Cowboy Town Gets Gussied Up

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Dec. 14, 2007 — -- In this enclave that bills itself as the West's Most Western Town, the Rusty Spur Saloon on Main Street still packs them in with live bands singing hurtin' songs to an eclectic crowd of aging debutantes in pearls, frat boys in Oxford shirts, golfers with winter tans and even the occasional grizzled cowboy.

The former Farmers State Bank-turned-saloon with its vault-turned-liquor cabinet and faux Western facade is quintessentially Old Scottsdale.

But nearby, a new Scottsdale is taking shape along a gussied-up irrigation canal recast as an exclusive "waterfront" shopping and dining enclave. Here, in the just-opened Canal restaurant in the SouthBridge development, ladies who lunch slide into deep banquets facing an elevated, light-pulsed runway for fashion shows and wall-sized video screens flashing non-stop videos only a fashionista could love. Downstairs, a free-standing martini bar is plunked in the center of a free-form retail space where individual designers market their own high-end clothing and jewelry. In office space above, architects and other creative types ply their trades.

SouthBridge is one piece of $3 billion in development projects now underway in a roughly 2-mile swath of downtown Scottsdale. Besides one-of-a-kind shops and chef-driven restaurants, the projects include a spate of hip hotels along with additions to an already vibrant arts and entertainment district. And new condominium developments are injecting year-round life into a formerly tourist-centric downtown prone to withering in the triple-digit temperatures of summer.

As the busy winter tourist season kicks off, repeat visitors to this tony Phoenix suburb might not recognize the place, given the building binge. The season's major event, the 2008 Super Bowl, will be played Feb. 3 in a 1-year-old, 63,000-seat stadium in nearby suburban Glendale, but Scottsdale will be hoopla headquarters. ESPN and the NFL Network will broadcast from the city, and major game-related events also will be centered there in the week leading up to the game.