I'm making a wild guess here, but I think the missing context from this web site and other comments is that this is intended to be a college town community. If you look up the address (2025 E Apache Blvd, Tempe, AZ 85281) it's a walkable/bikeable distance to Arizona State University which (from my understanding) is the prominent college in the Phoenix area.
Bikeable if you're comfortable with biking on Apache or University, but not really walkable. It's 2+ miles of sidewalks and throughfare crossings to the actual campus. I imagine that's why the site stresses bike and transit so much — it's 100 feet from an Orbit route, 0.3 mi. from a rail stop, and 0.7 mi. from Valley Metro bus stops, and all go to campus.
The site only lists rents for studios/one-beds, but the application plan approved by the Tempe City Council includes a number of 2br apartments and a handful of 3br. The mix is as follows:
41 du/ac / 636 units
- 456 one bedroom
- 134 two bedroom
- 8 three bedroom
- 38 live-work one bedroom
Disappointingly, it shows some 152 vehicle parking spots on-site — it seems the exemption they got only applies to the residential parking requirements, and the commercial spaces are still fully parked.
The reduction to three stories (from five) also seems like a shame — the added shade and density from taller buildings would likely have made it a more livable site.
I'm personally tired of only having a choice of multi-bedroom apartments wherever I go. I would love to get a small one bedroom loft thats cheap and low maintenance but all the housing is setup for families.
Given the sprawl in the Phoenix metro area, this is utterly unsuitable for families who need to shuttle kids to school. Arizona has flexible school choice and people aren't tied to their neighborhood school.
Because these sorts of developments are typically trying to fill the trailer park or retirement community niches without incurring the negative baggage that comes with either.
>Both of those have kids around more often than you'd think,
I might know that. You might know that. But does the average yuppie DINK who is looking to move out of the city and into one of these developments know that? These seem to be positioned as the suburban equivalent of luxury condos and targeting the same demographics with their messaging.
