Thinking about making a last minute dash to Kentucky to watch the 137th annual Run for the Roses? Make your next visit to Churchhill Downs a regal one by booking a stay inside CastlePost, a 15-room European-style estate.

Located in Versailles (Kentucky, that is), rest your royal head at this rolling estate only a short (horse) ride away from Churchill Downs. Boasting extensive lawns, stables, billiard rooms and 15 king-like suites, the staff will be more than happy to arrange for a ride to the Derby, or you can partake in your own “Run of the Roses” with one of the property horses. Just be sure you don’t spill you mint julep all over your oversized hat.

[Urban Daddy]

It turns out, Phoenix is no longer the fifth largest city in the nation. In fact, we may have never been.

Yes, it looks like Philadelphia has officially reclaimed its crown as America’s fifth-largest city, behind New York, LA, Chicago and Houston, respectively. This contradicts the earlier estimates that Phoenix had blown past the City of Brotherly Love back in 2007. Now the US Census Bureau has revised those earlier estimates, saying that despite a healthy 9.4 percent overall population growth over the last decade, Phoenix still ended the decade at 1.446M vs Philly’s 1.526M.

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Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? In fact, this generous gentleman is offering free rent, meals and utilities to one lucky lady. Yes, while driving through an unnamed Central Phoenix neighborhood, one of our intrepid reporters came across this very unusual plea. In case you can’t make it out (see a full sized image after the jump), this gentleman is advertising for a little female companionship in the most blunt way possible. One sign reads: Wanted Female Companion: Free Rent Meals Utilities. And if that’s not enticing enough, another says: Seeking Nice Girlfriend and Lifetime Soulmate.

Oh and BTW, if you’re feeling a little commitment-phobic, he’ll also sell you some Fresh Plucked Juicy Sweet Grapefruit for just a buck.

So, anyone out there want to get in touch with this mystery romantic? Contact us and we’ll send his phone number.

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As chosen by you, here are the most popular stories OF ALL TIME (aka last week). Just in case you missed it

Call it the house that classified ads (and Sheriff Joe bashing) built. Yes, sources tell us that the owner of this sleek-yet-woodsy abode featuring million dollar views of the Phoenix skyline is none other than Michael Lacey, the famously hard-nosed editor/co-owner of the Phoenix New Times.

Perched on a rocky rise straddling the Paradise Valley-Phoenix border, this custom manse appears to be at least a $1-2M project. Which, crazy as it sounds, is just a drop in the bucket compared to the approximately $22M in fines Lacey and his Village Voice Media just paid out following a bitter court battle with a rival paper in San Francisco, in what media pundits are calling the Last Great Newspaper War.

After the jump, take in a full slideshow of what 40 years of sticking it to the man will buy you. Plus, learn a little more about how Lacey, an ASU dropout and self-described ‘foul-mouthed son of a sailor,‘ transformed a single newspaper into the nation’s largest chain of ‘alt-weekly’ newspapers once valued at $400M. All while giving away his products away for free.

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Five years ago, you would have walked right by this home, designed by the late architect Alfred Newman Beadle, assuming it was just another Santa Fean monstrosity. But underneath it all, was a great home screaming for air. It was liberated by design + build firm, 180 degrees. (By David Tyda/Photography by Michael Baxter)

Call it the house that classified ads (and Sheriff Joe bashing) built. Yes, sources tell us that the owner of this sleek-yet-woodsy abode featuring million dollar views of the Phoenix skyline is none other than Michael Lacey, the famously hard-nosed editor/co-owner of the Phoenix New Times.

Perched on a rocky rise straddling the Paradise Valley-Phoenix border, this custom manse appears to be at least a $1-2M project. Which, crazy as it sounds, is just a drop in the bucket compared to the approximately $22M in fines Lacey and his Village Voice Media just paid out following a bitter court battle with a rival paper in San Francisco, in what media pundits are calling the Last Great Newspaper War.

After the jump, take in a full slideshow of what 40 years of sticking it to the man will buy you. Plus, learn a little more about how Lacey, an ASU dropout and self-described ‘foul-mouthed son of a sailor,‘ transformed a single newspaper into the nation’s largest chain of ‘alt-weeklies’ once valued at $400M. All while giving away his products away for free.

