Tucson Development Thread

[Patrick S]

Originally Posted by Locofresh55

Just for clarification purposes, the one at Golf Links and Kolb and the one at Broadway and Camino Seco are WalMart Neighborhood Markets right?? Those are the ones like what we have at 22nd and Craycroft and the one on Grant. I don't remember the golf links and houghton location, but is that an actual WalMart or a Neighborhood market??

I found the article about the 5 Wal-Marts. The 2 you mentioned are Neighborhood Markets, but the other 3 (including Houghton & Golf Links) are Supercenters. Also, I read the reader comments from the article and it appears that Wal-Mart is in the very initial stages of a project at Ajo & Kinney on the far south-side (actually it's not even in the city limits).

[Don B.]

^ FYI, it's "website," not "web-sight." I saw you using the latter numerous times in previous posts.

I'll be down again in Tucson soon to stay with my friends...probably for the next Second Saturdays event, or whatever it is called.

--don

[Qwijib0]

Here's a thing I digitized.

Tucson - 1953


Click for Big

[PHX31]

/\ Cool. I have nearly an identical map in my office of Phoenix from August 1, 1953 that is prepared by the Phoenix City Planning Commission.

I wonder if these maps were a common thing (produced every few years or something), or if 1953 was a special year for some mapping reason.

[Patrick S]

Originally Posted by Qwijib0

Here's a thing I digitized.

Tucson - 1953


Click for Big

That's an interesting map. One of the first thing you notice is there is no I-10. It was just called Freeway by downtown, and more northwest it was called Casa Grande Hwy., and in the southeast it was called Tucson-Benson Hwy./US 80, and the southeast portion wasn't even connected to the downtown/northwest (it shows a dotted line labeled 'under construction'). Other things you notice is that there is little north of Prince Rd., even less between Wetmore and River Rd. and next to nothing north of River. I also notice this Gilpin Airport (and Gilpin Stadium) just north of Prince, next to Casa Grande Hwy./A-84 (now I-10). I also notice that Aviation Hwy. stops well short of Broadway, Golf Links only went as far west as Wilmot (and there is little development east of Wilmot), what looks like Kolb is called Camino Miramonte (and is only between Speedway & 22nd St.), Downtown Airport is where the Bridges/Tucson Markteplace/U of A Bio Science Park is currently being built, Campbell is under construction between Ajo and Bilby Rd., the terminal at Tucson Municipal Airport (now TIA) is off Tucson-Nogales Hwy. (US-89, now I-19) instead of Valencia. I'm sure there are many other things that jump out at others, but these are the things I noticed.

[Patrick S]

I work on Broadway, not to far from Craycroft. I've noticed the last couple days that they're doing a lot of work where the Hobby Lobby, Stein Mart, Mattress Firm and Vitamin Shoppe will be located. They've been doing work on the old Mervyn's building and parking lot for a few weeks now, but the last couple days they've been building a new building in the parking lot. According to the article on May 18, 2012 on InsideTucson.com this will be were the Mattress Firm and Vitamin Shoppe will be located (in a 14,500 square feet building replacing the old run-down tire store building - with extra room for a couple extra tenets).

[Patrick S]

