Presidio Terrace: 80 new lofts/townhomes for downtown
City sells Downtown garage to developer
By Thomas Stauffer
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
10.28.2005
The city announced Thursday it will sell a Downtown parking lot to developer Peggy Noonan, who plans to build nine townhomes and 72 loft condominiums in a project known as Presidio Terrace.
As part of the deal, the Rio Nuevo Downtown revitalization project will pitch in $2 million for 90 spaces of public parking that Noonan will provide in a two-story subterranean garage beneath the condos and townhomes.
Noonan, the owner of Presidio Terrace LLC and Reliance Commercial Construction Inc., teamed with architects Jim Gresham and Bob Vint on the proposal for the infill project.
The $20 million project will be built on the site of a parking lot that wraps around the Tucson Water building, in a block bounded by North Main and Granada avenues, West Paseo Redondo and Alameda Street.
Noonan said she will seek a variance to a local restriction, known as a "pad amendment," that limits buildings in the area to a height of four stories. She wants to go up
6.5 stories for the loft condominium complex at the project's west end. At its east end, the project will scale down to the nine two-story townhomes across the street from the Hiram Stevens and Edward Nye Fish homes, which date to the 1860s.
The City Council will have ultimate authority to grant the variance, but won't do so if neighborhood residents disapprove of the height increase, said Greg Shelko, Rio Nuevo's director.
"We've not made any assurances to the outcome as far as the pad amendment," Shelko said. "This agreement obligates her to build a minimum of 60 units whether she gets the variance or not."
Noonan paid fair-market value of $750,000 for the land, Shelko said.
Construction is expected to begin in March, with project completion estimated at summer 2007, Noonan said.
A limited amount of retail space - Noonan envisions a small market and a cafe - is included in the project, she said.
El Presidio neighborhood resident Chris Carroll said Noonan met with residents and addressed their concerns, namely that the project wouldn't detract from the historic nature of the immediate neighborhood, which includes some of the oldest structures in Tucson.
"Coming up with a very large structure that wraps around the Tucson Water Company building, provides parking, and at the same time has a historic sensitivity is a very difficult thing to do," Carroll said. "The feeling of the neighborhood was that they had the right architects for the job and that they really got it."
The Presidio Terrace project will incorporate a small market and a cafe as envisioned by developer Peggy Noonan:
