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A local nonprofit will soon offer a space for those with Phoenix tech jobs (Click here) to come together.

The nearby City of Chandler recently announced that it plans to offer $400,000 to Gangplank, a technology-oriented nonprofit. The funding will help redevelop a historic building, accounting for the first project under the South Arizona Avenue Design Guidelines.

Gangplank provides a collaborative space where hundreds of technology-oriented professionals can come together to share ideas and develop products and business models. The company is working in Chandler because it has many of the ingredients to attract people in technology.

"For good ideas to take off, they have to build off other ideas," Gangplank Co-Founder Derek Neighbors told the East Valley Tribune. "We need density. Downtown Chandler is doing everything right to set itself up for the creative class in the next 10 years or so."

The company plans to renovate a building on South Arizona Avenue across from the new City Hall. Gangplank will use the funding for exterior facade renovations and to bring the ventilation system up to code.

The funding will come from a city fund meant to help private developers restore downtown buildings. In exchange for providing the funding, the city will receive a conservation easement guaranteeing the historic aspects of the building will be preserved and maintained for 20 years.

Gangplank will invest some of its own funding to add a second story to the building and renovate the interior. The building, which dates back to 1946, was originally used by the military and later became a meat processing plant, retail suites and home to the Gospel for Life Church.

The South Arizona Avenue Design Guidelines are aimed at creating an urban, pedestrian-friendly city center with tall buildings on each side of Arizona Avenue, transitioning downward to blend into adjacent residential neighborhoods.

The guidelines help support the $10 million South Arizona Avenue Corridor Area Plan, which will narrow Arizona Avenue from six lanes to four through Dr. A.J. Chandler Park and widen sidewalks to enhance the area's landscaping.

Labels: Phoenix tech jobs