Phoenix, Ariz. (September 21, 2023) -- Developers moving forward with plans for a significant downtown Phoenix hotel that was proposed five years ago but never built is being reported by Phoenix Business Journal.
To be called The Edith, the $140 million mixed-use building will stand 17 stories high and feature 236 rooms with 23,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. It's also expected to include a ground-floor restaurant, rooftop pool and bar, café and full-service spa and fitness center.
The group developing the new hotel includes prominent Arizona developers Sunbelt Holdings and Scottsdale-based BB Hotels & Resorts, formerly known as Berger Holdings, California-based Pacific Hospitality Group and general contractor Mortenson. Gensler is the architect.
The project was initially proposed in 2018 after the city posted a request for proposals for a small piece of land it owned downtown at the southeast corner of Central Avenue and Adams Street.
Between two proposals, the city approved Berger Holding's mixed-use hotel project that was initially estimated to cost $62 million. Sundt Construction was part of early conversations for the hotel but is no longer involved in the project, according to a Sundt spokesperson.
Preliminary renderings submitted to the city of Phoenix in 2018 show the original design concept for the proposed hotel project.
The city entered into a purchase and redevelopment agreement with Berger Holdings LLC in 2019 but has since amended the agreement to extend the construction start date, according to city of Phoenix documents.
The project was put on hold while evaluating the impacts of Covid-19 on the hospitality industry to make sure the hotel market would really come back, and it did.
A groundbreaking date has not been set yet, but developers are pulling permits and getting rebids for the project.
Earlier this year, the city of Phoenix sold the property to an entity that includes the four hotel partners for $2.8 million. Pacific Hospitality Group was not originally part of the project but was brought on board because the hotel was unaffiliated. The Edith will be part of Pacific's Meritage collection a four-diamond product and among its higher-end brands.
Pacific Hospitality Group has also worked on another downtown Phoenix hotel with Mortenson called the Hyatt Place Downtown, which is located west of the Edith property along Adams Street and opened in 2021.