors concerns about traffic At the Planning Hearing Officer’s hearing on Wednesday, some residents who live near the center and representatives of nearby commercial development said they wanted to see a collaborative approach throughout the process. Several expressed concerns about increased traffic, and Phoenix Planning Hearing Officer Byron Easton said the developers will be required to submit a traffic impact study. The Camelback East Village Planning Committee declined to hold a discussion about the proposal, so the hearing officer’s meeting was the first public discussion of the project. Bull said the development team will host a meeting with neighbors and other interested stakeholders next week, which is within the time frame to appeal a planning hearing officer’s decisions. Easton said the developers had met all the requirements for neighborhood notification, but was glad there would be an additional neighborhood meeting about the project. Easton said the proposed tower closely follows the guidelines that were adopted for the area in 2006. Pandemic slowed office market If the proposal moves forward as an office development, it will be one of very few new offices to move forward after the COVID-19 pandemic shook the office market. One other office development to be constructed and opened since the pandemic was also constructed by RED Development, a project called the Grove on 44th Street and Camelback Road. That office building, near Sam Fox’s Global Ambassador hotel, has seen leasing success, bucking the trend of the Phoenix office market as a whole. Despite the pandemic, the Camelback Corridor remains one of the Valley’s most desirable office markets. At the end of the first quarter, the Camelback Corridor had about a 22% vacancy rate for offices, despite having the highest average asking rent for any office submarket in the Valley. Offices there lease at an average of $37.96 per square foot, according to research from Cushman & Wakefield. Nonetheless, the corridor has lower vacancy than the Valley as a whole, which has an overall 27.9% vacancy rate. According to Cushman and Wakefield data, there is about 519,000 square feet of office buildings under construction around the Valley, the majority of which is in Tempe. Development team has many other Valley projects In addition to Biltmore Fashion Park, Macerich is the owner of many of the Valley’s largest malls, including Scottsdale Fashion Square, Kierland Commons, Arrowhead Towne Center and Chandler Fashion Center. Macerich’s CEO, Tom O’Hern, mentioned plans for both an office tower and an apartment complex at the Biltmore Fashion Center in the company’s fourth quarter 2022 earnings call, which took place in February 2023.