Tucson Development Thread

[Ted Lyons]

Hmm.



Maybe they're going to build above some of the Congress-facing buildings?

[InTheBurbs]

Originally Posted by Ted Lyons

Maybe they're going to build above some of the Congress-facing buildings?

Where did you find this?

Googling "Loveblock" brings up some interesting results, but did see that Loveblock Partners LLC was incorporated in September. It's some of the same people (Stiteler, etc) that were proposing the Moxy in the other two locations. Maybe they are going to try again for something behind the Rialto, but on a smaller scale (i.e. one hotel rather than two)?

On a possibly related note, I read in the transcript from the August Rio Nuevo meeting that they "expect to see a couple more inbound hotels", and that they are in conversations with other brands about the TCC.

During that meeting, they also discussed 75 Broadway, and mentioned that they had been close to signing CVS for a spot on the ground floor at 6th and Broadway.

[Ted Lyons]

Originally Posted by InTheBurbs

Where did you find this?

Instagram

[crzyabe]

For those who have not heard, Rio Nuevo gave the go ahead to the Bautista project on the west side. They will be including some funding and tax abatement

Rio Nuevo approves investment in $72M Bautista Project

[mdpx]

Love seeing all development downtown. Even as a long-time Phoenician, I really appreciate my trips to visit friends and always make it a point to go down 4th Ave, downtown, the Mercado, etc. The scale is big, but human. Love this town.

[Ted Lyons]

Rio Nuevo released the minutes from their October meeting yesterday and this passage regarding the timeline to get a certificate of occupancy for the first floor of City Park stood out to me:

Originally Posted by Mark Irvin

I know, but we've been working on it for a while and, you know, I don't want to get ourselves into another -- I hate to use these two words, but I don't want to get ourselves into another Allan Norville situation. I want to see hard dates with things happening.

[Ted Lyons]

Originally Posted by InTheBurbs

Looks like 44 Studio apartments along with 3,350 sf of retail.


Render: Engberg Associates Architects


Development Application here

This is being downsized to three floors. Boo.

[crzyabe]

Streetcar from the airport to Tucson Mall? A federal grant could put plans in motion.

Looks like there might be movement on streetcar expansion. Still probably a long shot

[crzyabe]

Reading through the minutes from the Rio Nuevo meeting in August. There was a substantial presentation on the west side of I-10 (the Mercado area). I wish i had the slide deck from the presentation, but below is a summary of what was said about each project. The presenter said that the time frame for completion of these project was, best case, 3-5 years.

Bautista - It's a 253 unit, two wing plaza complex with all of the commercial/retail activity at grade on a podium deck with one grade below of underground parking. Additionally, 16,500 square feet of commercial retail.

Menlo Park Commons - Menlo Park Commons is a key project for the overall district. It's going to house, a parking garage facility, which is currently sized at 450 spaces of underground parking. I'm pleased to announce that we have made very good progress with Chicanos Por La Causa over the last six 21 months with a new potential opportunity zone investment with them coupled with a new market tax credit allocation that is being preliminarily committed to the project in the amount of $25 million. This project is a multi-phase, mixed use complex that will be housing our Grand Mercado building, which is currently sized at 21,000 square feet of pure commercial retail, 15,000 square feet on the ground floor, 6,000 square feet on the second mezzanine level, and then it's lined with a Workforce Housing 130-unit project that we're currently in negotiations on with the new Freddie Mac product that supports a mixed income execution. In addition to that, it will be our grocery, which we're currently working with a very well-known Nogales-based grocer that will be bringing their footprint to Tucson. They actually happen to live here in Tucson, but it will be their first store that they're looking to do here with a traditional carniceria and a whole slew of other produce and other prepared foods that they're looking to roll into the Tucson marketplace

101 Linda - Designed by Poster Frost Mirto architects and it is an eight-story build to suit, which we are currently in preliminary negotiations with two different tenants. One is a 60,000 square foot user that is currently in the marketplace that's looking to move from Fort Lowell their Tucson-based headquarters, and the other is also another group that is from the Phoenix area that's looking for a 55 to 60,000 square foot opportunity. We are currently exploring both of them in earnest.

