A project that will see the redevelopment of a nearly century-old building in downtown Phoenix is currently under review by city officials.
The Thunderbird Legacy Group, which is based in Phoenix, wants to significantly add on to a two-story brick warehouse structure located at 39 E. Jackson Street in an industrial part of the city.
The work would see the creation of a 26-story tower, with ground floor office, retail, and restaurant space, along with a 210-room hotel.
The upper floors of the project will house up to 200 condominiums of various sizes.
Completed in 1923, what is still called the Arizona Hardware Supply Company building has for the last 50 years also been the home to the Opportunities Industrialization Center.
That center, an extension of a national organization founded in the mid-1960s in Philadelphia, has had as its mission the workforce training of area minority residents.
In announcing the redevelopment plans of the structure, Thunderbird Legacy has said that office space for the OIC will remain intact. Even more, the project is being called The Blue, in honor of Gene Blue, chief executive officer of the OIC.
By Garry Boulard
