by bryan | Sep 5, 2010 | light rail corridor
Light Rail Station map Please consult the attached light rail station map for the Phoenix – Tempe -Mesa line. You will find valuable information on schedules, fares, frequency and station names. Light Rail extensions are approved and partially underway. The North extension will extend 3 additional mile from the Christown-Spectrum Mall at Bethany Home to Dunlap. To the South, an additional 3.1 miles of tracks has been city approved and preliminarily Fed approved to conduct further studies. This new addition will extend from Sycamore to Mesa Drive. This map is a service of LightRailConnect.com. We make it easy to live, work and play near the...
by bryan | Jul 14, 2010 | light rail corridor, News & Information
ANAHEIM, Calif. – In a dark tunnel deep in the innards of Angel Stadium, Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall passed a fellow baseball official a few hours before Tuesday’s All-Star Game. “So,” the official asked, “are you guys ready?” The Diamondbacks are on the clock. One year before the All-Star Game comes to Phoenix for the first time, a contingent of roughly 50 local officials, including a group of about 30 Diamondbacks employees, canvassed Anaheim the past several days. They toured the annual All-Star FanFest, a sprawling event that is a baseball fan’s fantasyland. They got a behind-the-scenes tour of the ballpark. And they shadowed their Anaheim counterparts to get a first-hand look at the event and to better anticipate the differences between a Southern California All-Star Game and one in the desert. The big difference: the heat. Some were griping about the weather in Anaheim on Tuesday, when temperatures climbed into the upper 80s – a far cry from Phoenix’s mid-July average high of 107. “We know they’re going to say it was hot,” Hall said about next year’s game. “How can we get fans to say, ‘Even though it was hot, it was a great All-Star Game’?” Read more:...
by bryan | Jul 14, 2010 | light rail corridor
At the eastern end of the light-rail line in Mesa, Omar Torres and Howard Gaebel sell hot dogs, snacks and drinks to passersby in the summer heat. Their business, a hot-dog stand called Metro Dog, owes its existence to the light-rail system. Torres and Gaebel brag that they sell their products to hundreds of customers a day, most are getting on and off the train. Metro Dog is an example of the positive impact the system had on local businesses, something its advocates at Valley Metro have talked up since the beginning of construction in 2005. Read more:...
by bryan | Jul 10, 2010 | light rail corridor, light rail expansion, News & Information
Just when we heard for months and months how low the Phoenix city coffers are, there is still plenty of money to buy up and demolish homes, prepare utility relocation, all to prepare 19th Ave for the 3-mile light rail extension. The work will be completed between Butler Drive and Townley Avenue. The project is supposed to last 6 months, and will prepare the frontage roads for ongoing construction work. And in August, you will begin to see the installation of a Phoenix Arts Commission-funded gabion wall. It is scheduled in the Washington Park area north of Bethany Home Road. What is that, you ask? (so did I!). It is a wall that is made of stacked steel cages filled with fractured granite and will be 8 feet tall by 3 feet wide. You can be the first in your neighborhood to have one! Keep an eye out for it. -information courtesy of AZ...
by bryan | Jul 10, 2010 | light rail corridor, light rail expansion, News & Information
Thanks to the Arizona Republic, this is a cool map of the current light rail tracks AND proposed extensions. (They have nice budgets to pay someone to make this map for everyone to enjoy) Check it out!...
by bryan | Jun 18, 2010 | light rail corridor, Real Estate Development
Tempe Arizona Apache ASL Trails Community Light Rail Property This project is directly on the Light Rail line in Tempe Arizona. This is one niche you don’t hear about often. A senior community for deaf and hard-of-hearing seniors. It is being planned in Tempe AZ. The project is a $25 million size and is supposed to be the largest of its kind in the country. My wife was telling me about it and I said ‘What, I can’t hear you’ This project plans for 75 apartments and 50 owner-occupied condominiums for people age 55+. As the population lives longer, there will be more and more who fit in that category. My wife and I rent a home to a young couple who is deaf AND mute. They would be prime candidates in 25 years. The architects will plan and design features that eliminate sight barriers. There will be other smart design features that will assist the residents and owners. Some are color-coded strobe lights to alert residents of doorbells and phone ringing. Cardinal Capital Management Inc., a Wisconsin development company, intends to have residents living in the development as early as spring 2009. Just more than a dozen states have similar facilities. The State of Arizona has an approximate 500,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing people who live in the State of Arizona. The agency further estimates there are maybe one third who would be eligible. **|** Bryan Watkins sells real estate in Mesa, Gilbert, Tempe, Chandler and Phoenix metro area. Want to find more about homes in your area? Call or text Bryan at 480-734-7878 or email bryan@LRAphx.com for information on...
