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Ex-New Yorker buys, hopes to preserve downtown warehouses
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- Mike Padgett
- The Business Journal
OK, you're cruising in the warehouse district with Michael Levine, formerly of Brooklyn, in a part of Phoenix that a few years ago was an area to avoid.
Today, the stigma of mean streets is becoming a memory, Levine and others say. They credit most of the change to the influence of America West Arena and Bank One Ballpark but also because of what Levine says is the business community's growing interest in the area on the southern edge of downtown Phoenix.
The warehouse district in the shadows of the sports arenas is Levine's bailiwick. He knows the ownership histories of some of the properties because he's interested in buying.
He recently bought three old brick and concrete warehouses and a vacant parcel he converted into a parking lot -- all a short walk from downtown. The parking lot is next to Bank One Ballpark, so it provides him with a steady cash flow to pay bills while he mulls the potential for renovating the warehouses into offices, art studios or live-work buildings.
"My plan is to save the buildings, first and foremost," says Levine, 35. "There is so much Arizona history that is gone. All of my buildings either had demolition permits or were advertised as bulldozer bait."
Coincidentally, on the same morning that Levine shares his dreams, about 2 miles north of his properties is a downtown redevelopment symposium. The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy co-hosted the land-use seminar March 4 at MonOrchid Studios, 214 E. Roosevelt St.
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon welcomes the group, and one of the speakers is Wellington "Duke" Reiter, dean of the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Arizona State University.
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