By Kristena Hansen | Phoenix Business Journal
Fridays usually are a high point in the week for shopping centers — unless you’re at CityCenter at CityNorth.
While most retailers welcome the usual uptick in morning shoppers with doors propped open and posters promoting sales and bargains, the north Phoenix center more closely resembles a ghost town.
The streets that wind through the center are void of cars and the hustle and bustle of shoppers. The strip of ground-level retail space along High Street remains a sea of boarded-up windows, and only a handful of small businesses were open as the quiet bustling of restaurant employees prepped for the day. There’s only a modest ebb and flow of the center’s residents and upper-level office users.
It’s the tone that has haunted CityNorth since the first phase launched in November 2008. It also is one that shop owners believe will change with new ownership — Portland-based ScanlanKemperBard Cos., which made the $67 million all-cash purchase along with equity partner Minnesota-based Wayzata Investment Partners on April 15.
There’s a plan to revitalize the area, but instead of recreating blueprints for an elite retail destination anchored by a Nordstrom and Arizona’s first Bloomingdale’s — neither of which ever ended up at CityNorth — the venture partners are setting their sights on a high-end entertainment district aimed at the affluent.
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