Tucson Development Thread

[ljbuild]

Originally Posted by poconoboy61

I wouldn't say the building a freeway is blowing "billions and billions of dollars away" that can be used on building a transit system in the future. This is because the Tucson approach is to do absolutely nothing, and move at a snail's pace on every single project that could possibly improve this city. A more efficient transit system in this city is never going to be constructed because of NIMBYism as well as complaints by a bunch of residents about cost. Meanwhile, the population of the Tucson metro will continue to grow and grow.

Can you name me any other city with a metro population the size of Tucson with one freeway? I can't. There are cities with great transit systems that also have great freeway systems, as well? Why can't Tucson? With every passing year it becomes apparent that Tucson needs to do something about it's traffic situation, and nothing is done. Residents seem to LOVE to complain about how congested Tucson is becoming relative to how it used to be, but when any proposal comes up to fix the situation, they vote it down.

There was a light-rail project proposed to run down Broadway a while back. Voted down. Crosstown freeway that would take some stress off the arterials. Voted down. It seems Tucsonans just want to complain incessantly without coming up with any solutions. Many of the surface streets are becoming nearly as wide as some freeways, so why not do some work to make them into freeways?

Freeways do not encourage people to drive. I doubt anyone in Tucson decides not to get behind the wheel because there are no freeways. People still have to get from point A to point B. Building a freeway system could help make that process a little bit easier.

I am really saddened that Speedway, Broadway, Grant will be 6-10 lanes in the future, because the only thing Tucsonans know how to do is widen roads. Wide arterial streets are ugly, pedestrian-unfriendly, and really, really stupid when there's a posted speed limit of only 35 or 40 miles per hour. It's a shame that Tucsonans aren't doing anything now, because it will really only backfire in the future.

Its those NIMBY COCKSUCKERS that believe that building a

freeway will bring more growth. If those retards will "GET OUT OF THIER

HOUSE ONCE IN A WHILE", they will see that

the city is growing WITHOUT THEM, anyway. The

same group of people value a "PYGMY OWL" before education.

In case you didn't know, back in the mid to late 90's, this group had

opposed construction of a new high school, for the sake of

"not disturbing critical bird habitat", which is where the school was to be built.


ITS NO WONDER WHY THEY ARE SO STUPID !!

Anyways back to my point: mass transit is not a "one size fits all" as some people are making it out to be.

BOTH SYSTEMS ARE NEEDED. (cross-town freeway & expanded mass transit)

just like what our lovely city of Phoenix is doing!!

[BTinSF]

Originally Posted by Locofresh55

Century theaters is the chain for first run movies in tucson. There is an AMC Loews in the Foothills and one in Marana called Tower Theaters. Harkins prolly finally realized that there was another city outside the metropolis of the phoenix area.

The multiplex in Green Valley is owned by Translux: http://www.transluxmovies.com/

They show first-run movies and have very nice stadium seating. Actually, I prefer seeing movies there to seeing them in San Francisco (the audiences are a lot less obnoxious and crowds are rare).

I am looking forward to the option of the new Harkins theater, though. I've never been willing to drive all the way into Tucson to see a movie, but I shop at the stores on Irvington all the time.

[Locofresh55]

That shopping center @ Irvington was something that neighborhood desperately needed. Lot of good stuff going up there. Now they need to continue to revamp El Con Mall since that thing is hanging on by a thread. One thing I freaking need is a Supermarket by my area. I live on Wilmot just south of I-10 and the things I have to boast about are the Shell gas station and the prison complex 3 miles south of us. yikes!!

[kaneui]

Deeming the proposed $196M, 12,300-seat "tortoise" arena as too expensive, the City Council again voted to hold costs for a new arena to $130M. (Interesting to note that just a few years ago, Glendale built the much larger 17,800-seat Jobing.com Arena for about $180M.)


