Quarters aren’t just for meters anymore. Pretty soon you can impress your date with a late-night bout of Ms. Pac-Man at Cobra Arcade Bar, which is setting up shop next to the recently relocated Antique Sugar vintage clothing store on the northeast corner of 2nd Street and McKinley in the Evans Churchill neighborhood.
The semi-empty building behind Film Bar had been sitting idle until Chuckie Duff, local musician and developer, took ownership and began the process of refurbishing the old structure to support new tenants, which will include the offices of Urban Rebuild Architects, who also lead the project. Tenant and architect Rick McGee of Urban Rebuild Architects is bringing the classic building into modernity, without losing any of the original charm.
“Chuckie Duff wanted to recreate the feeling of that original building but give it more of a contemporary facelift, and allow it to become a project of the 21st century,” he said.
Built in 1959, the building originally functioned as the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. Through a handful of disastrous renovations, much of the original character was lost, but Rick is hoping to use the original structure and bring some mid-century charm back to downtown.
Antique Sugar
The building was completely stripped down to walls and ceiling, with the interiors being rebuilt to support the three new tenants. Antique Sugar has already opened their doors, and sits surrounded by other concrete homes waiting to be occupied.
Rick’s company has been looking for opportunities to get back into the downtown area, and is predominantly focused on urban in-fill projects where they can create those areas that cater to the people that work and live downtown, with a focus on projects that make use of the light rail.
“We think that’s probably one of the greatest things that’s happened in the city,” Rick said of the light rail.
“I think it’s important that the city of Phoenix, not just the valley, but the city of Phoenix really have that viability of all great downtowns,” said McGee.
