Former Phoenix Public Market Café razed. Here’s what we know about plans for the downtown site
Sketch of a modern houses. The cityscape.
By: Corina Vanek
Downtown Phoenix activists sought to stop the demolition of the former Phoenix Public Market Café, but a developer razed the 76-year-old building this spring, shortly before selling it to another developer to build a 350-unit luxury apartment complex.
Phoenix-based Glasir Capital Partners received city permission to demolish the former restaurant and two other nearby buildings in May and sold the property a month later for $8.25 million.
CRG, a development and investment subsidiary of Clayco, bought the half-acre site at First and Pierce streets in a deal that closed June 30, according to real estate database Vizzda.
CRG, which has offices in Phoenix, declined to discuss the project when reached by the Arizona Republic for comment. Glasir Capital Partners did not respond to calls for comment about the sale of the property or the demolition.
Historic preservation advocates opposed demolition
The popular café, which had been located at 14 E. Pierce Street, closed in 2020, but preservation advocates expressed concerns when demolition permits were filed for the buildings, which opened in 1946 selling linoleum and blinds.
The city’s attempts to protect and adaptively reuse the buildings were unsuccessful.
“City staff had several discussions with the former property owner of the Downtown Phoenix Public Market building urging them to protect the building and adaptively reuse it as part of a larger redevelopment of the adjacent vacant land within this block,” Alan Stephenson, deputy city manager and planning and development director, said in an emailed statement. “However, the owner ultimately elected to move forward with the demolition of the building.”
The buildings were not deemed historically significant but city staff did attempt to communicate the significance of “commercial heritage” of the buildings to Glasir Capital Partners before the demolition, a city spokeswoman said in March when the demolition permit application was filed.
Jeff Sherman, chairman of the Downtown Voices Coalition, said neither the former owner or the new developer have expressed interest in speaking with the concerned group before or after the buildings were demolished.
When the application for the demolition permit was filed, the Downtown Voices Coalition wrote to Mayor Kate Gallego and Councilwoman Yassamin Ansari asking them to explore options to preserve the buildings.
A city spokeswoman said there have been no new permits or plans filed for the site yet. A news release from Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate brokerage that represented Glasir Capital Partners in the sale of the land, said the site will be developed into a 350-unit luxury apartment complex.
Reach the reporter at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter @CorinaVanek.
