By Catherine Reagor | The Arizona Republic
Early most weekday mornings, Michael Ebert can be found walking around CityScape in downtown Phoenix. The managing partner of RED Development usually buys a cup of coffee at Chloe’s Corner or a meal at the Breakfast Club.
Then Ebert checks on the construction of apartments going up on top of the Kimpton Hotel Palomar and often steps into the hotel’s restaurant, Blue Hound Kitchen, to see what the lunch specials are. From there, he may walk past retailer Urban Outfitters and others, both window-shopping for his kids and mentally logging how many customers are out already.
Ebert then strolls past the Stand Up Live comedy theater and Lucky Strike to check out the development’s huge water fountain, where children and their parents often hang out. On his way back to his office in the tower anchored by Alliance Bank’s corporate headquarters, he’ll pass the popular restaurant Arrogant Butcher.
RED Development began plans to develop the 1.2 million-square-foot CityScape project on the Heritage Park site in 2005. Despite the recession and real-estate crash, the developer broke ground in 2008 and opened the first phase in 2010.
Now, Ebert walks through CityScape with a smile on his face. The development’s retail space is 100 percent leased. The office tower is 97 percent full. The hotel is becoming one of the most popular in Phoenix. The long-awaited apartments are under construction, and his firm just closed a deal to manage and revamp the block-size Collier Center office project next door.