Council: Tortoise arena is dead
Tucson officials seek deal for land to build cheaper, likely smaller, venue

By Rob O'Dell
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
05.07.2008

The City Council issued a 30-day deadline Tuesday for the city manager make a deal with the owner of prime Downtown property so it can build a cheaper — and potentially smaller — arena there. A second 90-day deadline was set for the city staff to come back with plans and potential tenants for a new arena on 7 acres of land owned by Allan Norville near the Tucson Convention Center.

The new mandates mean plans for a 12,300-seat arena designed to resemble a desert tortoise are dead. Council support for the tortoise arena, to be built along the Interstate 10 frontage road, evaporated after an updated financial analysis showed the cost had grown from the $130 million originally approved by the council to $196 million. On Tuesday, the council unanimously reiterated its order that the cost of a new Downtown arena not exceed $130 million. It was unclear whether the $20 million to $30 million in infrastructure costs to build the arena are included in the $130 million spending cap.

City Manager Mike Hein presented the results of a study showing the tortoise design would bring about one of the most expensive arenas built in the nation in terms of space — $537 per square foot — with the highest of the other 12 arenas in the comparison at $333 per square foot. "The bottom line clearly illustrates … a cost per square foot like that is unreasonable," Hein said. He said an analysis may suggest that the city would do better building a smaller arena. He said the staff will return within the 90 days to answer the questions: "How big, where do you put it, and how do you afford it?"

Councilman Steve Leal said he was confident that the city could find a design that works financially while also being a success in drawing people Downtown. "All of us would like a bigger arena, but we may not be able to get there," Leal said. "I'm optimistic we'll come up with something." That point was disputed by Michael Crawford, a member of the Tucson Convention Center Commission, who said a study done three years ago called for a 12,500-seat arena. Crawford also said the city should continue using Texas-based developer Garfield Traub on the arena project. The firm was selected three years ago to build the tortoise-inspired arena. However, the council's action didn't address who would be the developer of the newly designed arena.

Garfield Traub officials said after the meeting that the answer is clear — they will develop the new arena plans. "We were selected," said Ken Portnoy of Garfield Traub. "We were legally, fully, formally selected in a process three years ago. We won." Portnoy said he didn't think it would be possible to select another development team to build the arena. Hein, however, disagreed in comments after the meeting, contending that because the tortoise arena has been abandoned, "it's a different time, different place and a different project." He said the city will sit down and talk with Garfield Traub officials and invite them to bid to be the potential arena developers. However, he added, "I don't think we want to limit ourselves."

To secure the location for a new arena, the city must first finalize an agreement with Norville to buy the 7 acres just west of the TCC for $17 million. The two sides have a preliminary agreement, but they must find a site for Norville to host his annual gem-show exhibition every February. Jaret Barr, an assistant to Hein, said the leading contender now to house the gem show would be a new space built on top of the Tucson Convention Center building. He said the city is conducting soil tests to determine whether the building could handle the extra weight on the roof.

Instead of building a new floor on the TCC, Barr said, the space would be more of an aircraft-hangar-type construction without block walls. It would be used for Norville's gem-show exhibition in February and by the TCC during the rest of the year. Barr did not provide a cost estimate but said there is almost no other place in the area with 120,000 square feet of flat space to house Norville's show. Norville's representatives declined to comment.

[kaneui]

Columnist Steve Emerine says that allowing Wal-Mart to put a Supercenter in the El Con Mall space vacated by Macy's is a way to both help the mall and boost sales tax dollars needed for Rio Nuevo projects:


This time, Wal-Mart might come to the rescue of Rio Nuevo
Inside Tucson Business
May 09, 2008

I’m not a Wal-Mart shopper or shareholder, but it’s ironic the discount retail chain so many Tucson Democrats demonize may help solve two problems facing our Republican mayor and all-Democratic city council.