»READ MORE

As chosen by you, here are the most popular stories OF ALL TIME (aka last week). Just in case you missed it

[Editor's note: As of April 2011, the Centerpoint Condos on Mill Ave have been sold, renamed West 6th Street and turned into luxury rentals. Skip to the 4th paragraph if you are looking for the deets on the so-called Tuxedo Suicide]

So much for that. The Phoenix Business Journal is reporting that the sale of the abandoned Centerpoint condos looming over Mill Ave has fallen through. Now, mere months after everyone was high-fiving that an Ohio-based developer was going to turn the half-built towers into luxury apartments, the deal has imploded.

Then again, this project was probably doomed, if not from the beginning, at least from the day a prominent Valley businessman was found dead inside the master bedroom of his sprawling Phoenix mansion.

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Banker Scott Coles and his wife at a charity event mere months before he killed himself and his company collapsed into bankruptcy

Here at DLT/Scoop Factory, we always love to hear from our readers. Even if you just want to say we suck and don’t know how to spell (complementary complimentary copyediting services are always appreciated).

However, a recent comment was so informative and heartfelt, that we decided it deserved its own post. It came in response to yesterday’s write-up on the long-awaited resurrection of the Centerpoint/West 6th Street towers looming over Downtown Tempe, as well as the project’s connection to Phoenix’s infamous ‘Tuxedo Suicide.’ One reader wrote in to tell us that it wasn’t just shady real estate developers and crooked bankers who were left holding the bag when longtime local lender, Mortgages Ltd., went belly up follwing the death of owner, Scott Coles (pictured). In fact, plenty of innocent people lost their life savings.

“Hello Scoop Factory – I would kindly ask everyone for some compassion by being a bit less ‘breezy’ in descriptions of the financial disaster that was the Centerpoint Condo’s…

Yes, it was made sensational by the tragic and strange suicide of Scott Coles … But it represented just the tip of the iceberg of a huge, Valley-wide real estate disaster that wiped out the retirement savings of a good many people, who had invested, in trust and good faith, with his company, Mortgages, Ltd.

My mother was one of those people …

»READ MORE

Its been a tough couple of years for Valley urbanists as several high profile ‘live/work/play’ projects ground to a halt. However, we’re happy to report that things are finally looking up as both Safari Drive in Downtown Scottsdale and the 44 Monroe tower in Phoenix have been rescued from bankruptcy. This on the heels of the news that the all-but-abandoned Centerpoint Condos hulking over Mill Ave have been transformed into luxury rentals (and renamed West Sixth Street).

In fact, after attending the Safari Drive grand reopening, we’re happy to report that the real estate crash must officially be over, because they partied like it was 2005. There were red carpets, fine foods, classy parting gifts and even aerialists pouring Champagne while twirling through the night sky. That said, one thing was definitely 2011: the prices.

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Who says tunnels in AZ are just for smuggling drugs? A city cleanup crew in the West Valley suburb of Avondale just discovered a 40-foot long tunnel hidden under a roadway that was stuffed to the gills with 800-pounds stolen stuff. According to AZ Central, an undercover officer suspected a group of homeless people of running criminal ring that stole bikes, jewelry, electronics, copper wire and other goods. He tracked the group back to a trash-filled highway underpass near Buckeye and El Mirage roads and requested a cleanup crew. That’s when workers discovered the hideout pictured at left, which also included a sleeping quarters.

However, before you get any ideas about renting out this now-available studio space, know that the AZ Dept of Transportation has already cleaned out and filled in the space to ensure the safety of drivers using the roadway.

Take a good look at this striking new library being planned for Billings, MT (pictured at left). Does it look familiar, especially if you take away the snow and squint a little? Yes, this handsome space bears a passing resemblance to the iconic Burton Barr Library in Central Phoenix.

Which should come as no surprise since both are the work of longtime Phoenix Modernist, Will Bruder, who’s quietly become the nation’s go-to architect for landmark libraries and mod museums.