West Abbey - This is a commercial mixed use project as well, which is still in concept level for the time being. It will be a temporary, partially improved parking facility, which will continue to be able to provide free parking for our annex and Mercado and now Monier retail.

Block D - Then lastly on the map is just a area showing what we refer to as our block D site. That is the second of the river front properties, and it is currently slated to be a large mixed use commercial complex, may or may not have any residential component. At the moment, we're talking with -- the Ozone investor on Bautista has a great interest in it in doing a potential hotel product. They happen to be one of the premier Marriott developers in the country and Marriott has very much an interest in potentially placing one of their products with them, so we're in preliminary conversations with them on that. That also would be housing primarily commercial and office on the podium deck as well.

[Ted Lyons]

Originally Posted by Ted Lyons

Preliminary design concept for the project on the southeast corner of Euclid and Speedway. No more weird cantilevered design over the dumpy houses.

Steve Kozachik noted in his newsletter yesterday that this project technically isn't within the height requirements of the Main Gate Overlay District. He goes on to say, "It belongs within the campus footprint, not across the street from West University." This, of course, ignores the fact that it actually fronts a church, not actual homes within West University, and that other structures of similar height (e.g., Main Gate Garage, University Services Building, Coronado, Arbol de la Vida) already exist on the same block and the overlay district allows for similar heights a short distance south at Euclid and 4th. Arguing that this project isn't within the campus footprint is a matter of pure semantics as it's obviously within the area that most people consider to be the University.

[InTheBurbs]

Originally Posted by Ted Lyons

Steve Kozachik noted in his newsletter yesterday that this project technically isn't within the height requirements of the Main Gate Overlay District. He goes on to say, "It belongs within the campus footprint, not across the street from West University." This, of course, ignores the fact that it actually fronts a church, not actual homes within West University, and that other structures of similar height (e.g., Main Gate Garage, University Services Building, Coronado, Arbol de la Vida) already exist on the same block and the overlay district allows for similar heights a short distance south at Euclid and 4th. Arguing that this project isn't within the campus footprint is a matter of pure semantics as it's obviously within the area that most people consider to be the University.

...and it's on Speedway for Pete's sake.

[InTheBurbs]

Webcam for the Hampton and Home 2 on Stone.

https://app.truelook.com/?u=eh1576095343#tl_live

[southtucsonboy77]

I heard possibly that 75 E. Broadway may be looking at going from 12 to 14 back up to 22 floors. Fingers crossed.

[kmiller5]

Originally Posted by southtucsonboy77

I heard possibly that 75 E. Broadway may be looking at going from 12 to 14 back up to 22 floors. Fingers crossed.

Wow I've been expecting to hear the project was cancelled. Hopefully we hear something definitive soon.

[Ted Lyons]

Originally Posted by southtucsonboy77

I heard possibly that 75 E. Broadway may be looking at going from 12 to 14 back up to 22 floors. Fingers crossed.

A few months back, in their presentation to RN, Peach said they'd be adding a few floors based on different usage, I think. Hadn't heard of that big of an increase, but we can hope . . .

[Ted Lyons]

Looks like City Council is going to vote on whether to sell 124 E Broadway (the Access Tucson building and parking lot just west) to Ross Rulney this week. The terms of the sale are $1.5 million for the building and land but $1 million must be invested in renovations/improvements within 30 months or the city can take back title and refund half the sale price. Sounds like a pretty smart deal to me.

