By Kathy Chin Leong | The New York Times
For more than half a century, Phoenix ignored its warehouse district, leaving the area dormant with aging buildings ripe for vandalism. The eyesore felt eerie at night, and no one stepped foot there in the day.
“It was an invisible area,” said the city’s mayor, Greg Stanton. “The city turned its back, and we didn’t put the attention on it that it deserved.”
All that has changed. Following on the heels of other urban renewal efforts across the country, Phoenix officials are helping to transform the zone, south of downtown, into an innovation, technology and creativity hub. They are encouraging developers to salvage structures and use them to woo tenants.
