Phoenix Community Alliance

Summer in the City delivered! ☀️ Last night, Downtown Phoenix Inc. and Phoenix Community Alliance came together with board members, PCA Members, and community leaders for an evening of connection at STK Phoenix, one of PCA's newest Members and Downtown's newest steakhouse.

From great conversations to even better company, this mixer was a perfect reminder of why it's so important to make time for opportunities like this.

A special thank you to Phillips Law Group Foundation for underwriting the event, Ace Parking for covering guest parking, and STK Steakhouse - Phoenix for hosting us in style. We couldn't do it without partners like you.

Event photography by PCA Member Zee Peralta

Arts and culture aren't a side note to Phoenix's story. They are essential to what makes this city thrive.

Today, we helped produce the Arts & Culture Leadership Forum at Phoenix Art Museum, bringing together artists, nonprofit leaders, and city changemakers to talk about what's at stake for our creative sector.

The numbers tell a powerful story:

🎨 $449.9M in annual economic activity from Phoenix's nonprofit arts and culture sector
💼 7,686 full-time equivalent jobs supported regionwide
🏛️ Nine of the twelve largest arts and cultural organizations call the urban core home
🎟️ 2M+ Downtown patrons in FY 2024–25 — though attendance still hasn't fully rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, and that's something we're actively working to change

This isn't only a Downtown story, either. Working artists and arts leaders live and work across all eight City Council districts.

As one survey respondent put it: "We cannot aspire to be a great American city and treat culture as optional."

Our institutions may be concentrated, but our responsibility is citywide. Supporting and preserving arts and culture — in all its forms — takes all of us, and that means ensuring these leaders have a seat at the table where decisions about Phoenix's future are made. Thank you to everyone who joined us. This is just the beginning of the conversation.

Special thank you to Jeremy Mikolajczak and Ritta Yee Fagain at the Phoenix Art Museum for hosting us.

Want to show off your space in 2027?

Member Mingles are among PCA's favorite traditions: casual, unprogrammed evenings where Members connect over drinks and conversation, always hosted at a Member location. We're building the 2027 Mingle calendar now, and we'd love to feature your venue.

Interested in hosting? Tell us about your space! The form takes about a minute: https://bit.ly/4qtlZ3r

Have you heard the news? One of Downtown's well-known 1980s office towers is set to become a luxury hotel.

One Arizona Center, the 19-story, 351,600-square-foot building at 400 E. Van Buren St., is planned for conversion into JW Marriott Phoenix, a 340-key luxury hotel. Plans call for a ground-level pool overlooking a two-acre park-like setting, a spa, a signature restaurant, and meeting space on the 18th and 19th floors.

The tower sits inside Phoenix Community Alliance (PCA) Member Reliance Management's Arizona Center, within walking distance of the Phoenix Convention Center.

Converting aging office space into hotel keys near the Convention Center is exactly the kind of adaptive reuse our Central City Planning and Development Committee tracks each month.

Read the full story via Phoenix Business Journal:

Las Vegas firm to transform Phoenix office tower into 340-room JW Marriott - Phoenix Business Journal The new 340-room downtown Phoenix hotel will include restaurants, a resort-style pool and meeting spaces. Interior demolition starts in early 2027.

Member Spotlight: Phillips Law Group Foundation making an impact across the Valley.🌟

This year alone, the Foundation has joined the UNITY Pledge as a Diversity Sponsor supporting ONE Community Foundation, become presenting sponsor of the OCJ Kids Gala this October, and welcomed a new partnership with SCI Fit, all while continuing to support the Arizona Justice Project, Foster Alliance, Maggie's Place, Vitalant, and many more.

Co-founder Olga Phillips was nominated for both the Champions of Change and Generations of Leadership awards, and Olivia Lemorrocco stepped into the Board Chair role at the Arizona Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Foundation.

Many of these partnerships grew through connections made within the PCA network — a powerful reminder of what happens when a community rallies around shared purpose.

Learn more about the incredible work they're doing in the community: https://bit.ly/4g2Y59M

Calling all PCA Members in the Downtown Phoenix area!🚆📣

Downtown Phoenix Inc. is inviting retail, food and beverage, arts, and service businesses to participate in DTPHX Ride the Rail, a ride-and-redeem program kicking off July 1 and running throughout the month.

In addition to live music performances on the light rail, riders will have the opportunity to unlock exclusive discounts at participating businesses across Downtown Phoenix.

To learn more about this new initiative and how your business can get involved, visit:

DTPHX Ride the Rail DTPHX Ride the Rail

Mark your calendars: PCA Member Ability360 Sports & Fitness Center is hosting a job fair next month, where all job seekers and employers are welcome. Check out the post below to learn more!

Join Ability360 as we host the Empower Job Fair, a free event providing job seekers the opportunity to explore career paths and putting employers into contact with qualified candidates.

All job seekers and employers are welcome!

Link in comments for more information.

It was standing-room-only at today's Central City Planning and Development Committee (CCPD) meeting, a testament to the important work being done to design, shape, and build the future of Greater Downtown Phoenix.

Thank you to our guests, Joshua Bednarek, Planning and Development Director, and Carrie Brown, Interim Arts and Culture Department Director, with the City of Phoenix, for sharing important updates about Shape PHX and the Art in Private Development Ordinance effort.

If you aren't currently a PCA Member and would like to learn more about the initiatives coming out of CCPD, please connect with Member Relations and Events Manager Sophie Christian at [email protected].

We look forward to seeing everyone at the next CCPD meeting on Thursday, August 20, at 11 a.m.

Phoenix Community Alliance and EPAM Global brought together some of the Valley's most impactful leaders this week for an evening that was equal parts inspiring and actionable, and a global technology company with more than 50,000 experts across 30 countries made one thing clear: their next chapter in North America starts right here in Greater Downtown Phoenix.

The confirmation came from Dr. Panch, former Director of the United States National Science Foundation and current University Professor of Technology and Innovation at Arizona State University who stood on the stage at the Herberger Theater Center and said what many of us already feel but rarely hear at that level: Phoenix is one of the most uniquely positioned innovation ecosystems on the planet.

From Dr. Panch's global framework to the on-the-ground insights of panelists like PCA Member Paul Rivers, Chief Innovation Officer for Player 15 Group, the evening made one thing clear: the ingredients for something extraordinary are already here, and the world is starting to take notice. 🌆

Thank you for your collaboration on this amazing event, EPAM!