Home"The AZ Insider" with Kathy Shayna Shocket › AZ Insider: Phoenix's “Psycho” Hotel in Spotlight
 
 
 

Kathy Shayna Shocket has the inside scoop on the stories that make headlines. 

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Kathy reports on the plans for the Phoenix building seen in Hitchcock's 1960 thriller.

 On the heels of the news that the city of Phoenix had received seven bids to redevelop the 99 year old Barrister Place Building , a group of us decided to get together to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 Psycho movie.  

That’s because the office building which has been mostly vacant for years, has a cameo in the thriller, and none of us could remember how the building, then a Phoenix hotel, was featured. 

“Hotel, hotel?” we exclaimed and were quick to each have the same reaction in our chatty calls and texts.

The only hotel we remember is the Bates Hotel and the shower!”   

But seeing the film again, it didn’t take long for all of us to quickly realize the movie’s opening scenes are in downtown Phoenix. There’s a panoramic opening wide shot that zooms into the former hotel on Jefferson and Central Ave. Cut to the scene in which Janet Leigh’s character meets with her boyfriend.

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  Later, of course she hits the road to California with her boss’s stolen cash and stumbles upon the infamous  Bates Hotel. Her fate and the rest is Hitchcock history, but the fate of the Phoenix building will depend upon which bid is accepted by the city of Phoenix, the building’s owner.  So could  the Barrister Place Building and its neighboring parking lots owned by the city,  become a data center, a medical research center, or maybe, just maybe, another hotel? 

 Stay tuned.

kathy-shayna-shocket

Kathy Shayna Shocket is a freelance writer and TV-Field Producer based in Phoenix, AZ. She's a former TV-Reporter who's also written for publications such as TIME Magazine, PEOPLE Magazine, MONEY Magazine, the Hollywood Reporter, and the NEW YORK TIMES. You can reach her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it