Deep in the NYT biz section today is a bleak look at Phoenix’s downtown real estate market?:

Commercial brokers blame a confluence of factors for the worst downturn in memory: rampant overbuilding, a national economic crisis, spiking unemployment and a near halt in population growth. The result is visible all over the city in the form of empty storefronts and “for lease” signs affixed to office buildings.

The worst-off of these projects were built in marginal locations on the outskirts of the metropolitan area, and stand completely empty months and even years after completion.

Mentioned specifically is the Hotel Monroe …:

Started in 2006, its plans were extravagant even by the bloated standards of the bubble era. The 144-room boutique hotel was to be housed in a rehabilitated 12-story Art Deco office building from the 1930s and would include opulent “Rock Star” suites, a five-star restaurant, a rooftop nightclub and 24-hour room service.

Construction began in 2007 but ground to a halt a year later when the project’s banker, Mortgages Ltd. — for a short time, Arizona’s largest private lender — cut off financing, en route to its own bankruptcy. The hotel remains unfinished, with dark windows and a desolate mien; Grace Communities, its developer, was recently cited by the City of Phoenix for code violations including graffiti on exterior walls and trash and debris around the premises.

When or how the hotel will be finished is uncertain, as the building is in foreclosure and headed to a trustee’s sale in April. There, 13 investors will try to recoup $76.5 million in loans, though experts say the building is unlikely to fetch anywhere near that amount.

… and the Viad Corporate Center:

…a 24-story, 478,000-square-foot high-rise in midtown Phoenix, which was built in 1991 and bought for an estimated $105 million in 2006. Earlier this month, Bank of America filed a motion in court to appoint a receiver for the property, citing the failure of the building’s owner to stay current on a $65 million loan.

Bank of America’s move to foreclose on the tower is one prominent sign that lenders are losing patience with large commercial borrowers and are stepping up efforts to resolve problem loans behind big properties. Commercial mortgages in Phoenix are souring at their highest rate in years: according to Foresight Analytics, a banking analysis firm, 5.3 percent of commercial mortgages in the metro area were delinquent in the fourth quarter of 2009, up from 2.3 percent at the same period in 2008.