At least that’s what developers, businesses, city planners and economic development leaders hope will finally happen at the close of 2008, when the first phase of the Metro Light Rail system comes on line, the 1,000-room Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel opens its doors and the Phoenix Convention Center completes its expansion. Those events won’t signal the end of Downtown Phoenix’s journey from an after-5 p.m. urban desert to a vibrant place to work, live and visit, but they do act as a sturdy bridge from the first phases of development to future growth.

“What we see is that this is part of a holistic process to redevelop, re-energize the entire central core of Phoenix,” says David Roderique, executive director and chief executive officer of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership. “Obviously, tourism plays a big role in that, but it’s not the only component. In terms of the big picture, if you can generate a tremendous amount of activity and excitement through a whole variety of different means — through tourism, through having residents live downtown by increasing the amount of employment here, by having sports and cultural activities, by having a bioscience campus, by having ASU downtown, etc. — all those pieces start to work together to create a truly exciting urban core that will then start to spin off and feed on itself because you reach a critical mass.”

When the $600 million expansion of the Phoenix Convention Center is completed, the facility will have tripled in size to 900,000 square feet of rentable space and more than 2 million total square feet. Phase I of the expansion, the West Building, was completed in July 2006, while Phase II, the North Building, will be completed in December and open for business in January. With that, Roderique says, Phoenix will go from being able to accommodate 40 percent to 50 percent of all of the convention market in the country to 80 percent or 85 percent of all of the conventions. Suddenly Phoenix is in a new league.

However, attracting more and bigger conventions to Downtown Phoenix is an exercise in futility if there aren’t enough hotel rooms to accommodate all those visitors. The importance of the soon-to-be opened Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel can’t be understated.

“We see ourselves very much as a part of a convention package in conjunction with the Hyatt (Regency Phoenix), in conjunction with the Wyndham (Phoenix). Without those hotels we wouldn’t have anything more than we had before, meaning Phoenix wouldn’t,” says Steve Spivak, director of sales and marketing for the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel. “The convention center is a beautiful building and it’s going to be world class in terms of its capabilities, in terms of the layout and the design. The hotel also is going to have all the amenities you’d expect in a convention hotel, with some luxury touches that you wouldn’t expect in a convention hotel.

“But, really, what we’re selling to the public is this destination,” he adds. “There are 20 some-odd cities with convention centers the same size range as Phoenix. And certainly a lot of cities are building new convention centers. What we’re really selling here is the accessibility of Phoenix and the diversity of Phoenix, and those elements that make Phoenix a great city beyond a place where you can have big meetings.”

When you list the names of great convention cities — New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New Orleans — the one attribute they all have in common is that they offer plenty of activities and attractions for conventioneers venturing beyond their hotels or meeting rooms. Downtown Phoenix already has made significant inroads in that direction and more is coming.

Restaurants, bars and shops began springing up in Downtown Phoenix in the early 1990s with the building of America West Arena (now US Airways Center) and Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field). As more people began to call the area home, more attractions such as clubs and art galleries surfaced. Next up is the 2.5 million-square-foot, mixed-used development CityScape, and the Jackson Street Entertainment District.

The $900 million CityScape project, which is being developed by RED Development and CDK Partners, will eventually cover three city blocks in Downtown Phoenix from First Avenue to Second Street and from Washington to Jefferson streets. Construction began in 2007, and the first phase of construction is expected to be complete in late 2009. The proposed multimillion-dollar Jackson Street Entertainment District would bring restaurants, stores and various entertainment venues to both sides of Jackson Street from Central Avenue to Fourth Street.

Bill Smith, a Downtown Phoenix business owner and immediate past chairman of the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau, has been waiting for this moment for years. Smith owns Stoudemire’s Downtown, Carmine’s Little Italy, Bar Smith and Maria’s Mexican Grill.

“We have invested a lot of time and a lot of money into being ready with our four downtown locations — soon to be five — and then hopefully soon to be six for Downtown Phoenix,” Smith says. “We are completely on board and think that this is an opportunity that will never come along again. I look at the other big cities in the country. We’re the fifth largest in the country now. You can say there is an opportunity (here) for you to own five of the closest restaurants to a new, million-square-foot convention center, to a new 1,000-room hotel where light rail is going downtown, where there’s 1,000 condos being built right across the street. So those three certainly being the biggest, then you add in the other smaller boutique hotels and the other condos — it’s an unbeatable combination.”

As Smith points out, the light rail is integral to transforming Downtown Phoenix from just a meeting place to a dynamic meeting place. With the light rail system, the first 20 miles of which will be in operation in late December, visitors to the area will be able to travel throughout downtown and some points beyond with ease. Starting with its grand opening weekend Dec. 27-28, the light rail system will enter Downtown Phoenix along Central Avenue starting at McDowell Road, run east along Washington and Jefferson streets, and exit downtown at Seventh Street as it heads to Tempe and Mesa.

“I really feel that light rail has been a factor in a lot of decision making related to site collection and some other things. We’ve heard that directly from the developers of the CityScape project, which is taking over Patriots Park,” says Hillary Foose, public information officer for the Metro Light Rail. “That being just one example, I think that we are driving a certain sense of urban growth.”

All this development, particularly the construction of the light rail system, has not come without growing pains, especially for small business owners like Smith. Despite the tough times, he’s banking on a profitable future.

“It’s an old saying that pioneers get the arrows and settlers get the land, and you know, we’re kind of both,” Smith says. “I’ve been down at Stoudemire’s two-and-a-half years and it’s been painful. We have a lot of fun, we make a lot of great customers, but we don’t make any money. But come Jan. 9, when the convention center opens, I expect that to change dramatically. I am in the process of buying two more places down here, and that’s how much I believe it’s going to be great.”

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