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Wednesday, January 4, 2023
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Developer: Hotel re-use will enliven east Ahwatukee BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
T AHWATUKEE.COM INSIDE
This Week
www.ahwatukee.com
he conversion of the Four Points by Sheraton Phoenix South Mountain site at 51st Street and Elliot Road into a high-end 184-unit apartment complex “will attract individuals with expendable income to spend in this area” of Ahwatukee, the developer told county planners. “The addition of these units will provide needed residents to support the existing and future retail, dining, entertainment and
businesses in the nearby area,” Scottsdale developer Caliber told Maricopa County before the county Planning and Zoning Commission gave the project its blessing Dec. 8. Now, all that remains for government approval of the project is a final vote sometime soon by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Caliber’s rezoning request to allow multifamily residential development on the 7.6-acre site. No neighbors opposed the project, according to records obtained by the Ahwatukee Foothills News.
Caliber still must purchase the hotel, which Sheraton is expected to close soon. The hotel and rest of the site is on a county island, meaning its land use is governed by the county – a reality that county planners reminded their Phoenix counterparts of when the latter objected to the project’s density and other features. Caliber did tweak its plan, but county planners said, “The design of the project mostly meets the city’s recommendations of apsee
CALIBER page 8
Senator Bowie prepares for life as Citizen Bowie BUSINESS ......................29 New eatery woking Ahwatukee with Chinese delights.
REAL ESTATE ................ RE1 Build-to-rent houses picking up steam in construction. COMMUNITY ............................. 23 BUSINESS ..................................... 29 SPORTS ........................................ 33 GETOUT ....................................... 36 CLASSIFIEDS .............................. 43
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
C
ome noon next Monday, Jan. 9, state Sen. Sean. Bowie will be officially adding “former” to that title as he hands over the seat he’s held for six years to Rep. Mitzi Epstein. It will be a bittersweet moment for Bowie, a 2002 Mountain Pointe High alumnus who left his job in 2016 as senior analyst in the Arizona State University Provost’s Office to run in what was then Legislative District 18 (now 12), which covers Ahwatukee, north and west Chandler and part of Tempe. “I love my job,” he said in an interview. “I’m going to miss it a lot. I just moved all my stuff out of my office the other day, which was pretty emotional.” Bowie opted not to run last year in a dis-
KYRENE KIDS ARE READY FOR THE FUTURE
see
Sen. Sean Bowie of Ahwatukee will return to private life next Monday after six years in the state Senate, where he was considered one of the most bipartisan lawmakers in the Legislature. (David Minton/ AFN Staff Photographer)
BOWIE page 9
KYRENE.ORG/ENROLL