plan to build tallests building in arizona to go before phoenix committee

For nearly 50 years the Chase Tower in downtown Phoenix has held the record, at 483 feet in height, as the tallest building in all of Arizona.

Now a proposal to build a mixed-use twin tower, with one of the towers rising to 540 feet, threatens to eclipse that record.

Geoffrey Jacobs, a partner in the Scottsdale-based Aspirant Development, has announced plans to put up the twin tower project in the 300 block of North Second Avenue, on a site that currently serves as a parking lot for a local YMCA.

The taller structure would house a hotel and residential units, as well as a restaurant and lounge. The smaller tower, at 359 feet in height, will feature both office and retail space.

The project, with the internationally known firm of Solomon Cordwell Buenz serving as its architect, requires city approval, particularly because the proposed taller tower is 15 feet higher than what is currently allowed in Phoenix.

Called the Astra, the project would go up several blocks away from a downtown nucleus of high-rises mostly built in a two-decade period between 1972 and 1991.
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Preliminary plans for the Astra are set to go before the city’s Central City Village Planning Committee, which is tasked with reviewing proposed downtown Phoenix development projects, next month.

By Garry Boulard

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