Phone booths aren't easy to find in this day and age. So that's why it's a shock to drive by the Casa del Arroyo apartment complex, at North Norris Avenue and East Seventh Street, and see giant versions of the anachronisms standing proud.
Two of the cast-iron booths, which were imported from London 20 years ago, stand by the street, while another booth rests in an alley.
Both the apartment complex and the phone booths are owned by Michael Coretz, a real estate broker for Commercial Real Estate Group. His brother, Craig, bought the booths in London from British Telecom in 1990. Each booth cost $90, plus $210 for delivery. Craig Coretz, who lived in Chicago and died in 2009, bought several of the booths, sold them for scrap metal and gave the three remaining booths to Michael.
The booths, which weigh in at 1,700 pounds, have 30 coats of paint each.
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Michael Coretz said he'd be willing to sell them for the right price, but he has no idea what that would be because the objects are so rare. He said an appraiser priced them at $1,800 to $2,000. That was 20 years ago, when phone booths were ubiquitous.
"It's interesting. I get phone calls every once in a while from people asking if they can buy them," Coretz said. "I tell them it would cost more to move them with a crane than what they're offering to pay."
Coretz calls the phone booths "Dr. Who Spaceships." He said he might restore them someday.
Contact reporter Phil Villarreal at 573-4130 or pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
