Partners Planning Latest Condo Projects in ScottsdaleGrace Capital LLC, consisting of Jonathon Vento and Donald Zeleznak, plans to start a 56-unit condo project called Osborn Commons near downtown Scottsdale later this year. The address is a short distance west of Scottsdale Road, on the north side of Osborn Road.
Condos in the four-story, steel-and-concrete building tentatively are priced up to $400,000, with a mid-range price of about $250,000, Zeleznak said.
Mike Padgett
The Business Journal
One of the companies preparing to start a 150-unit condominium development next to a central Phoenix park is expanding into Scottsdale and other parts of the Valley.
Grace Capital LLC, consisting of Jonathon Vento and Donald Zeleznak, plans to start a 56-unit condo project called Osborn Commons near downtown Scottsdale later this year. The address is a short distance west of Scottsdale Road, on the north side of Osborn Road.
Condos in the four-story, steel-and-concrete building tentatively are priced up to $400,000, with a mid-range price of about $250,000, Zeleznak said.
Vento said the location will appeal to a wide range of buyers because it is within walking distance of downtown Scottsdale and a short commute to various employment centers in Scottsdale, Tempe and northeast Phoenix.
Groundbreaking is set for Labor Day, and the first move-ins are anticipated a year later. Parking will be on the ground level, and the residences will be on the second through the fourth floors. Amenities include a pool and a clubhouse with a fitness center.
Vento and Zeleznak also are in a joint venture with Tim Sprague and John Hill, principals of Portland Place Partners, and Chicanos por la Causa in a central Phoenix residential development called Portland Place.
The mix of brownstone-type and mid-rise buildings will have about 160 residences built in three phases east from Third Avenue, on the north side of Portland Street, to the Best Western Central Phoenix Hotel on Central Avenue.
Construction of the first phase is to start in October, and the first move-ins are expected in late 2005. The price range is from about $200,000 to $600,000, the size range is from 1,000 to 2,700 square feet, and the type of construction is cast-in-place concrete.
The architect is DFD CornoyerHedrick, where Chief Executive Mike Davis said Portland Place will be aimed at the middle-income workers, not the corporate leaders seeking $1 million condos.
The historic Guiding Star Lodge next to the hotel is to be relocated to the east side of Third and used as a sales office.
The first phase of the Portland Place work is just east of Third Avenue, with the two subsequent phases moving east to the hotel. The phase one work includes five two-story brownstones facing Portland and a six-story building facing the park. The building will be topped with a pool. Parking for all of the phases will be underground. Phase 1 will have 41 or 42 units, depending on the final design.
Phase 2 includes an 8-story building, also with a pool, and a plaza garden next to the park. The third phase has a 10-story building, close to the hotel, and three smaller buildings that could be retail or additional residences, depending on the local market demands, Sprague said.
The underground parking means residents will have access to their vehicles by way of the nearest elevator that takes them to the underground parking garage, Sprague said.
Sprague said that while he and his partners are preparing to start Portland Place, they also are hunting for a site for a commercial retail development.
“What got us interested in this project, more than anything else, was light rail, seeing that light rail was becoming a reality and seeing where it goes,” Sprague said.
The light rail system will have a station at Roosevelt and Central, next to the Portland Place development.
Vento and Zeleznak’s Grace Capital also is preparing to start converting the vacant office building at 44 W. Monroe St. in downtown Phoenix into luxury condos. Work is to start this spring.
The steel-framed office building, renamed Monroe Place, has been redesigned into 52 residences. Marketing Director Joe Shopper said the price range is $350,000 to $1.3 million, and the only unit left is the most expensive.
Many of the buyers are executives who work in downtown Phoenix and are tired of their commutes from their homes in Arrowhead Ranch in Glendale and from DC Ranch, Grayhawk and Troon in North Scottsdale, Shopper said.
“We have two couples who have already sold their homes, and one sold their home in DC Ranch in six days,” Shopper said.
“A lot of these people entertain downtown, and they don’t want to have to get in their cars and drive an hour to get back home afterward,” Shopper said. “When they entertain downtown, they want to be able to walk around the corner to go home.”
© 2004 American City Business Journals Inc.