Smaller hotels in the mix for downtown Tucson

It's almost like the last 13 years never existed, just vanished.
Voters passed Proposition 400 overwhelmingly in 1999 with bright hopes for the future.
It was a $79 million dollar plan to revitalize a tired, old downtown.
It was called Rio Nuevo.
It contained $10 million for a Sea Aquarium, $4 million for the Fox Theater, and $4 million for the Convento and Warner's Mill.
Also, tucked inside Prop 400 was an $8 million dollar promise to build a "new convention hotel."
By the time the hotel died a much publicized death, the price tag has jumped to $200 million.
It's likely Rio Nuevo would not have been passed if voters had known the real price of the hotel and all the other promised amenities.
Or that the city could find a way to spend $230 million and have very little to show for it.
Now that trying to hit grand slam home runs has failed miserably, some city leaders are rethinking things.
"Let's try to hit a couple of singles, get some men on base and start to score some runs by playing small ball," says Ward I city council member Steve Kozachik. "That way you're going to start to kick start the economy."
Kozachik is responding to an item contained in Tucson mayor Jonathan Rothchild's just released 360 plan.
The plan is a goal oriented strategy for the mayor and comes on the heels of his 180 day plan which he recently touted as a success.
Although rather general, when it comes to downtown, he wants do "decide on key downtown redevelopment  projects, - hotels, TCC, UA expansion - and begin to execute those projects."
It's hotels - not hotel.
Seems the days of a big convention center hotel have given way to more practicality.
"I think what we're going to ultimately be looking at is probably three or four smaller hotels," Rothschild says. "Maybe 300 or 400 room hotels."
Still those hotels don't come cheap and whether city voters will approve after the last fiasco is unlikely.
But the city doesn't have to go back to the voters even though it wiped away the voters wishes by discarding the hotel project.
"That whole Prop 400 thing was pre empted three years ago when the state legislators said you can do nothing with the tif (tax incremental financing dollars) money because you screwed up so badly," says Kozachik. "Other than the TCC and convention center hotel."
But this time, if hotel projects come to light, it's not likely to involve taxpayer money.
"Let the market drive that, not the city," Kozachik says.
Mayor Rothschild acknowledges as much, saying the city will have to deal with downtown players like Allan Norville, Don Bourne and Humberto Lopez.
"Those people we have to engage with," he says. "But ultimately, it has to be their capital that comes to the table."
But Kozachik says he hasn't seen a project yet "which meets the smell test."

Here's the link to mayor Rothchild's 360 plan that was talked about in the article. Though it isn't very specific, there are the outlines for some good ideas and plans.

[kaneui]

Originally Posted by Patrick S

Smaller hotels in the mix for downtown Tucson

As I've said before, I think the developers who have announced possible downtown hotels--Bourn, Gadsden, Peach Properties--are waiting for the city and/or Rio Nuevo to commit to improving/enlarging the TCC before lining up any construction loans. And as the mayor and Steve K. have noted, there won't be any government funds to subsidize such projects. Nevertheless, the fact that there is still no decent downtown business hotel in a metro of one million people is rather astounding.

[Patrick S]

So, I ran across a little tidbit of information that I never saw reported anywhere. On May 22, 2012 the city of Tucson, by a unanimous vote, annexed the Valencia Crossing property at Valencia and Kolb. I think it's about 350 square acres.

Here's a little info about it from the City of Tucson website (you can click onto the June, 2012 newsletter link on the right of the page and scroll down a little and it will give you a little bit more info).

Here is a link to a PDF file about the actual development (WARNING: This file will automatically download the PDF file to your computer, so if you don't want this done, then don't click on the download).

[Patrick S]

Rio Nuevo may add Manning House
BOARD WILL CONSIDER 60-DAY OPTION ON HISTORIC BUILDING

An unlikely suitor has appeared to rescue a historic downtown building from the brink of foreclosure.
At a special meeting this afternoon, the Rio Nuevo District will discuss entering into a 60-day option agreement to buy the privately owned Manning House.
"While earlier than we wanted to focus on development, this opportunity arose because of the imminent foreclosure," Rio Nuevo Chairman Fletcher McCusker said in an email.
The deal would prevent the bank from taking over the property and give the district two months to find a development partner, broach the issue with the city of Tucson and analyze the condition of the house before finalizing any sale, McCusker said.
No details were available Tuesday on how much money the district would have to pay for the option to keep the property out of foreclosure.
Recently, Manning House CEO Colleen Concannon placed the debt-ridden property on the market for about $2.5 million to try to avoid a bank takeover.
Concannon said she is glad the district is considering the purchase because she wanted to avoid selling it to a developer who would tear down part or all of the 1907 home, destroying a piece of Tucson history.

