Tucson Development Thread

[Sonoran Swami]

From AZPM: Behind the Scenes Tucson’s Notorious ‘Tuesday Night Ride’

• Video Link

[Sonoran Swami]

Originally Posted by southtucsonboy77

471 W. Congress has been going thru the City’s development process and has been progressing. On the positive, it’s moving forward; the negative, it’s gone down from 17 floors to 10. It appears in the re-design the 7 floors were shifted to sit on top the parking garage, taking height away and optically elongating the structure.

I’m rusty on posting images, I’ll give it a try on the next post.

Thank you very much for posting these rendering images. Very interesting to see how this has evolved with the density now more spread across the site.

Yeah, 10 stories now. Still, IMHO, this is the kind of development that a lot of similarly sized cities would love to have.

I'm always interested in how a development like this interfaces with the street. Hard to do much on the side facing a one way freeway frontage road. Is that ground floor retail on Congress? -- or just a building entrance?

[Sonoran Swami]

A 12th Avenue stalwart of the Best 23 Miles of Mexican Food: https://www.tacosapson.com

[Sonoran Swami]

From today. Bautista steel going up.

[Sonoran Swami]

Nice quick overview of the Menlo Park neighborhood:

Menlo Park is headed toward again becoming a “15-minute neighborhood” — meaning that, with walking and public transportation, it’s easily accessible to amenities.

https://www.insidetucsonbusiness.com...259e652bd.html

https://menloparktucson.org/

[AZ71]

Originally Posted by Sonoran Swami

Nice quick overview of the Menlo Park neighborhood:

Menlo Park is headed toward again becoming a “15-minute neighborhood” — meaning that, with walking and public transportation, it’s easily accessible to amenities.

https://www.insidetucsonbusiness.com...259e652bd.html

https://menloparktucson.org/

It'd be nice if they could connect all these neighborhoods with the streetcar. It already goes through a number of them except the outlying neighborhoods. But it's still amazing to me all these areas the homes cost as much as brand new ones being built. Of course I guess you're paying for culture, historic value and proximity to downtown.

[Locofresh55]

Originally Posted by AZ71

It'd be nice if they could connect all these neighborhoods with the streetcar. It already goes through a number of them except the outlying neighborhoods. But it's still amazing to me all these areas the homes cost as much as brand new ones being built. Of course I guess you're paying for culture, historic value and proximity to downtown.

This city's leadership just doesn't get it and I don't know with the current city council and mayor sitting, it ever will. Didn't Kozachik go on about how buses are the way to go because they are cheaper and more reliable? Lane Santa Cruz has also gone on record to expand cycling as a forefront option for transportation in this city. So we can get nice buses but our streets are still full of craters and flooded areas?

[Sonoran Swami]

Tucson city manager: Being part of RTA Next could be 'fiscally irresponsible; can't in good conscience recommend'

"RTA, we gotta talk. We've been working at this relationship ahead of a 20-year-extension of the half-cent sales tax to pay for regional transportation projects. We've been telling you, we're not happy. But if things don't change in a hurry, we're taking the kids and moving in with our parents."

https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/opini...nce-recommend/

[Sonoran Swami]

IMHO there are many outstanding murals in Tucson. I thought this latest work from Ignacio Garcia to be pretty stunning. Inspired by Vermeer no less -- according to the Tucson Murals Project blogspot.

https://www.rialtotheatre.com/news/l...gnacio-garcia/

https://tucsonmurals.blogspot.com/20...ps-rialto.html


• Video Link

[Sonoran Swami]

Nice travel article on Tucson in Sunday's Denver Post:

10 things you can only do in Tucson (including the southernmost ski resort in the country)

https://www.denverpost.com/2024/02/1...-travel-guide/

[Sonoran Swami]

Tensions between Tucson, RTA may stymie road plans going forward

If the city takes the RTA Next route, it will receive $1 billion over 20 years. If the city passes its own half-cent sales tax, it will generate $1.65 billion.

https://www.kold.com/2024/02/13/tens...going-forward/

[Sonoran Swami]

New Rehabilitation Hospital Planned for Tucson Marketplace at the Bridges

https://realestatedaily-news.com/new...t-the-bridges/

https://www.nobisrehabpartners.com/t...ation-hospital

[Sonoran Swami]

To promote the outdoor recreation economy in our area, earlier this year Visit Tucson collaborated with Britain-based Global Cycling Network (GCN) to produce a series of videos. IMHO these turned out really well and made Tucson look very enticing for people that ride bikes recreationally and competitively.

El Tour de Tucson:

• Video Link


Mount Lemmon:

• Video Link


The Shootout:

• Video Link


And as bonus a vid on off pavement riding near Patagonia:

• Video Link

[Sonoran Swami]

Tucson office complex sold for $3.5M, could be redeveloped into housing

https://tucson.com/news/local/subscr...683f9e557.html

The above link is paywalled. A few quotes:

Tucson developer Larsen Baker, through its affiliate Dorado Opportunity Group LLC, bought the nine-building El Dorado Square office campus at 1200 N. El Dorado Place, near Wilmot Road and Speedway, for $3.5 million.

The gated office campus has nine separately parceled office buildings near El Dorado Hospital with Spanish Mediterranean architecture in a garden setting.

Larsen Baker is exploring several options including selling each building separately to owner users looking to own their own office building or redevelop the property into senior housing or a multifamily community.

