Downtown Phoenix

 Downtown Phoenix is the central business district (CBD) of the City of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is located in the heart of the Phoenix metropolitan area or Valley of the Sun. Phoenix, being the county seat of Maricopa County and the capital of Arizona, serves as the center of politics, justice and government on the local, state and federal levels. The area is a major center of employment for the region, with many financial, legal, and other national and international corporations housed in a variety of skyscrapers. Major arts and cultural institutions also call the area home. Downtown Phoenix is a center of major league sports activities, live concert events, and is an equally prominent center of banking and finance in Arizona. Regional headquarters for several major banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Bank of America, Compass Bank and Midfirst Bank are all located within or close proximity to the area.

The City of Phoenix defines Downtown as the area between 7th Street and 7th Avenue, from McDowell Road on the north to Buckeye Road on the south. However, the majority of downtown development is concentrated in the smaller area surrounding the intersection of Washington Street and Central Avenue (which is the point of origin of Phoenix street addresses and numbering).

In 1870, a meeting was held to select a town site for the influx of pioneers coming to the recently recognized town of Phoenix. 320 acres were purchased for $50 raised by popular subscription. This original site, the whole of the town of Phoenix in that day, encompasses what would presently be the Downtown Core, bordered by Van Buren Street south to Jackson Street, and Seventh Street to Seventh Avenue.

With the first survey of the new town, streets were laid out in a grid, with Washington Street as the main east–west thoroughfare. The north–south streets originally bore Native American tribal names, but were changed to more easily remembered numbers, with everything east of Center Street (later Central Avenue) named as streets and everything west as avenues. The town continued to grow, and was eventually incorporated as a city on February 28, 1881, centered around downtown.

Throughout the 1880s the newly incorporated city made many strides toward modernization with the construction of one of the first electric plants in the West as well as the opening of the horse-drawn streetcar line. The Phoenix Street Railway system was eventually electrified and expanded to several different lines that connected Downtown Phoenix to other neighborhoods and cities in the Valley. Independence Day of 1887 heralded the arrival first Southern Pacific train. This opened up the economy of the young city, as goods now flowed in and out by train as opposed to wagon. As Phoenix became the center of commerce in the territory, the capital was moved to Phoenix.

After Arizona was granted statehood in 1912, the growth of Phoenix exploded from the downtown epicenter. By the 1930s, a modern skyline composed of various commercial buildings began to take shape and Downtown was a dense, compact and pedestrian friendly city characterized by Victorian buildings and ground-floor retail.[5] Post-World War II building focused heavily on suburb creation, and this, combined with the rise of the automobile and evaporative cooling, resulted in large population relocation outside of Downtown.

As Phoenix began to recover from the Great Recession, interest in re-energizing the urban core skyrocketed. In contrast to the pre-recession construction boom in the Phoenix area which primarily focused on the construction of low density communities and suburban office complexes, the most recent boom has been heavily focused on Central Phoenix, with the construction of higher density development, and a renewed interest in local business, bioscience, education, and the arts. Spurred by Arizona State University’s quickly developing Downtown Campus and a new Convention Center, Downtown Phoenix has quickly transformed into an attractive place for businesses. Areas such as Lower Grand, Roosevelt, and the Warehouse District have seen a massive investment in art, adaptive reuse, and local restaurants.

In February 2015, the Super Bowl was held in Arizona and, unlike the 2008 Super Bowl, many of the major NFL events were held on the streets of Downtown Phoenix, showcasing to the world how the city had transformed its downtown into a lively, thriving community full of creative energy and opportunity. The construction of Phoenix's light rail system has stemmed major development projects in Downtown Phoenix along the Central Avenue corridor.

Downtown Phoenix has many points of interest, including museums, sports venues, performing arts venues and a thriving art scene.

Here is a local Business that supports the community 

 

Google Map- 

 

2509 S. Power Rd. STE 101 Mesa, AZ 85209

Be sure to check out this attraction too!