Development Group to Break Ground on 236-Room Phoenix Hotel

A consortium led by Sunbelt Holdings will soon break ground on a 17-story, 236-room hotel in Downtown Phoenix.

Scottsdale-based Sunbelt, along with Scottsdale-based BB Hotels & Resorts, Minneapolis-based Mortenson and Irvine, Calif.-based Pacific Hospitality Group have received a key permit to build The Edith hotel at 1 East Adams Street, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.

The $140 million highrise project will replace a parking lot next to the One North Central Building, once known as the Phelps Dodge Building.

Plans for the 180,000-square-foot hotel include 236 guest rooms, including 14 suites and one presidential suite, according to AZCentral.

The Edith will contain 23,000 square feet of ballrooms and smaller meeting rooms, an eight-room spa with dry and wet saunas, a ground-floor restaurant, a lobby cafe and a rooftop pool and bar.

There will be valet parking, but no self-parking.

The rectangular glass hotel, designed by Gensler, is expected to break ground at the end of September.

The project was initially proposed in 2018 after the City of Phoenix requested proposals for land it owned at Central Avenue and Adams Street.

The project stalled during the pandemic, but the developers have since brought on new partners, such as Pacific Hospitality Group, which will include the hotel in its Meritage collection.

The Edith will be among the first ground-up hotels to be developed in Downtown Phoenix in years. The city also wants to expand the Phoenix Convention Center with a new hotel comprising between 800 and 1,200 rooms, according to the Business Journal.

Meanwhile, developers have turned aging buildings in Downtown into hotels such as the new Moxy. The historic Hotel San Carlos is also undergoing an $80 million makeover.

— Dana Bartholomew