Glendale has a $70 million plan to revitalize its downtown.
City manager Kevin Phelps said the project will include a major overhaul to the nearly 40-year old City Hall, along with remodeling an adjacent amphitheater at Murphy Park to offer live events year round.
Phelps said the city will pivot from holding a few big annual events to draw people downtown to offering live events three to four nights a week year-round.
The families that we want out there selecting to move and live in Glendale want to have an experiential side of how they live in our city so we’re really focusing a lot on the experiential part of what we do and we think live music and live entertainment is an important centerpiece to that strategy,” he said.
The city expects its revitalization project will attract other investment and businesses downtown.
“Most major municipal projects are kicked off by the voters approving, you know, new tax dollars to fund these. We’ve managed our resources very carefully and we believe — well, not we believe — we will be able to build this project using existing resources we have on hand,” Phelps said.
Public input about Murphy Park improvements will be gathered, Phelps said, and regular updates will provide more details as design work progresses.
Last week, Glendale announced Arizona-based companies Holly Street Studio and Okland Construction will lead the project. The project is expected to be finished by March 2025.
