Lewis in no hurry on Easy Street until market turns around

“Living in a world where you have to follow the markets”

PHOTO BY CURTIS RIGGS

The two buildings of developer Ed Lewis’ Easy Street mixed-use project will include 80 condominiums and 64,000 square feet of retail space.

By Curtis Riggs

     CAREFREE – Already delayed a couple of times because of downturns in the real-estate market, Easy Street developer Ed Lewis is not planning on breaking ground on his large, costly downtown project any time soon.
    “We’re putting it off because of the housing crisis,” Lewis said about his two-phase mixed-use project, planned for five acres south, and east, of the Carefree Town Hall/Post Office.
    Shortly after the Carefree Town Council approved Lewis’ $90- million project a couple of years ago the housing market turned from bad to worse both locally and nationally. The town council approved 80 condominiums with 64,000 square-feet of retail space in two buildings.
    “The president of Wells Fargo (bank) said this is the worst housing depression since the Great Depression,” said Lewis, who developed a condominium project at Kierland in Scottsdale and is now working on a housing project in Durango, Colo. “We are still looking for positive indicators that prices have stabilized, but there is still an excess of inventory.”
    Lewis remains committed to building the Easy Street project.
    “I still love the location and project,” he said about downtown Carefree. “But unfortunately I am in a world where you have to follow the markets.
    “We are still going to do the project, but we are going to do it when the market says we can do it.”
    While Lewis is bothered that Arizona has one of the ten worst housing slumps in the United States, he has found a silver lining in Valley real-estate trends.
    “We are in good company, but it’s not a list you want to be on,” he said. Arizona’s housing slump is comparable to California’s, Nevada’s and Florida’s.
    He added that high-end projects like the opulent Easy Street are recovering faster than entry-level projects built in Pinal County, Buckeye and Surprise.