But when they finally come back to downtown, there will be plenty of new places for them to eat.

Currently, there are 21 restaurants in the pipeline to open in downtown Phoenix, according to data complied by Downtown Phoenix Inc. So, that means by this summer, there will be more restaurants open in downtown Phoenix than there were before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since March 2020, hundreds of restaurants around the state of Arizona have closed down because of hardships put on the industry by the Covid-19 pandemic. But restaurant owners and developers have a lot of confidence in the future of downtown Phoenix and are opening up shop there right now.

“The future is bright. Investors are bullish on downtown,” said Devney Preuss, the president and CEO of Downtown Phoenix Inc.

With more apartment buildings coming on line, allowing hundreds of more people the chance to live downtown, plus sporting events and concerts starting back up again and a hope that people will return to their offices, Preuss said there will be a demand for places to eat.

While many downtown Phoenix restaurants closed during the last year, developers have been able to find the brands, concepts and entrepreneurs who are able to move into those spaces.

Red Development, which owns and operates Phoenix’s CityScape retail center, was able to sign healthy-food focused Everbowl to replace Yogurt Time, which closed. The landlord was also able to sign local brewery State 48 to open a new concept called the Phoenix Bourbon Room in the 9,202-square-foot second-story space that was once occupied by the Tilted Kilt.

Preuss said that the ground work done by Phoenix City Council and a number of community groups and businesses dating back to the mid-2000s has set downtown Phoenix up to be able to rebound quickly from the economic downturn caused by the pandemic and move ahead into the future.