A Fresh Start for Founding Culdesac Residents and Businesses

Cocina Chiwas Grand Opening:
The main entry plaza includes a new restaurant, owned and operated by Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin. We’re excited to announce the grand opening of Cocina Chiwas which celebrates Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Sinaloan food, featuring fresh, seasonal ingredients and inspired by their favorite family recipes. Nadia, a semifinalist for the James Beard Best Chef – Southwest Category, and her husband Armando are already local favorites with a 3-location chain, Tacos Chiwas, in Chandler, Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona. However Cocina Chiwas will be the first ever full-scale location of their brand and is set to offer items like chile vegetable bowls, deconstructed breakfast burritos, and hibiscus margaritas.

Bring in the Corner Store:
A small, local market is a program element that most mixed use projects want, but are rarely successful in finding. Culdesac made this a priority and now Vik Dhillon is set to open Street Corner. He is relocating to Culdesac with his family and is looking forward to offering residents and local neighbors a variety of convenience items, as well as wine, beer, and kombucha on tap. Vik likes to describe the Street Corner Urban Market as “grocery store meets farmer’s market meets corner store”; Locally sourced, delicious, and convenient. 

Firecreek Coffee Co.:
Mike Funk, the founder of Firecreek Coffee, has been an Arizona resident for 30 years and is excited to make his first Tempe location a space for community gathering events like open mic nights and poetry slams. Firecreek is a globally sourced, locally roasted small batch coffee shop that also sells flavored syrups and unique spiced tea mixes.

To encourage residents to make the switch to car-free living, Culdesac partnered with the City of Tempe and a variety of transportation companies to offer a first-of-its-kind mobility program. This partnership includes the Valley Metro public transportation, rideshare company Lyft, Bird for scooter and bike ridesharing, and Envoy, a community-based electric car share service. 

All founding Culdesac residents will be given a Lyft Pink membership for discounted rides and priority airport pickups, a discounted membership on Bird scooters, an unlimited pass for rides on Tempe’s light rail, streetcars and busses, and the ability to rent an electric car for as low as $5 an hour. The benefits of these memberships, passes and discounts adds up to $3,000 in mobility benefits per year. In a recent article with Bloomberg CityLab, Culdesac general manager Lavanya Sunder noted that this is one of the first times that a real estate developer is including a paid mobility package as part of their lease agreement and monthly rent. 

Culdesac will open to residents in Summer 2022, with Cocina Chiwas set to open its doors May 2022. 

Check out the most recent openings in Culdesac ranging from a plant shop to a vintage clothing store!