[ppdd]

Previously posted photos can be seen in the original story: http://www.downtowntucson.org/2012/0...ialto-theatre/

STUDENT HOUSING WILL ARISE NEXT TO RIALTO THEATRE

By Teya Vitu

Joe Pagac murals on the Rialto Theatre wall delight drivers as they emerge from the Broadway underpass.


Six stories of student housing will be built on this lot next to the Rialto. Construction starts in a couple weeks.
Otherwise, there’s little to capture your attention other than the parking lot that has spread over the Broadway-Toole-Congress lot ever since the Greyhound station was razed in early 2006.

That’s set to change before the Fourth of July.

Get ready for some serious urban density that will create an instant Plaza Centro neighborhood with nearly 500 new residents at Downtown’s eastern edge. Imagine a six-story student housing structure stretching the length of the Rialto plus street-level retail.

Oasis Tucson President Jim Campbell has been getting ready since 2006 as he got the right of first refusal to develop the 2.47 acres of city-owned land on both sides of Toole Avenue between the Rialto and the railroad tracks.

While we’ve see nothing but surface parking and, since September 2011, the four-level, 378-space Centro Garage, Campbell has visualized several urban village settings since long before the Downtown renaissance took hold.

By the end of June, Campbell’s mental image will finally start to take shape on the former Greyhound lot and atop the Centro Garage.


A look at the Cadence student housing that will be built on the former Greyhound lot.
Campbell’s partner, Capstone Development Partners of Birmingham, Ala., will start construction of a $33 million, 456-bed university student housing complex called “Cadence.” The name is a nod to the rhythm of the nearby railroad, the rhythm of the even nearer bicyclists and the rhythm of the music right next door and across the street.

Capstone expects to have Cadence ready for University of Arizona students by August 2013.

“It was clear to us when we looked at the Downtown property that Downtown was on the move,” said Bruce McKee, Capstone’s principal. “Just in the period we’ve been involved, things are changing in an extremely positive way. When we started, we said we were at the end of 4th Avenue. Now we say we’re at the end of Congress. You can sell Congress as a true amenity of Downtown.”

Cadence will have a pair of six-story buildings in an L-shape on the Broadway-Toole-Congress triangle east of the Rialto and three stories on top of the Centro Garage. The buildings will run along the Rialto and Broadway with a one-story commercial section extending along Toole to create a tenant-only courtyard.

The six-story complex is a radical shift from the 11-story tower proposal with 750 beds that Oasis/Capstone presented in April 2011. At that time, the University of Arizona chose Oasis/Capstone and Peach Properties in a request for proposal process for privately-financed and –owned student housing projects with UA branding and student referrals.

In the past year, the Capstone team rethought plopping an 11-story tower in a 1910s environment. McKee acknowledged “it was pretty harsh” and there was a “certain skepticism” from the public for the tower.

“We scaled it down to the adjoining neighborhood,” Campbell said. “It goes back to the old master plan,” sketched out by Los Angeles architect Aleks Istanbullu.


Drivers coming to Downtown on Broadway will thread between six stories of student housing on the left and more student housing atop the Centro Garage to the right.
Originally, Campbell’s Plaza Centro literally was a village plaza environment with restaurant/retail/loft buildings built around a plaza. Back then, commercial was primary, housing secondary, something a couple stories above the shops.

Even in the past year, commercial space has been scaled back more, from 12,000-14,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet. Campbell plans to start marketing the commercial space in July.

Capstone is tapping into the new school of student housing that has just come on the market in the past couple years. Apartments come in one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom configurations, but the days of shared bathrooms or bathrooms down the hall are so – 20th century.

“All of the students will have private bedrooms and bathrooms,” said Chad Izmirian, a Capstone senior vice president based in the Encinitas, Calif., office near San Diego. “The building will be fully wireless. Cable and Internet is included in the rent. We lease by the bed, not by the unit.”