In 1999, El Con Mall’s owners proposed adding a new Wal-Mart to the west end of their shopping center and a Home Depot to the east end. Democrats joined with Republicans in the nearby El Encanto Estates and Colonia Solana subdivisions to oppose both stores. To please the neighbors and local retail union officials, the mayor and council passed an anti-big box ordinance targeting Wal-Mart or any others from building a giant store with a major grocery component. They didn’t want the competition it would bring for the unionized food stores. The ordinance requires council approval for any new big box stores and limits grocery sections to no more than 10 percent of floor space.

When Wal-Mart finally dropped its plans, the council OKd The Home Depot store at the east end of the center. The council also voted to close off northern access points to El Con using either Jones Boulevard and Palo Verde Avenue from East Fifth Street. That left Dodge Boulevard as the only entrance from that side. El Con’s owners also spent a lot of money on a draconian redesign of their parking areas. Neighbors and city officials were happy with their "victory." The Home Depot opened and was joined later by a new Target store on the east end of the mall, but the core of Tucson’s first regional shopping center continued to wither and die. The only significant growth came from a few free-standing restaurants or stores along East Broadway.

Few city officials realized then how much their hopes for financing Tucson’s giant Rio Nuevo downtown development program would depend on sales-tax revenues from El Con and Park Place Mall farther east. They realize it now. Park Place has done well, but the anti-big box ordinance and city hostilities toward new retail chains have combined with a general downturn in retail to cut sales-tax collections for this year and next. Major retail chains have either cancelled or postponed most of their Tucson projects or built in Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita or unincorporated Pima County. And because Rio Nuevo is largely funded by increments of state sales taxes collected downtown and along both sides of Broadway to Wilmot Road, the pot for downtown revitalization has been less than expected.

Now Wal-Mart is interested in moving into the now-closed Macy’s building at the west end of El Con. If the company could fit a super store into the three-story, 290,000-square-foot former department store with no major changes, it wouldn’t need city approval and the anti-grocery provisions wouldn’t apply. Predictably, some El Con neighbors already oppose the idea. I suspect at least a few of them also shop regularly at The Home Depot they opposed nine years ago. Maybe they should consider what El Con might have been if Wal-Mart had been approved in 1999 without a big-box ordinance. Would enough shoppers have been attracted to the mall’s west side to keep Macy’s open? Would the small shops between Macy’s and J.C. Penney be bustling today? I think the answers to those questions would be yes.

Can Tucson save El Con, move ahead with Rio Nuevo and boost city revenues by letting Wal-Mart move into the Macy’s store? I hope so, but I don’t know. What I do know is that opposing Wal-Mart in 1999 didn’t do much for El Con, Tucson or Rio Nuevo. It’s time to try something else.


Contact Steve Emerine or e-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Emerine, a Tucson resident since 1960, has run Steve Emerine Strategic Public Relations since 1994. He is a former local newspaper reporter, editor and columnist and served as Pima County Assessor from 1973 to 1980. He is a regular Monday guest on the John C. Scott radio talk show, which airs from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and from 11 a.m. to noon weekdays on The Voice KVOI 690-AM. This column appears weekly in Inside Tucson Business.

[Rive85]

great!... more wal-marts...

[sad face]

I guess there are no highrise proposals or freeway proposals in Tucson ,and I hope no more Wal Marts open.

[ljbuild]

Originally Posted by sad face

I guess there are no highrise proposals or freeway proposals in Tucson ,and I hope no more Wal Marts open.

I hate to bust your bubble but:

TWO MORE WALMARTS ARE BEING ADDED IN TUCSON.

One on RUTHRAUFF & LA CHOLLA

& one JUST OPENED on craycroft & 22nd.

& another is being discussed around the Rita Ranch vicinity.

[kaneui]

Adjusting to the realities of a sagging economy, Downtown Tucson Partnership's Glenn Lyons is proposing that the failed Presidio Terrace mixed-use project be downscaled to 30-40 residential units, be only 3 or 4 stories high, and that the named developer(s) have a proven track record (i.e., likely one from out of town):


Vision now is for lower development
by TEYA VITU
Tucson Citizen
05.12.2008

A downscale condo vision is taking shape for 301 Paseo Redondo, the downtown project formerly known as Presidio Terrace. The new idea for the city-owned lot looks as if three- to four-story townhomes with 30 to 40 units would be built on what now is a Tucson Museum of Art parking lot, said Glenn Lyons, executive director of the Downtown Tucson Partnership.

