Crust, a local Italian chain, opened a location in 2015. Directly below it is the Ostrich, a neighborhood craft cocktail lounge, which opened the same year. This year saw the opening of Las Palmas Cantina, a Yucatan-inspired restaurant with an elevated back patio. A new parking garage with 350 parking spots just opened last month. And more change is underway. The city of Chandler is at the tail end of developing Overstreet, a 77,000 square foot complex with a movie theater, a fitness center, restaurants, and office space on the southwest corner of Arizona Avenue and Chandler Boulevard. It is scheduled to open in December of this year. Additionally,  the empty lot across from City Hall will be transformed into “New Square Chandler,” an area with a Hilton Garden Inn, 8,700 square feet for restaurants, and office space, by fall 2019. “‘Pardon our dust’ is kind of our statement right now,” Fontes said. Chandler’s constant construction has taken its toll. In August, after 15 years in downtown Chandler, executive chef Paolo Vetrati moved his family-owned Italian restaurant La Stalla Cucina Rustica to Ahwatukee. “We’re putting in infrastructure and putting in pipes, and unfortunately, people don’t see the advantage of that,” said Downtown Redevelopment Manager Kim Moyers. “People don’t say, ‘Oh, look at that beautiful pipe.’”

Moyers said that residents and visitors alike have been struggling with parking as the city continues to grow. And the revitalization efforts in downtown Chandler—building parking lots, acquiring property, upgrading water and sewer lines—certainly aren’t flashy. But they have helped lay the groundwork for current and future development.( And Chandler’s revitalization efforts have paid off. Moyers estimated that the city has put in about $64 million into its redevelopment projects, not including city hall, and received about $262 million in private investment. “For every dollar that the city has invested, we have recouped $4.10 from development only,” she said.

Additionally, sales tax revenue for fiscal year 2017/2018 has increased by 6.5 percent, or $7.5 million, from the year prior, according to the city’s budget reports. Chandler’s downtown still has room for improvement. Moyers said that the city would like to see some specific retail stores: an urban grocer, an art store, little boutiques, a flower shop or gift store, “something if you’re on a wait to get into a restaurant, that you could meander in and out of retail.” But even now, “Chandler has a very unique and beautiful downtown,” she said. “I think it still has a very small downtown feel that you can meander underneath the colonnade. I always say the downtown is the heart of a community.” Continue ReadingChandler’s Infrastructure Improvements Lay the Groundwork for Rapid Growth Written by Yael Grauer For Chandler residents looking for beer at the end of a long day, SanTan Brewing Company is the place to go. While many local shops close early, SanTan is open until 11 p.m. on weekdays and 1 a.m. on weekends, breathing nightlife into the heart of historic downtown. The brewpub opened in 2007, but is continually reinventing itself: just this year, it began selling its own line of spirits. In that time, Alejandro Fontes, sales analyst and brewery event supervisor at the local brewpub, said that he’s seen Chandler go from a place that nobody really knew about to a thriving downtown that people seek out.

There are the businesses that seem to have been there forever, like Serrano’s Mexican Restaurant, the quirky cowboy boot store Saba’s Western Wear, and the Crowne Plaza Phoenix Chandler Golf Resort, also known as the historic San Marcos hotel. But in the past few years, plenty of new spaces have been popping up as well. Crust, a local Italian chain, opened a location in 2015. Directly below it is the Ostrich, a neighborhood craft cocktail lounge, which opened the same year. This year saw the opening of Las Palmas Cantina, a Yucatan-inspired restaurant with an elevated back patio. A new parking garage with 350 parking spots just opened last month. And more change is underway. The city of Chandler is at the tail end of developing Overstreet, a 77,000 square foot complex with a movie theater, a fitness center, restaurants, and office space on the southwest corner of Arizona Avenue and Chandler Boulevard. It is scheduled to open in December of this year. Additionally,  the empty lot across from City Hall will be transformed into “New Square Chandler,” an area with a Hilton Garden Inn, 8,700 square feet for restaurants, and office space, by fall 2019. “‘Pardon our dust’ is kind of our statement right now,” Fontes said. Chandler’s constant construction has taken its toll. In August, after 15 years in downtown Chandler, executive chef Paolo Vetrati moved his family-owned Italian restaurant La Stalla Cucina Rustica to Ahwatukee. “We’re putting in infrastructure and putting in pipes, and unfortunately, people don’t see the advantage of that,” said Downtown Redevelopment Manager Kim Moyers. “People don’t say, ‘Oh, look at that beautiful pipe.’”

Moyers said that residents and visitors alike have been struggling with parking as the city continues to grow. And the revitalization efforts in downtown Chandler—building parking lots, acquiring property, upgrading water and sewer lines—certainly aren’t flashy. But they have helped lay the groundwork for current and future development.( And Chandler’s revitalization efforts have paid off. Moyers estimated that the city has put in about $64 million into its redevelopment projects, not including city hall, and received about $262 million in private investment. “For every dollar that the city has invested, we have recouped $4.10 from development only,” she said.

Additionally, sales tax revenue for fiscal year 2017/2018 has increased by 6.5 percent, or $7.5 million, from the year prior, according to the city’s budget reports. Chandler’s downtown still has room for improvement. Moyers said that the city would like to see some specific retail stores: an urban grocer, an art store, little boutiques, a flower shop or gift store, “something if you’re on a wait to get into a restaurant, that you could meander in and out of retail.” But even now, “Chandler has a very unique and beautiful downtown,” she said. “I think it still has a very small downtown feel that you can meander underneath the colonnade. I always say the downtown is the heart of a community.” Continue Reading