Cadence is non-freshman housing. The six-story structures on the Greyhound lot will have more three- and four-bedroom apartments and some two-bedrooms and singles.

The 169 apartments on the Centro Garage will have one-, two- or three- bedrooms.

“We thought the garage side is more attractive for an older student, a graduate student or a senior.” Izmirian said.

The Centro Garage will undergo quite a transformation in the next year. Think of what you see now as a skeleton.

10,000 square feet of commercial and offices will wrap around the 4th Avenue and Toole sides at street level and 12 apartments will be built on the cantilevered deck jutting out from the garage’s second level. Three stories of apartments will be built on top of the garage.

“It will make it look like a mixed-use development rather than just a garage,” McKee said. “It will change the character dramatically.”

Capstone has built 60,000 student housing units on or near 62 universities, including most recently the University of Florida and Bowling Green State University. Capstone also opened two phases of Taylor Place with 1,284 apartments in fall 2008 and 2009 for Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus. Taylor Place is on Taylor Street between 1st and 2nd streets.

Izmirian’s Western Division has built student housing for Colorado State University, University of the Pacific, University of San Diego and University of Redlands.

Plaza Centro could only happen because Campbell convinced the Tucson Department of Transportation to realign the underpass. The original design had two tunnels aligned in a way to render the Downtown side undevelopable.

“You ended up with no useable land (next to the railroad) and the Greyhound lot was about half the size it is now. It made the land worthless,” Campbell said.

Campbell suggested the present alignment, which created two workable pads that will be Plaza Centro.

In the mean time, streetcar construction has started, and Cadence and the streetcar should come online at roughly the same time.

“We’re going to heavily promote the streetcar and try to get our students to only use the streetcar,” McKee said.

Izmirian added: “Being a mile from campus is not necessarily convenient, but the streetcar makes it convenient.”

[Thirsty]

Must have missed this earlier, but Tucson will now have evening departures both directions between LA and Tucson. That means catching some ZZZ's in what would be a First-Class seat on an airplane.

The biggest improvement in LA to Tucson, moving from a total waste of a day to an overnight trip. Depart LA at 10pm, arrive at 7:30 or 8:30am depending on daylight savings.

I liked the old Tucson to LA time better (11pm to 8am) but 7:30pm arriving at 5:30 is still workable.

Amtrak thinks they can double their revenue on the Sunset Limited route, so maybe they'll update the coaches on that line. My last trip on that line was four or five years ago, and the coach cars had no outlets for portable electronics. It was their least profitable line, so I suppose it got the oldest cars. Still a nice way to travel though.

I read on another forum that the Union Pacific is updating their Yuma to Phoenix line, so there could be a Phoenix stop in the near future. That would certainly drive up ridership. Phoenix would jump at the chance to renovate their old station just blocks from the light rail.

[Patrick S]

Originally Posted by Thirsty

Must have missed this earlier, but Tucson will now have evening departures both directions between LA and Tucson. That means catching some ZZZ's in what would be a First-Class seat on an airplane.

The biggest improvement in LA to Tucson, moving from a total waste of a day to an overnight trip. Depart LA at 10pm, arrive at 7:30 or 8:30am depending on daylight savings.

I liked the old Tucson to LA time better (11pm to 8am) but 7:30pm arriving at 5:30 is still workable.

Amtrak thinks they can double their revenue on the Sunset Limited route, so maybe they'll update the coaches on that line. My last trip on that line was four or five years ago, and the coach cars had no outlets for portable electronics. It was their least profitable line, so I suppose it got the oldest cars. Still a nice way to travel though.

I read on another forum that the Union Pacific is updating their Yuma to Phoenix line, so there could be a Phoenix stop in the near future. That would certainly drive up ridership. Phoenix would jump at the chance to renovate their old station just blocks from the light rail.

