FEATURE ARTICLE, MAY 2007

ONE FOR THE MONEY AND FOR THE SHOW
DMB Commercial’s One Scottsdale mixed-use development will offer unparalleled community and convenience.
Brian A. Lee

Located in the heart of Scottsdale, Arizona, One Scottsdale will feature high-end retail shops, upscale restaurants,  Class A office space, 400 boutique hotel rooms and 1,100 residential units.

It’s been said that one is the loneliest number, but One Scottsdale, DMB Commercial’s unique luxury retail and lifestyle community in Scottsdale, Arizona, is sure to attract crowds when the mixed-use property begins opening in 2008.

Located adjacent to Scottsdale Road and the new Loop 101 Freeway, One Scottsdale will feature high-fashion retail shops, upscale restaurants, Class A office space, 400 boutique hotel rooms and 1,100 residential units, including urban estate homes.

One Scottsdale’s great location in one of the most affluent areas in the country, the property’s vertical integration and its attractive design will mean charm, comfort and convenience for both visitors and residents. The overall goal is a memorable community that people will enjoy for generations to come.

“Legacy is a big value for us, a very big one,” says Robert Mayhew, vice president of DMB Commercial. “How we make our name is providing that kind of place-making expertise. We’ve done it in the residential, resort and recreational development sectors, and we feel very confident that our core values of profit, partnership, legacy and fun can transcend themselves into the commercial environment, particularly retail.”

DMB Commercial brought in five architectural firms to design different blocks of One Scottsdale. The development’s variety of motifs, deflective views, vertical integration and modified grid layout will further set it apart from other mixed-use properties.

For One Scottsdale, DMB Commercial joined forces with an Arizona land partner whose other large piece of Scottsdale property the developer used to create the successful Market Street at DC Ranch, a 30-acre mixed-use neighborhood center. The same family owned the 160 acres on Scottsdale Road, three-quarters of which will become One Scottsdale.

“That piece of property became much more valuable about 5 years ago when the 101 Loop Freeway was built,” says Mayhew. “That freeway really changed the dynamic of how people move around in Phoenix. It basically went through the bottom third of the property. The top two thirds or 120 acres all of a sudden became in our minds Main and Main in the city of Scottsdale. Geographically, we’re basically in the center of town.”

Taking a synergistic approach to the development, DMB Commercial will develop One Scottsdale in three phases “because it really is more of a community than it is a project,” says Mayhew. The southern portion of the project that fronts the freeway is entitled for 1.2 million square feet of Class A office space. The Dial Corporation and its parent company Henkel are constructing an approximately 360,000-square-foot office building there with occupancy scheduled for 2008. According to Mayhew, the 600,000-square-foot retail component will open in fall 2009 (retail tenants have not been announced). Additional residential units around the shops and restaurants will be phased in between fall 2009 and 2011.

One Scottsdale will showcase innovative and varied design motifs. A themed approach was too simplistic and might date the property, says Mayhew. The look of this special development warranted the focus of not just one of the nation’s leading architectural firms, but a handful of them.

“We decided to hire a number of different architects to come in and design different blocks,” says Mayhew. “Each of the styles of those blocks are different, ranging from contemporary to traditional to urban backdrop buildings to traditional buildings that may have some contemporary features attached to it. We think that there’s power in mixing it up a bit. It really makes it more fun.”

Ensuring that One Scottsdale has a strong sense of place are design firms Field Paoli, Will Bruder Architects, Dale Gardon Design, Robert A. M. Stern Architects and BAR Architects. The architects of record are Phoenix-based DFD/CornoyerHedrick and Langdon Wilson, headquartered in Los Angeles.

According to Mayhew, One Scottsdale’s layout is a modified grid system incorporating deflective views with buildings jutting out to provide better imagery for retail storefronts. A quaint street running through the mixed-use community can be closed off in the evenings to enhance the alfresco dining experience for the patrons of One Scottsdale’s 10 to 15 upscale restaurants. The 1,100-unit residential component of the development will consist of estate homes, townhomes, designer condominiums, lofts and penthouses. Phase I will offer more than 250 residential units positioned above the retail space.

“Doing something as vertically integrated as this is riskier,” says Mayhew. “It requires a lot more articulation and detailed thought on how this thing will live 24 hours a day. It’s really much more of a community.”

“We will connect residents from building to building, our intranet capability allowing people to get to know one another,” says Irene Carroll, vice president and general manager of One Scottsdale. “It’ll be a vibrant, cultural gathering place for both One Scottsdale residents and visitors to the valley.”

The anchor of the valley, of course, is Phoenix, now the fifth largest city in the country following amazing growth in the last decade. Continued job and population expansion is music to the ears of the area’s residential and retail developers. Mayhew points out that many neighborhood and power centers have been developed to cater to that demand, but, with few exceptions, high-end retail has remained the domain of the valley’s older malls, which have tried to reinvent themselves. That’s where One Scottsdale comes to the fore.

“As this market has grown and matured, particularly in the last 10 years, and focused in on Scottsdale, the demand for higher-end retail in a better shopping environment has grown as well,” says Mayhew. “With One Scottsdale, we’re trying to be very, very focused in providing luxury and fashion-forward retail and providing phenomenal quality, household name restaurants. As a company, we’re committed to making sure that quality level translates to all of the development’s asset classes. After all, we’re about building quality environments, not just about retailing.”


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