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The Lorna House, built in 1954 in the Starlite Vista subdivision of northwest Phoenix and named after the home’s former owner of 40 years, is an excellent balance of progress and preservation. Tucked in a quiet neighborhood of larger lots with geese, goats, horses and even llamas heralding, this mid-century Haver Home provides the perfect tempo for a good designers improvisation. Shawn Kaffer’s Jazz Standard is a duet worth listening to as he updated this 1950s style home and stayed true to it’s original rhythm.

Recently, DLT sat down with the award-winning architect/developer, David Hovey. Owner of Illinois-based Optima, this New Zealand native has been building upscale, Modern multi-family residence across Greater Chicago since 1978. However, a few years back he decided to take on the scenic beauty, and unique challenges, of the Valley’s Sonoran Desert setting.

Today, Hovey’s sharp-looking Optima Biltmore Towers is a bold, red-accented and tree-topped landmark at 24th Street and Camelback. Meanwhile, Hovey’s celebrating another milestone as his massive yet beautifully-proportioned Optima Camelview Village (pictured) has just wrapped up construction on its 11th and final building. More important, Optima’s mildly controversial plan to replace the old Orchidtree apartments with a seven-story condo complex recieved the thumbs-up from the Scottsdale City Council.

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, this photographer deserves a serous raise. Yes, the Arizona Center, a massive shopping and commercial complex in Downtown Phoenix that’s always been a bit of a bust, just sold for $136,500,000, reports the Phoenix Business Journal. Which seems like a lot for anyone who’s ever shopped at this handsomely-landscaped outdoor mall, considering the only tenants that have managed to stick around for the past few decades are pretty much the movie theater and the cheesy beer & hot wing joint, Hooters.

In fact, the mall parts of this mall were pretty much abandoned over the past two decades, as the entire second-floor food court was transformed into commercial space.

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As ASU Downtown deals with an outbreak of bed bugs, we wanted to take you inside the bugs’ handsome new home at Taylor Place dorms. Honestly, if we were a bed bug we’d choose to hole up here as well.

A new dormitory on ASU’s downtown Phoenix campus has provided a new model for student housing thanks to the progressive design team at SmithGroup Architecture. There are a couple of words that were likely not part of your college experience: panoramic views, modern design, green building. For some new students attending Arizona State University and staying in the new Taylor Place dormitory, those words only scratch the surface of their next-generation experience.

Surprise, surprise. It looks like that plan to build an indoor ski resort here in the Valley of the Sun is slowly melting away. Named “Freeze Zone,” this proposed theme park was to be built atop an old city dump in South Phoenix, with a design based on similar indoor snow parks already operating in Japan and Dubai (pictured), where you can actually ski and snowboard year-round, even in the middle of the Arabian Desert.

However, it now looks like this massive ski resort will just join the long list of AZ theme parks are still moldering on the drawing boards, including an $800M Rock and Roll-themed park planned in Eloy, AZ, and the Mesa Waveyard project that was supposed to open this summer. In fact, AZ Central reports that the developers behind this latest entertainment park, “have not responded to repeated phone calls seeking comment.” We’re no experts, but that’s probably not a good sign for the Valley breaking its streak as the largest metropolitan area without a major theme park.

So for anyone who’s ever wanted to build a museum or amusement park on top of a former EPA toxic waste site in one of the poorest parts of the city, they are taking numbers at city hall.

Read more about this exciting investment opportunity after the jump.

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While the Valley’s real estate market is still in the tank, things are looking up in one market segment: mansions for the ultra-wealthy. Yes, Russian billionaire, Yuri Milner, just shattered the record for the most expensive home sale in US history with his $100M purchase of a 25,000-sq-ft mansion in Los Altos, CA. Overlooking the San Francisco bay, the nine-bedroom home boasts both indoor and outdoor pools, a ballroom and a wine cellar, as well as a tennis court tucked on the 11-acre grounds, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Learn how Milner made his billions after the jump. (Hint: He really ‘likes’ Facebook.)

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Maybe it’s the dark ‘n’ stormy weather outside, but we just want to bundle up today. That said, why sit around your tiny apartment or overpriced McMansion, when you can set up shop inside your own Starter Castle? Yes, thanks to the worldwide real estate crash, “scores of castles” are now on the market for the same amount “you would pay for a condominium,” says the NY Times. In fact, a “decaying castle” in the former Soviet bloc can be yours for less than $100K, as long as you’re willing to live without a few minor amenities such as, you know, plumbing and electricity.

