Arizona Center

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Information
One Arizona Center
Tower One
Location	400 E Van Buren St Phoenix
Status	completed
Constructed	1989
Height
Roof	240 feet (73 meters)
Top floor	18
Technical details
Floor count	18
Companies
Architect	HKS, Inc
Developer	Rouse Company

Arizona Center is a shopping center and office complex located in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.

Arizona Center was designed by the Rouse Company (on its festival marketplace model, which worked to great success in other cities) and opened in the fall of 1990 to great fanfare and high expectations, as it was considered one of the original components of the ongoing downtown revitalization efforts in Phoenix taking place since the early 1990s.

The expectations were high since it was developed by the same firm that created the highly successful Faneuil Hall Marketplace (Boston) and Harborplace (Baltimore). Arizona Center was expected to be a retail, dining and entertainment magnet which would jump-start interest in downtown redevelopment, but some critics felt suburban-oriented Phoenix was not ready to embrace a downtown development of this caliber. To some extent the critics were correct; many of the initial retailers struggled to attract customers, and by 2003, the large second-story food court, similar to those found in suburban shopping malls, was closed and reconfigured into the Phoenix regional office of Detroit-based architectural firm SmithGroup.^[1] Critics have also pointed out the relative scarcity of permanent upscale apartment and/or condominium housing in the immediate vicinity as a factor in the lackluster performance of the mall.^[2] Most of the residential districts surrounding the downtown area are middle-to-lower income, not adequate to support the middle-to-high end marketing mix that Arizona Center set out to provide.

Arizona Center at night.

Arizona Center features three office buildings.

One Arizona Center is 240 feet (73 meters) tall and has 18 floors. It was completed in 1989. This tower houses various legal firms with Snell and Wilmer being the largest. Other tenants include the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitor's Bureau (PHX CVB), Phoenix Regional Sports Commission (PRSC), and the main corporate offices of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Two Arizona Center stands at 260 feet (79 meters) tall and has 20 floors. It was completed in 1990 and is the headquarters of local electric utility Arizona Public Service or APS.

Arizona Republic Building, at 124 feet (38 meters) is only 10 floors, yet it is the headquarters for the Arizona Republic, the state's largest daily newspaper.

Arizona Center also has 120,000 square feet (11,000 m²) of retail space (including a 24-screen AMC movie theater), built around richly landscaped courtyards and fountains. While no longer the huge draw it was designed to be at inception, it still draws relatively healthy lunchtime office-worker crowds to its remaining eateries, as well as large numbers of local residents (from the largely blue-collar and middle-class neighborhoods surrounding downtown) on weekends to the movie theater, which is the only one for several square miles. Out-of-town conventioneers, tourists and sports fans who come downtown to attend games of the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks also provide acceptably healthy foot traffic.

Information
Two Arizona Center
Tower Two
Location	455 N 3rd St Phoenix
Status	completed
Constructed	1990
Height
Roof	260 feet (79 meters)
Top floor	20
Technical details
Floor count	20
Companies
Architect	HNTB Architecture
Developer	Rouse Company

In the summer of 2006, Arizona State University announced plans to use 4,000 square feet (400 m²) on the second floor as a student union for its newly expanding Downtown Phoenix branch campus.^[3]

Arizona Center's fortunes are expected to revive as a 30-story Sheraton Phoenix Downtown hotel is under construction on the block shared by the Arizona Republic headquarters, and is expected to open in late 2008. Also, several high-end condo projects in the downtown area are either under construction, newly opened, or in the planning stages.