Downtown Phoenix

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Downtown Phoenix is the central business district (CBD) of the City of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is in the heart of the Phoenix metropolitan area or Valley of the Sun. Phoenix, being the county seat of Maricopa County and the capital of Arizona, serves as the center of politics, justice and government on the local, state and federal levels. The area is a major center of employment for the region, with many financial, legal, and other national and international corporations housed in a variety of skyscrapers. Major arts and cultural institutions also call the area home. Downtown Phoenix is a center of major league sports activities, live concert events, and is an equally prominent center of banking and finance in Arizona. Regional headquarters for several major banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Bank of America, Compass Bank and Midfirst Bank are all located within or close proximity to the area.

The City of Phoenix defines Downtown as the area between 7th Street and 7th Avenue, from McDowell Road on the north to Buckeye Road on the south.^[1] However, the majority of downtown development is concentrated in the smaller area surrounding the intersection of Washington Street and Central Avenue (which is the point of origin of Phoenix street addresses and numbering).

West of 7th Avenue, the majority of office buildings, especially along Washington, house various agencies and departments of the state government of Arizona, and that area up to 19th Avenue is generally considered the Arizona State Capitol Complex. Washington itself splits off at 15th Avenue, with westbound traffic continuing on Adams Street and eastbound traffic on Jefferson. Those streets, and 17th Avenue, are the boundaries of Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, with the historic State Capitol building and the more recent Executive Office Building immediately west.