By Tessa Duvall | The Arizona Republic
New apartments will replace a vacant city-owned lot in downtown Phoenix by summer 2015.
The city council approved the sale of the 23,000-square-foot lot, on First Avenue north of McDowell Road, by the Arizona Opera for $350,000 to developer artHAUS at its July 3 meeting.
Jeremy Legg, economic-development program manager for the Community and Economic Development Department, said the city bought the land in 2011 for the Arizona Opera but later realized the project wouldn’t need the west third of the lot.
In February, the department issued a call for proposals to develop the lot with a transit-oriented project, which tends to be densely populated and pedestrian-friendly. A review panel unanimously selected the artHAUS plan for a three-story, 30- unit, $5.5 million development in March.
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