With last year's hiring of Pima County administrator Mike Hein as its new City Manager, Tucson's slow-as-molasses downtown redevelopment project, Rio Nuevo, is facing some leadership changes:
Top gun for Rio Nuevo resigns
Assistant city manager takes position in Glendale
By Rob O'Dell
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
1.04.2006
The most public face of Tucson's lagging Rio Nuevo redevelopment district has resigned to accept a contract overseeing economic development for the Phoenix suburb of Glendale.
Assistant City Manager Karen Thoreson's resignation, which was announced Tuesday, is effective this weekend. She starts her new job in Glendale on Monday. She worked for the city for 13 years, as the community services director, and as an assistant city manager for the last four years.
Julie Frisoni, communication director for the city of Glendale, said Thoreson was hired on a three-month contract to oversee the Economic Development Department until about March. She will be paid about $30,000, Frisoni said. Frisoni said the city just started a national search for an economic-development director, and Thoreson could apply for the full-time position if that interested her.
In Tucson, Thoreson oversaw economic development and Rio Nuevo, the special downtown redevelopment district approved by voters in 1999, where limited progress has fostered grumbling by some members of the City Council and the public and became an issue in the last city election.
Since 1999, the city has spent $31.8 million in Rio Nuevo funds Downtown, although most of its planned projects remain in the planning or conceptual stages. Completed projects include the restoration of the Fox Theatre and an expansion of the ticket window at the Tucson Convention Center.
A few, like new housing west of downtown and a recreation of part of the Presidio wall that once defined Tucson, are just getting rolling. Others are still in the early planning stages, including the Arizona Historical Society Museum, the new University Arizona Science Center and a restoration of the convento, chapel and other features of the San Agustin Mission. Some, such as an aquarium and an IMAX theater, have been dropped completely.
Thoreson said she is proud of progress that has been made in Rio Nuevo, and with her departure there is a good staff in place to keep the momentum going. She said the economic-development position in Glendale was a special position she couldn't pass up. "They've got a lot going on," she said, citing Glendale's recently opened hockey and concert arena and its NFL football stadium under construction. "It's just a very special opportunity."
Thoreson has been job searching since at least this summer, when she was one of six finalists for city manager in Greeley, Colo. City Manager Mike Hein said since it has been known she was looking for another job, "in that regard it's not a surprise" that Thoreson is leaving. Hein said it is likely the city won't fill Thoreson's position, and he doesn't expect to include her position in the draft of the 2006 budget, that will come out later this year. When asked if there was a long-term plan to eliminate Thoreson's position, Hein said, "I'm always looking at a variety of things from a staff standpoint." Thoreson was paid $134,597 a year in Tucson.
She leaves with some people not thrilled with Rio Nuevo's progress. Roy Martin, a downtown lawyer who is the leader of Citizens to Preserve Tucson's History, said that much of the vision of Rio Nuevo has been "wrongheaded," with too much of it focused on the wishes of developers and not enough on historical preservation. "The people in control of Rio Nuevo to date, I think their vision has been wrong," Martin said. "Whatever the developer wants, the developer gets. It's entirely up to the developers."
Glendale's new arena is a prime location for large concerts and it is also the home of the Phoenix Coyotes. A new stadium for the Arizona Cardinals is about 75 percent completed and will open for the 2006 NFL season. Thoreson said a great deal of retail development, housing and new hotels are being built around the arena and the stadium. She said she will keep her home in Tucson, and will stay in Glendale during the week and return to Tucson on the weekends.
Frisoni said Glendale is happy to have someone of Thoreson's caliber to oversee the department for the next three months, noting that she could help the city acquire the retail and commercial tenants that Glendale is seeking and help develop its downtown as well.
Where major Rio Nuevo projects stand
●Status of some of the major Rio Nuevo downtown redevelopment projects after six years:
- Re-creation of the Mission San Agustin and other historic structures from Tucson's birthplace: In Planning.
- Sonoran Sea Aquarium: Dropped.
- International Visitors and Trade Center: No Action
- New 250-room convention hotel: No Action.
- Restoration of Fox Theatre: Completed
- Arizona Historical Society Museum: Feasibility study just started.
- Flandrau Universe of Discovery Museum: Original $30 million proposal evolved into the planned $300 million University Science Center.
- New privately developed housing: Development started last year on one project. Planning being done for others
- IMAX Theater: Dropped
- Presidio Historic Park: Ground broken this year
- Arena: Not part of voter-approved plans. Feasibility study under way.
- Tucson Convention Center ticket window expansion: Done.
Rio Nuevo Funds expended to date: About $31.8 million
Compiled by Arizona Daily Star