Old Town Scottsdale's Big November Friday Lands Mid-Construction: Drake's Hollywood, Canal Convergence and the Second Street Crane

What happens when Old Town's newest supper club opens, its biggest annual light festival begins and a construction crane hangs precast concrete panels over Second Street, all in the same week?

That is the plan for Friday, Nov. 6. Drake's Hollywood is scheduled to open that night on Scottsdale Road. Canal Convergence opens at the Scottsdale Waterfront the same evening. Second Street is still closed along the south side of the Brown Avenue Parking Expansion, and it will stay that way for another ten days.

Across the next year, Old Town's new arrivals are lined up to open before the parking built for them is ready. This November is the first time all of those pieces are moving in the same week.

The Crane Keeps Its Own Hours

The garage project at First Street and Brown Avenue is turning the old Parking Corral into a larger structure. The lot now has one surface level and one underground level, and the project adds two more levels with 185 parking stalls. The city's project page explains why traffic keeps moving around it:

"2nd St. will be closed along the south side of the parking structure Oct. 16 – Nov. 16. The closure is needed due to the size of the crane needed to lift the large precast panels and public safety."

The panels are made off site, trucked in each night and lifted into place between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. First Street reopened on Oct. 16 when the crane moved from the north side of the garage to the south side, as Scottsdale Progress reported.

The city's published timeline has one wrinkle for anyone planning the second half of the month. The Second Street closure is listed through Nov. 16, but panel work on the south half of the structure is scheduled for Oct. 21 through Nov. 20. Expect overnight crane activity for a few nights after the street is set to reopen. Both dates are schedules, not guarantees. The city's update, posted in early October, also said panel installation was running ahead of schedule.

Here is how the next few weeks stack up:

1. Friday, Nov. 6: Drake's Hollywood's scheduled opening and the first night of Canal Convergence.
2. Nov. 6 to Nov. 15: Canal Convergence runs nightly at the Scottsdale Waterfront.
3. Nov. 16: Scheduled end of the Second Street closure.
4. Nov. 20: Scheduled end of south-side panel placement.
5. Spring 2027: The garage's new stalls are scheduled to open.
6. Summer 2027: Remaining garage work is scheduled to finish.

A Supper Club That Opens Before the New Stalls Do

Drake's Hollywood is moving into the former Buca di Beppo near First and Main. Its address is 3828 N. Scottsdale Rd. Fabulous Arizona reports that the 8,000-square-foot space will be the brand's largest location in the country. The restaurant comes from Vandelay Companies, led by CEO Hunter Pond, and reservations opened ahead of the Nov. 6 date.

Here is what to know before you book:

• The menu: Italian American dishes and steakhouse classics, including dry-aged ribeye, A5 Japanese Wagyu, Milo's lobster pasta and a 24-layer strawberry cake meant for sharing.
• The drinks: The bar's signature is the World's Coldest Martini, served at subzero temperatures.
• The schedule: Live music plays in the dining room every Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m.
• The club inside: Maître D' is a members-only lounge with its own private entrance and a late-night menu.
• Arrival: Guests enter through a valet-only entrance.

The valet setup matters more this month than it usually would. The restaurant is opening during the same weeks the Second Street closure narrows the routes into the blocks around the garage. Scottsdale Progress reported that Scottsdale City Council approved Drake's liquor license at its Aug. 24 meeting, months before the crane reached the south side of the garage.

Canal Convergence Ends Before the Crane Starts

This year's festival is called Canal Convergence: Western Nature. Scottsdale Arts lists large light installations, nightly fire shows, live music and dance, and family workshops. The artworks named for 2026 include PERIGEE, Desert Choir, KaKtos, Sky Wrangler, Prairie Fire, Dream Rider, grandmother turtle and Western Fire Garden.

The posted hours fit inside the garage's work window. Even on the latest nights, the festival closes an hour before panel installation is set to begin.

Scottsdale Arts says full daily schedules are still to come, so check its Canal Convergence 2026 page before choosing a night for a particular performance or workshop.

Where the Car Goes for Now

Until the new stalls open, Old Town's existing public parking carries the load. The Old Town public parking directory says the parking garages are free and street parking has a three-hour limit. Garages on its map include the 3rd Ave Parking Garage, the Galleria Parking Garage, the Civic Center Library Garage and the West Main St Underground Parking Garage. The map also shows the City Hall Parking Lot and the Stadium Parking Lot. The city has not named any of these as official alternatives during construction. They are simply the public options already on the map.

The three-hour street limit matters on a night that starts with dinner and ends at the canal. A garage is the simpler choice for a long evening.

The trolley helps less than you might expect. Scottsdale's transit page describes a fare-free system with three circulator routes that generally run weekdays from 5:45 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. On a weekday, that covers only the first hour and 45 minutes of a Canal Convergence evening. The trolley works for an early arrival, but you will need another way home.

Two October Sales Point to the Same Pattern Next Year

The garage schedule covers this month. Two property sales that closed in October show the same pattern stretching well into 2027.

On Oct. 6, Texas-based Terry Black's BBQ paid $11.2 million for the Bischoff property at 3925 N. Brown Ave., where Old Town's commercial core meets the Civic Center. Scottsdale Progress reports that the purchase covers two 46-year-old buildings totaling 10,409 square feet. The story ran on Oct. 26, 2026, and says the restaurant plans to open around this time next year.

Set that against the garage. The new stalls are scheduled for spring 2027 and the remaining work for summer 2027. If both schedules hold, Terry Black's would open on Brown Avenue in fall 2027, a few months after the garage on the same street is finished. That would make it the first major Old Town opening of this cycle to arrive after the construction rather than during it.

The second sale has a longer timeline. HonorHealth agreed to sell 3.1 acres at Second Street and Drinkwater Boulevard to the Empire Group for $17.3 million. CEO Todd LaPorte signed on Oct. 9, and an Oct. 13 purchase agreement shows $3.7 million down. According to Scottsdale Progress, a covenant filed with the deal says HonorHealth reviewed preliminary plans for a luxury hotel that may also include residences. The project is called the Mondrian Scottsdale Hotel and Residences. Longtime residents may remember the name. The original Mondrian Scottsdale opened in 2007 at 7353 E. Indian School Road and closed after several rebrandings.

No opening date has been reported for the Mondrian, and so far it exists only as preliminary plans tied to a land sale. It does sit on Second Street, the same street that is closed for the crane this month.

What the Rest of November Looks Like

The heaviest overlap runs from Nov. 6 through Nov. 16. During that stretch, Drake's opening weeks, all ten nights of Canal Convergence and the Second Street closure all fall on the same calendar. After Nov. 16, Second Street is scheduled to reopen. After Nov. 20, the south-side panel work is scheduled to be done. If the opening-week crowd at Drake's is a reason to wait, Thanksgiving week is the first stretch with both the festival and the crane finished.

Old Town has a lot coming up: a garage that opens in stages, a barbecue restaurant planned for next fall, and a hotel site with no timeline yet. If you live in or near Old Town and want to talk through how any of these projects could affect your block or your plans, I'm happy to share what I'm following. Annie Cole has watched Old Town change for more than 26 years. Let's Connect.