page_title: Central Avenue Corridor
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Central Avenue Corridor / History / 2000s
caption_attribution_description: English: Skyscrapers and light rail construction on Central Avenue, February 2008.
context_page_description: The Central Avenue Corridor is a significant stretch of north-south Central Avenue, in Phoenix, Arizona. Roughly bounded by Camelback Road to its north, and McDowell Road to its south, this is one of Phoenix's most vital and heavily trafficked stretches of roadway. It is also one of the region's largest centers of employment, with nearly 60,000 people being employed within a three-mile radius of this swath of Central Avenue. Major employers here include major banks and financial institutions, hi-tech companies, and several significant law firms and government agencies.
  This corridor bisects a larger area known as Midtown, Phoenix—the collection of neighborhoods north of downtown, and south of the North-Central and Sunnyslope areas. Block numbers or addresses for Central Avenue landmarks are indicated in parentheses where available.
context_section_description: After numerous failed initiatives, Phoenix voters finally approved the Transit 2000 Regional Transportation Plan which dedicates a percentage of funds raised through a 4/10-cent (four cents on ten dollars) sales tax to build the METRO Light Rail line.  The 20-mile (32 km) initial phase, which opened for service in late December 2008, begins at Christown Spectrum Mall, to Camelback, down Central, and then down Washington Street en route to Tempe and Mesa.  On Central Avenue, there are seven stops in Midtown  and Uptown Phoenix and three in downtown. The three-year construction process commenced in late 2005, with the final rail being laid in late April, 2008.  Many businesses experienced challenges during construction, but most have persevered—some through an assistance program sponsored by Valley Metro and the City.
  The alignment of light rail down the center of Central is the most significant event in the street's history. It reformed its future growth as Phoenix adopted transit oriented development zoning standards in 2003 within 1/2 mile of stops, effectively making the autocentric developments that had come to define Central Avenue a thing of the past.  In Midtown, the market responded with two mid-rise projects, the Artisan Lofts (1326 N), which opened in 2004 and the Tapestry on Central (2302 N), which opened in 2007.  Tapestry is also notable as its construction brought down the last of the estate homes on that stretch of Central.  Capitalizing on its retro mid-1960s styling, Camelback Towers became the Landmark on Central in 2004, continuing a tradition of the city's few apartment towers becoming ownership condominia later on.  Also that year, Century Plaza  (3225 N), originally built in 1974 as offices, began a complete exterior and interior remodel as part of its conversion to condominia.  As reconstruction continued, two additional floors were started in 2007. Century plaza is now known as "One Lexington".
  Steele Indian School Park opened in November 2001 on the site of the old Phoenix Indian School five years after an intricate three-way land exchange involving the Barron Collier Company and the federal government.  In Phoenix, Collier received a 15-acre (61,000 m²) portion on the southwest corner of the site for long-term investment in addition to the Downtown block on which the Collier Center was built.
caption: Skyscrapers and light rail construction on Central Avenue, February 2008.
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