6 Dec 4th-Dec 10th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Not Welcome A Phoenix neighborhood is fighting a proposed Joey Biltmore restaurant. BY CHEYLA DAVERMAN L ocated in the center of Phoenix, Brentwood Estates is a veri- table pseudo-suburbia. Take a sharp turn off Camelback Road and onto 31st Street, and the sounds of the city fall away. About 100 feet down the street, past a couple of ramshackle buildings, you’re immediately transported to a picture- perfect neighborhood. The homes are tidy, many with bright green manicured lawns. The hedges are crisp and the streets are clear. The houses are a mixture of remodels, new builds and a few original homes that date to the 1950s. It’s a desirable place to live — and has also become increasingly affluent. Houses in the 41-home neighborhood, which spans from East Mariposa Street to the north to East Elm Street to the south, range from about $700,000 to $1.4 million. But now, many residents worry, a new develop- ment might ruin their slice of urban utopia. That development is not an affordable housing project or an apartment complex, which are the usual suspects when resi- dents of a tony neighborhood get their hackles up. It’s the Joey Biltmore, a fancy new eatery from the Canada-based Joey Restaurant Group. In October, the restaurant group applied to redevelop a plot on the south- west corner of Camelback Road and 31st Street, where a glass office building currently sits. The development would encompass a 10,300-square-foot area and feature an elevated dining experience with patio and entertainment space. The plot abuts Brentwood Estates, even sharing a wall with some homes. Some resi- dents, concerned about an influx of traffic and noise, don’t have the appetite for what- ever will be on the Joey Biltmore menu. “Our neighborhood is full of very young people with babies and small children,” said Colleen Resch-Geretti, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years. “It’s a completely different dynamic and I’m concerned for these families.” More than anyone, Resch-Geretti has been responsible for pushing back against the Joey Biltmore development. She’s the self-appointed neighborhood president, a position that allows her to receive notifica- tions from the city and stay on top of devel- opments that affect Brentwood Estates. Since 2003, she’s been a regular at zoning meetings, the kind of engaged citizen who has the ability to throw a wrench into multi-million-dollar development plans. Resch-Geretti describes herself as a combination of the Little Engine That Could and the Little Red Hen, both charac- ters whose strong work ethic brings results. To hear her tell it, zoning lawyers hate to see her coming. “I was out at a (rezoning) hearing,” Resch-Geretti said. “I had gone in and I was filling out a speaker card and a zoning attorney came up to me and he said, ‘Colleen, you’re not here for my case tonight, are you?’ And I said, ‘No, you’re off the hook.’” Her new righteous cause is ensuring that Brentwood Estates has a say over the Joey Biltmore development before a single shovel breaks ground. The restaurant group submitted a rezoning request to Phoenix’s planning and development department last month, but Resch-Geretti said she first heard about it back in March. The restaurant would replace the 1980s-style office building that is currently home to law firms and a medical business. In its place would go a more modern design, featuring a sleek, open-concept interior with a view of the kitchen. The nearby BOK Financial bank, also part of the lot, would remain operational. A mockup of the Joey Biltmore restaurant included in the rezoning proposal submitted to the city of Phoenix. (Joey Restaurant Group) >> p 8 | NEWS |