But why jet-set all the way to Europe when you can strut around your own majestic manor right here in the Valley?

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The Engbarth home by SpaceLineDesign is totally out of this world. Shake your predetermined notions of what an architecture piece should look like and follow these simple rules: 1) Forget everything you’ve seen before. 2) Embrace your imagination. 3) Have fun. Built for a young couple and their three children, two dogs and thriving business, the Engbarth Home by SpaceLineDesign Architects + Interiors aimed to create something entirely different and landed with this. (And speaking of something entirely different, SpaceLineDesign recently relocated from Scottsdale to Dubai in the heart of the Middle East.)

Original Story by David Tyda
Photos by Michael Baxter

Happy belated birthday to Phoenix’s Encanto Park, which turned 75 a few months back. Unfortunately, as we reported earlier, this iconic park is not necessarily getting better with age.

Encanto Park might have been named one of “America’s Best City Parks” by Forbes in 2009, but it’s in serious distress, says a recent report in the AZ Republic.

Sprawling across 222 acres in midtown Phoenix and featuring a golf course, navigable canals and an amusement park, our little version of NYC’s Central Park is still plenty popular. However, due to financial cuts the City of Phoenix is having difficulty keeping up this historic gem.

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Spanning more than 80 feet over a desert Arroyo in Cave Creek, this minimalist masterpiece strikes a rare balance between bold and delicate. “This is one of the purest houses I’ve ever designed,” said home designer Michael P. Johnson, “The floor plan is simple and the details were executed to perfection.” Speaking of perfection, click here to take a tour of this famed Valley-based architect’s most stunning work, including a one stunning residence cantilevered off the south side of Camelback Mountain (search for the Yoder-Doornbos residence).

Written by David Tyda/Dawson Fearnow, Photography by Bill Timmerman

As chosen by you, here are the most popular stories OF ALL TIME (aka last week)…Just in case you missed it.

For  years, the abandoned Centerpoint condos hulking over Tempe’s Mill Ave have stood as a stark reminder of the Valley’s go-go real estate mania. (Although no mere mania can explain how someone thought hundreds of millionaires were just itching to live above Fat Tuesday, Chili’s and countless drunken Frat boys.) However, it seems that these twin fiascoes, and the curse of the Tuxedo Suicide, might finally be wrapped up soon.

Yes, the Phx Biz Journal is reporting that Centerpoint has been bought for $30M and renamed West Sixth in honor of the project’s location on 111 W. Sixth St. So who’s the (un)lucky new owner?

»READ MORE

For years, the abandoned Centerpoint condos hulking over Tempe’s Mill Ave have stood as a stark reminder of the Valley’s go-go real estate mania. (Although no mere mania can explain how someone thought hundreds of millionaires were just itching to live above Fat Tuesday, Chili’s and countless drunken Frat boys.) However, it seems that these twin fiascoes, and the curse of the Tuxedo Suicide, might finally be wrapped up soon.

Yes, the Phx Biz Journal is reporting that Centerpoint has been bought for $30M and renamed West Sixth in honor of the project’s location on 111 W. Sixth St. So who’s the (un)lucky new owner?

»READ MORE

For decades, hipsters and big-city transplants complained that the Valley was just a sea of suburbs and cookie cutter stripmalls. And they were right. But as Greater Phoenix grows, the lowly stripmall has become the surprising forefront of the Valley’s urban awakening.

Home to pedestrian-friendly hot pockets where you can shop, dine, sip and maybe even pretend like you’re in a tiki hut in French Polynesia. Recently, we spotted another burgeoning hot spot named the Mercury Building and located at 3508 N. 7th St., in Phoenix.

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Designed by Circle West Architects, this stunning Paradise Valley residence recently won one several prestigious awards, including the 2009 AIA/Sunset Magazine Western Home Awards – Honorable Mention; 2008 AIA Western Mountain Region – Honor Award; 2008 Environmental Excellence – Valley Forward – Award of Merit. More surprising;  you’d never guess it if you saw it, but beneath the zinc and glass box, lies a remodeled ranch home. Read more by clicking next page below.