I saw an article about this too. It amazes me that the Sunset Limited is (or was) their least profitable line. A train from LA to, well LA (New Orleans, LA), with stops in Ontario (CA), Palm Springs, Yuma, Tucson, El Paso, San Antonio, and Houston among other places would do well, you'd think. According to Wikipedia, during fiscal year 2011 the Sunset Limited carried nearly 100,000 passengers, which was an increase of 8.8% over the previous fiscal year, but was still the fewest passengers of any long-distance train in the Amtrak system. The FY2011 revenue was $11,138,286, and increase of 11.8% from the previous fiscal year.

[nickw252]

Never ridden the Sunset Limited but I rode the Southwest Chief last year and California Zephyr the year before - both had power outlets. I really wish Phoenix had daily train service, I love riding the rails.

[Patrick S]

Originally Posted by nickw252

Never ridden the Sunset Limited but I rode the Southwest Chief last year and California Zephyr the year before - both had power outlets. I really wish Phoenix had daily train service, I love riding the rails.

It's been a long time since I rode a train. I rode the City of New Orleans from Carbondale, IL to just north of New Orleans (we were going to Baton Rouge, LA, which doesn't have a stop on the route), and again from Chicago to Carbondale. The Chicago to C'Dale route was at night, but some of the C'Dale to Louisiana route was during the day. I was younger and I remember thinking it was really cool. I wouldn't mind riding the train to LA (though it's not exactly my favorite place in the world), but I'd prefer a bullet train from Tucson to Phoenix, then to LA. This country sorely needs High Speed Rail.

[andrewsaturn]

There's an interesting fact I found in regards to The Retreat about a family living where the property is being built in this article. Kudos to them...

Student housing sees conflicts, holdouts throughout Tucson
By STEPHANIE CASANOVA Published July 18, 2012 at 2:54am

With multiple student housing projects breaking ground throughout Tucson, developers and residents within the communities are facing various conflicts.

On February 28, Tucson’s mayor and council approved the Main Gate Overlay District, an overlay zoning area known as Area One that makes it more flexible for transit-oriented businesses to build within Euclid Avenue, Speedway Boulevard, Tyndall Avenue and First Street, despite opposition from 12,000 people in the surrounding historic neighborhood. The plans largely include new student housing developments in those areas.

The West University Neighborhood Association collected signatures of people who opposed the overlay district, displeased with the speed of the rezoning process. According to Chris Gans, the neighborhood association’s president, the mayor and council should have been more inclusive of the neighborhood when determining the rezone.

The council was interested in having transit-oriented developments, which serve bicyclists and pedestrians as well as those who ride buses or the streetcar. They approved the rezoning three months after it was introduced to the community, a process that usually takes six to nine months.

Campus Acquisitions, which is building a 14-story student-housing tower on Tyndall Avenue near the Speedway Boulevard intersection, went to the council saying it could build a transit-oriented project but that it needed to open before the fall 2013 semester.

“So in order for them to start construction to reach the goal of being an open building in 2013 for the fall semester, the council was willing to expedite the rezoning process,” said Jim Mazzocco, planning administrator with the City of Tucson Planning and Development Services department. “We didn’t skip any steps.”

Gans doesn’t like the changes made in the area, which is considered a transition zone between the historic neighborhood west of the university and the university campus itself. The height restrictions on buildings in that area, which were once around 30 feet, are now 159 feet, allowing Campus Acquisitions to build both the 14-story and a future 13-story housing project.

“We also had our own plan, which was a lot higher than what our old neighborhood plan called for but we couldn’t even get them (the council) to talk about that,” Gans said. The biggest disagreement Gans and others in the historic neighborhood had with the city was regarding the speedy process, which Gans believes didn’t account for the long-term effects on the neighborhood, businesses and developers.

