The city of Avondale has unveiled new development and sale opportunities within its historic downtown district, which the municipality is looking to revitalize over the next several years.
One of the key components of Old Town Avondale includes Western Avenue, which is considered the city’s main business district with restaurants, retail, offices, and other services. The city’s general historic area is located south of the freeway between Lower Buckeye Road, Van Buren Street, Dysart and Litchfield raods. Western Avenue also comprises street art, parks, a historic fire station and the Sam Garcia Western Avenue Library.
“We have this incredible history and charm on a walkable street along Western Avenue,” said Avondale’s business development manager, Jaime Lyn Gonzales, in a recent Westmarc panel about Avondale. “It offers a rich culture and history, we have generational families that have owned businesses in this area, also combined with new investments from the city in terms of its infrastructure. We also have fun new restaurant and retail locations that have popped up.”
The city owns about six properties around Western Avenue and its Old Town area. Each property ranges in size from about .14 to .72 acres and is located in the city’s infill incentive district or opportunity zones, which offer tax incentives. About nine properties in Old Town Avondale that are privately owned are also listed for sale.
One of the largest properties the city is marketing is a nearly 1-acre piece of land located on the southwest corner of Western Avenue and Dysart Road. The site could be a prime spot for a restaurant, retail, entertainment or mixed-use project, she said.
“This is really the entryway from the east into Western Avenue,” Gonzales said. “It does fall into the Old Town business district zoning and we do have hard corner visibility.”
The Old Town Avondale area also has multiple private properties listed for sale or lease. One of the properties, Sterling Plaza West, is located at 506 E. Western Ave., which has 1,500 square feet of available space for and office or retail user. Bobbie Mastracci, principal at Phoenix West Commercial LLC, is the leasing broker for the property.
Mastracci said during the panel that another property that’s listed for sale, known as Western Professional Plaza, has been owned by a family for multiple generations and was built in 1973. The facility is located from 320 to 328 E. Western Ave. and comprises 9,000 square feet with a dental office, church, tax accountant, hair salon and insurance office. The property is currently listed for sale at $1.1 million.
“They’re all month-to-month leases except for the dentist, so it’s a great opportunity to go in there, take advantage of [the city’s] incentives with the facade enhancement incentive and make it look really nice, do the parking lot. I’d love to see the monument sign readdressed, and then you can increase the rental rates and have your site sell for a nice investment,” Mastracci said. “You don’t get a lot of opportunities on Western Avenue, because a lot of people don’t really move out — a lot of the parents or grandparents are the ones that built the buildings.”
Last year, the city approved a $6.3 million plan to revitalize and revamp three historic parts of the city with high-density housing options, beautification, space for recreation and a walkable downtown with shops, restaurants and entertainment options, the Arizona Republic reported.
According to the city, Avondale has about 90,000 residents with nearly 30,000 households across 47 square miles. One of the city’s most recent projects is known as The BLVD. The new city center sits on 356 acres just south of Interstate 10 and is comprised of six districts that allow for a mix of residential, education, medical, hospitality, retail, entertainment and more.
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