Medistar Plans Major Downtown Phoenix Project

Christine Mackay

Houston-based developer Medistar Corp. has announced plans to build a $231 million transit-oriented mixed-use project in Downtown Phoenix. The proposed project is on a ground lease with the city, and will include a 150-key InterContinental Hotel and restaurant, a 30-story 300-unit apartment complex, an 18-story student-housing tower with 600 beds, and ground-floor retail and office spaces. It goes up for City Council review next week, but there is already a lot of buzz about the development and the impact it could have on the Downtown Phoenix market.

“The timing was right because of high interest in Downtown Phoenix development, and the city once again offered this prime property for competitive development proposals. This site was offered several years ago, but the selected developer faced an internal challenge and withdrew from the project,” Christine Mackay, director of Phoenix community and economic development at the City of Phoenix, tells GlobeSt.com. “With time and economic surges in Phoenix, we were ready for a new proposal that benefits from this Main and Main location with the central multi-modal transit center at its heart. This is the right time for this project in Phoenix. We based our recommendation on the quality of the national proposals that we received and the great national partners that Medistar assembled for the project, including Greystar, POAG and Intercontinental. Medistar Corporation would have to speak to its impetus, but for the city of Phoenix, with all the development occurring, the time is right.”