“We understand the necessity for new development and we’re not opposed to well-planned and appropriate development that actually serves the residential neighborhood as well,” Gans said. “This has really been aimed at getting something passed so that a student housing project get built.”

The neighborhood association’s 12,000 signature petition was dismissed on a technicality and Campus Acquisitions is currently building the tower. The council will decide on August 7 whether a section west of Euclid Avenue near Speedway Boulevard will be considered a special exceptions area as well, allowing it the flexibility that Area One was granted.

“You could get flexibility in the parking standards and flexibility in the loading standards,” Mazzocco said. “As long as you’re putting a development that is transit-oriented.”

Landmark Properties, a developer working on student housing on 22nd Street and Park Avenue, faced a different situation when preparing for demolition and construction.

A family with two properties on 23rd Street refused to sell their homes to the developer, forcing a change in their site plan. George Kalil, owner of Kalil Bottling Company and president of the Millville Neighborhood Association, said he talked to the family regarding the permanence of their decision.

“Somewhere along the lines it’ll be too late once they lay the cement and they put the roads in,” Kalil said.

The developer offered $250,000 for each of the two properties, but the families still refused. Kalil said at the time that the developer was purchasing the properties in January, one of their elderly relatives wanted to stay there.

“Every time we approached them, they would basically just double our offer and we just kind of took it that they did not want to sell at any price at that point,” said Jason Doornbos, vice president of acquisitions and development of Landmark Properties.
The developer plans to build around the two houses and put up a wall to separate them from the student housing community.

“We won’t even be able to tell that they’re there,” Doornbos said.
Though Kalil believes the housing complex will change the neighborhood completely, he said the family seems to be “perfectly happy” being in the middle of the complex.

“They said, ‘No, we’re quite content staying right here,’” he added.

Landmark Properties’ complex, which will be named The Retreat, is set to open fall 2013 with 774 bedrooms.

http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/artic...oughout-tucson

[Patrick S]

Tourists coming to Tucson spent 20% more last year

Tourists spent a record $2.4 billion in the Tucson region last year, according to a new report from the Arizona Office of Tourism.

The amount topped the previous yearly record of $2.2 billion spent in 2006 and represents a 20 percent jump over the $2 billion spent in the region in 2010.

The report, presented July 12 at Gov. Jan Brewer’s conference on tourism, said the money coming in from tourists directly generated 22,000 jobs in Pima County, and added $537 million in earnings by the private sector and $135 million in tax revenues to federal, state and local governments.

Spending by tourists in Tucson represents about 13 percent of the $18.3 billion that was taken in state-wide last year. The state-wide amount didn’t show as dramatic improvement as happened in Tucson, up 3.4 percent from $17.7 billion in 2010.

[Patrick S]

Recently I provided a link to Tucson's mayor, Jonathan Rothschild's new 360 plan on the city's website. Here's an article from InsideTucsonBusiness.com:

Rothschild expands on vision for Tucson’s future

Posted: Friday, July 20, 2012 12:00 pm | Updated: 11:53 am, Thu Jul 19, 2012.
By Patrick McNamara

Following up on his “180 Day” plan, Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild unveiled a vision for his next 360 days in office.

“The difference between this and 180 is, I believe, it’s much more ambitious,” Rothschild said July 13.

The 360 Plan, as the mayor has called it, continues on the themes of the previous plan, including strengthening the local economy, community ties, better city services and the natural environment.

“To have a strong community, you have to have a strong economy,” Rothschild said.
To that end, the mayor said the city has to encourage entrepreneurship, recruit and retain employers and support increased railway construction in Southern Arizona.

“I think the money is in rail,” Rothschild said.

The mayor said he would support the city seeking federal funding to study the plausibility of new passenger lines connecting Tucson with the Phoenix area.

Federal funding also could be available to pay for construction of a rail line, particularly a high-speed line connecting Tucson and Phoenix.

That, according to Rothschild, likely would spur considerable private investment in development along the route.

