Fountain Hills could be strolling The Avenue

by Edward Gately - Mar. 2, 2012 10:30 AM The Republic | azcentral.com

Many Fountain Hills residents have been waiting a long time to see commercial development on the south side of downtown's Avenue of the Fountains off Saguaro Boulevard.

Will residents finally see something materialize this year?

In 2007, the land was rezoned to encourage mixed-use development. The next year, the Town Council entered a development agreement for the Fountain Hills Town Square, which called for 490,000 square feet of theater, retail, restaurant, office and residential on 15 acres. But financing fell through with the onset of the recession.

Now, a new plan has surfaced to build a smaller, $28 million entertainment complex. The Avenue would include a 2,226-seat, 12-screen movie theater -- the town's first theater -- and new retail, restaurant and office space. The 6.5-acre site is at the southwestern corner of the Avenue of the Fountains and Verde River Drive, near the Fountain Hills Community Center and Centennial Circle.

The project totals more than 155,200 square feet.

The partners in the latest development are GMK Building and Development, the Fackler Trust,Haffar Entertainment Group and Sivers Cos. California-basedHaffar Entertainment would operate the theater.

George Kasnoff of GMK Building and Development and Dave Fackler of Nielsen-Fackler Planning & Development are heading up the project.

On Feb. 2, the council approved a concept plan and development agreement. The approvals came with several stipulations, such as the completion of a traffic impact study, a landscaping plan and a reduction in parking on the south side to increase the setback from the Village at Towne Center, a nearby condominium community.

Wendy Kelleher, a member of the Village's HOA board, said she and other residents had concerns about the complex and parking being too close to their complex.

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Fountain Hills could be strolling The Avenue