By Roland Murphy for Arizona Builder’s Exchange
Co-developers Grand Capitol, LLC and Butler Housing Company, Inc. have submitted a Planned Unit Development proposal to the City of Phoenix for a 15.6KSF, 120-unit hotel and 2,00SF restaurant project at the NEC of West Van Buren Street and 10th Avenue.
Adjacent to University Park, the currently vacant site once housed The Desert Inn motel. Promoted as, “The friendliest place you’ve ever been,” The Desert Inn was one of many motorist-serving facilities in the area during the heyday of Van Buren Street’s time as “Motel Alley” from the 1930s to the 1960s.