Renewed interest in connecting Southern Arizona by rail to a deep-water port Guaymas, Sonora, could in turn strengthen the region’s position as a logistics hub.

He also said the city could look to eventually connect the modern streetcar, Sun Link, to Tucson International Airport, similar to what Salt Lake City did with its rail system.

More annexations into the city also factor into Rothschild’s plan. He said the city needs to look toward expanding to help capture more state-shared revenue funding. The state government redistributes revenues collected from income, sales and vehicle-license taxes to local governments using a per capita population formula that benefits incorporated municipalities over unincorporated areas.

Tucson officials already have begun work on a map, at the mayor’s request, that would identify regions of possible city annexation efforts. Rothschild said he wanted to target regions for annexation that would hold the most revenue possible for the city, whether they are commercial or residential areas.

A more strategic approach to annexations would make for a departure from how Tucson has grown in the past.

“It really has been on a project-by-project basis,” Rothschild said, explaining that in the past property owners have generally contacted the city with proposals for annexations.

- This is about half the article, the rest can be read with this link: http://www.insidetucsonbusiness.com/...9bb2963f4.html

[kaneui]

Originally Posted by Patrick S

Recently I provided a link to Tucson's mayor, Jonathan Rothschild's new 360 plan on the city's website. Here's an article from InsideTucsonBusiness.com:

Rothschild expands on vision for Tucson’s future

http://www.insidetucsonbusiness.com/...9bb2963f4.html

Good to have a mayor who has an ambitious but focused plan to move Tucson forward on several fronts: repairing and improving basic infrastructure, capitalizing on economic opportunities with Mexico, supporting high-speed rail to Phoenix, and aggressively pursuing annexation options.

[kaneui]

Tapping the nearby Mexican market, soccer may be the best option to maximize the potential of the Kino Sports Complex in the post-MLB spring training era--with FC Tucson making the playoffs in their first year in the semi-pro PDL, the county will be improving their home Field #5 for next season with more bleachers and an additional scoreboard, as well as hosting the 3rd Annual Desert Diamond Cup for selected MLS teams in February at the Veterans Memorial Stadium:



FC Tucson's facilities include pro-grade locker rooms, offices, meeting
space and a large weight room and fitness room.
(photos: sbnation.com, FC Tucson)


FC Tucson Shows The Way For Soccer In Arizona
By Jose Romero
SBNation

July 7, 2012 - TUCSON -- Soccer in Arizona? Yeah, from October to April. The rest of the year? Too hot. Can't work. Tell that to the players and the guys who run FC Tucson, the first Premier Development League franchise in Arizona. The searing heat of desert summers hasn't stopped the formerly unaffiliated amateur franchise from succeeding both on and off the field.

On the pitch, FC Tucson entered Sunday's regular-season home finale at 8-2-3, second place in the league's Southwest Division. With three matches to play, FC Tucson can clinch second place and a playoff spot with at least a a draw in one of its final three matches. Off the pitch, the team has drawn well to its home field on the grounds of the sprawling Kino Sports Complex. The hope had been to install more bleachers on what was once a baseball field and sell more tickets to raise official capacity above 1,000 seats, but that has yet to happen. Still club officials feel they can sell the added seats.

"We think that with the assets and the opportunity that Tucson offers, it should last forever," ownership partner Chris Keeney said. "Outside of the University of Arizona athletics, there's really no competition. So that gives us a clean slate to be able to do it in the way we want to do it." FC Tucson got strong support from the Pima County board of supervisors in renovating a field to use. It has its own international-style supporters group, the Cactus Pricks, who bang on drums and chant and wave flags all game long. It has cultivated soccer-sympathetic and profitable sponsors, and it has hosted back-to-back tournaments featuring Major League Soccer teams in the area for preseason training.

For the full article: http://arizona.sbnation.com/2012/7/7...cer-in-arizona

http://fctucson.com/team/