[InTheBurbs]

There are plans to spend $38 million to convert 8 floors of One South Church into a 150 room hotel, with ground floor restaurant, meeting spaces, fitness center, and marketplace.

https://tucson.com/business/floors-o...b2decfa2c.html

[InTheBurbs]

According to Inside Tucson Business, Rio Nuevo recently provide preliminary support for a proposal from Peach/Dabdoub to subdivide the Chicago Store and Wig-o-Rama block into smaller spaces to support a bakery; restaurant and bar; plant shop; record store; and a possibly a Bookman’s Entertainment Exchange that would include a bar and cafe. The second floor would be converted to a co-working space.

Story here

[kaneui]

2019 review, 2020 outlook: downtown Tucson/UA corridor development


Along the Sun Link streetcar corridor, stretching from the Mercado District west of I-10 through the downtown and 4th Avenue districts and on to the UA campus, some of the most notable activity in 2019 involved student housing and medical/healthcare-related projects near the UA.

Major projects completed last year within the UA Health Sciences Campus include the $450M+ expansion of Banner-University Medical Center, featuring a new nine-story hospital tower; the $165M, nine-story Health Sciences Innovation Building, and the $26M renovation/addition to the Skaggs Building in the College of Pharmacy.

Four large student housing projects near the UA campus added over 2,300 additional beds: the UA Honors Village (1,056 beds), the 12-story Aspire tower (502 beds), The Mark – an eight-story complex on Broadway (595 beds), and Hub Speedway (183 beds). Athletic facilities projects completed at the UA included an $8M renovation of Hillenbrand Softball Stadium and the new $16.3M Cole & Jeannie Davis Sports Center adjacent to Arizona Stadium.

In the downtown, completed projects included several low- and moderate-income apartment buildings, as well as the 150k s.f. office building for Caterpillar’s Tucson Mining Center and the 55k s.f. Conference and Educational Center at Cathedral Square.


2020 Outlook

Highlights for the coming year will feature the opening of numerous market-rate, multifamily housing projects as well as construction on several new hotels near the Tucson Convention Center.

Although fairly limited until now, nearly 500 market-rate apartments will come online downtown in 2020, including the RendezVous Urban Flats (100 units), The Flin (243 units), and The Monier (122 units). Keeping the momentum going, over 800 market-rate units are scheduled to start construction this year around the downtown, including the 13-story Opus/4th Ave. mixed-use project with 323 units; The Bautista in the Mercado District-- a 253-unit development; 80 units in the mixed-use, 14-story, 75 Broadway tower; two projects from Ross Rulney--the Julian Drew Lofts (57 units) and 127 S. 5th Ave. (96 units); and 28 condos in the Casa Vicente project on S. Stone Ave.

With Rio Nuevo's commitment of over $65M to upgrade and improve facilities at the Tucson Convention Center over the next few years, several hotel projects will move forward in 2020, including the completion of the TCC DoubleTree (170 keys) and the Hampton Inn/Home2 Suites at Cathedral Square (198 keys) in time for the 2021 Gem & Mineral Show. Additional downtown hotels that should see construction this year include the renovation of the former Hotel Arizona into a 296-key Hyatt Regency, and the conversion of eight lower floors of the One South Church tower into a 150-key boutique hotel.

Other notable downtown projects this year include the completion of the Southern Arizona Heritage & Visitor Center and the UA Gem & Mineral Museum in the renovated historic Pima County Courthouse; the completion of the adjacent January 8 Memorial, and construction on the much-delayed final phase of the Downtown Links transportation project.

On the UA campus, three notable projects should start construction in 2020: the $20M Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, the $101M Applied Research Building and the $99M, seven-story Grand Challenges Research Building. Activity around Main Gate Square will see the completion of the mixed-use, 14-story Graduate Hotel/OLIV Residences tower and continued construction on two student housing projects: the 10-story Aspire II tower (482 beds) and the Hub on Campus – Park Ave. complex (485 beds).

[andrewsaturn]

Broadway widening between Euclid and Country Club to start late January.

https://www.tucsonaz.gov/tdot/news/b...update-meeting