[Sonoran Swami]

Good f*ing gawd:

Arizona GOP lawmakers move to derail chance for Tucson-to-Phoenix commuter train

https://tucson.com/news/local/govern...dc300ee63.html

Not behind a paywall at the time of this post, but that may change. A few quotes:

Killing the idea of commuter rail between Phoenix and Tucson before it’s even gotten off the ground is only one of the policy issues that Republicans stuffed into SB 1184.

Other conditions they added to the legislation include:

Prohibiting the agency from proposing plans to reduce carbon greenhouse gases;

Build or maintain charging stations for electric vehicles;

Reduce the number of lanes on any road;

Consider or adopt a motor vehicle travel mile reduction plan.

[Eapiwo]

Originally Posted by Sonoran Swami

Good f*ing gawd:

Arizona GOP lawmakers move to derail chance for Tucson-to-Phoenix commuter train

https://tucson.com/news/local/govern...dc300ee63.html

Not behind a paywall at the time of this post, but that may change. A few quotes:

Killing the idea of commuter rail between Phoenix and Tucson before it’s even gotten off the ground is only one of the policy issues that Republicans stuffed into SB 1184.

Other conditions they added to the legislation include:

Prohibiting the agency from proposing plans to reduce carbon greenhouse gases;

Build or maintain charging stations for electric vehicles;

Reduce the number of lanes on any road;

Consider or adopt a motor vehicle travel mile reduction plan.

How asnine. Thankfully Hobbs absolutely will not sign it. Engineers in each municipality should have the ones making decisions for lane counts and the other clauses are just extremely anti-freedom. Flagstaff, Chandler, and Yuma all have different needs and their local governments should be allowed to make unique fits as necessary. It seems rather restrictive, likely just a ploy to win votes in November.

Probably not going super far. It's just bait.

[Sonoran Swami]

A former downtown Tucson hotel has been turned into apartments

https://tucson.com/news/local/subscr...2ffed6704.html

Above link is paywalled. Quotes:

A former hotel near downtown Tucson is now home to dozens of residents.

Presidio Palms Apartments, 475 N. Granada Ave., was previously the Hotel Tucson City Center and, originally, a Ramada Inn.

Scottsdale developer Sterling Real Estate Partners got the zoning changed and remodeled the old hotel into 212 apartments with rents between $1,050 and $1,650 per month.

Zeff’s goal in redeveloping the property was to create housing near downtown at an attainable price.

“In terms of contribution to the community, the empty hotel wasn’t providing anything,” he said. “This is my first Tucson project, but I would consider another.”


The Sterling project site: https://sterling-partners.com/project/presidio-palms/

Presdio Palms site: https://www.presidiopalms.com/

AFAIK this first image is a before shot:




Post rehab:

[Sonoran Swami]

Originally Posted by Eapiwo

How asnine. Thankfully Hobbs absolutely will not sign it. Engineers in each municipality should have the ones making decisions for lane counts and the other clauses are just extremely anti-freedom. Flagstaff, Chandler, and Yuma all have different needs and their local governments should be allowed to make unique fits as necessary. It seems rather restrictive, likely just a ploy to win votes in November.

Probably not going super far. It's just bait.

On the subject of passenger rail between Arizona's two largest cities, it blows my mind that New Mexico has had commuter rail connecting Santa Fe and Albuquerque (and further south to Belen) since 2006. 2006! And nothing here between Tucson and Phoenix - two much larger metro areas.

What got it done in New Mexico was the leadership of former Governor Bill Richardson. He made it happen. Will we see the same kind of leadership in Arizona?

IMHO NMDOT has not done a good job of operating the Rail Runner Express. Operations have not been well funded and train frequency is not close to what it should be. Still, it exists and service can be improved with additional funding.

[InTheBurbs]

Originally Posted by Sonoran Swami

Good f*ing gawd:

Arizona GOP lawmakers move to derail chance for Tucson-to-Phoenix commuter train

https://tucson.com/news/local/govern...dc300ee63.html

Not behind a paywall at the time of this post, but that may change. A few quotes:

Killing the idea of commuter rail between Phoenix and Tucson before it’s even gotten off the ground is only one of the policy issues that Republicans stuffed into SB 1184.

This is why we can’t have nice things. I’m sitting on one of 20-30 Trains a day between Madrid and Barcelona. We are consistently cruising at 275-300 kmh. 600+ km in about 3 hours. And there are some that make it in less time. And Arizona is fighting a relative handful of runs a day?

[Sonoran Swami]

Originally Posted by InTheBurbs

This is why we can’t have nice things. I’m sitting on one of 20-30 Trains a day between Madrid and Barcelona. We are consistently cruising at 275-300 kmh. 600+ km in about 3 hours. And there are some that make it in less time. And Arizona is fighting a relative handful of runs a day?

Wow, lucky you. I was in Barcelona a million years ago. Did a lot of the typical tourist activities. One of the things about Barcelona I enjoyed the most
from a livable streets perspective was Las Ramblas. IMHO a fantastic urban space. For those that don't know about Las Ramblas: https://www.globotreks.com/destinati...las-barcelona/

Also your post reminded of the below vid from a year ago:

• Video Link


Lastly, no one should miss Tim Stelter's column in the Daily Star rebutting SB 1195 entitled, In Arizona, anything but car driving becomes 'Marxism'. Paywalled @ https://tucson.com/news/local/subscr...a6e723912.html