Lyons will work with Rio Nuevo Director Greg Shelko to find a developer to replace Peggy Noonan, whose development agreement was canceled in November. Noonan proposed a seven-story, 101-unit complex that stirred up height controversy within the El Presidio Neighborhood to the north. "We're not rushing into this," Lyons said. "We're in a bad marketplace. We want to get the guidelines right." Noonan filed a claim against the city March 24 for ending the development agreement. The city has until May 23 to accept or reject her claim and is investigating it, said Joel Peterson, the city's risk manager.

Presidio Terrace is one of five city and county projects that Lyons was asked to carry forward for the public-private partnership, where the city, county and private sector have voting directors. Noonan's claim and potential lawsuit aren't holding back Lyons. "That's between Peggy and the city," Lyons said. "I'm assuming the issue will be resolved one way or the other."

Lyons presented his initial ideas to neighborhood and museum leaders a week ago. "Glenn is the first person we've worked with that really seems to have the vision and is willing to partner with the museum to make this happen," said Robert Knight, the museum's executive director. Before last week's meeting, Lyons wanted to eliminate all public parking from the project, saying public parking requirements likely plagued the site for the 20 or more years the city has sought a development. He compromised to offer 80 public and 40 private parking spaces in a one-level, underground garage. "We've come to the conclusion we need some daytime parking for the museum," said Lyons. A one-level garage is much cheaper than the two-level garage Noonan proposed, he said.

Christopher Carroll, an El Presidio neighborhood representative at the meeting, welcomed Lyons' downscaled idea. Carroll said Noonan's project became too large because the city request for proposals asked for at least 60 units. "A smaller but just as intense development is a much better deal," Carroll said. "I think Glenn Lyons is a great asset. He is upbeat, reasonable and he listens." Margaret Hardy, another neighborhood representative, said the first meeting to redefine Presidio Terrace was encouraging. "I think we're very supportive," Hardy said. "I think we're all fine with (the three- to four-story idea). The obvious thing was the height was controversial (with Noonan's plan)."

Lyons and Shelko will work over the summer to establish guidelines for requests for developer qualifications, which could be issued in October. Lyons wants to insist on a developer who has built similar projects, which he said would likely be out-of-town developers. Interested local developers likely would have to team up with an out-of-town developer, he said, such as happened with local Peach Properties and Williams & Dame Development from Portland, Ore., with the downtown Depot Plaza, which includes One North Fifth - the former Martin Luther King Jr. Apartments.

[Locofresh55]

Originally Posted by ljbuild

I hate to bust your bubble but:

TWO MORE WALMARTS ARE BEING ADDED IN TUCSON.

One on RUTHRAUFF & LA CHOLLA

& one JUST OPENED on craycroft & 22nd.

& another is being discussed around the Rita Ranch vicinity.

This is supposedly a Super Walmart that they're trying to put just outside Tucson city limits so they can bypass the no big box ordinance law. Also, on Kolb road by the U of A Science/Tech school there has been talk about putting a Super Target and some resort or something around that area.


BTW...the WalMart on 22nd and Craycroft is one of the neighborhood markets. It's not bad for when you go into work @ 4 AM to pick up some snacks there. From what i've seen is that some of the stuff there is cheaper than going to Circle K or DIamond shamrock. And given that area, I'd feel safer going in there than on the circle just south of 22nd where there's always a crackhead asking for money or a ride. NO THANK YOU.

[kaneui]

In the Old Pueblo, the land of perennial indecision, the Tucson Museum of Art's trustees have again asked the county for a decision on allowing them to expand into the historic Pima County Courthouse--if not, they may move the whole museum to Marana or elsewhere:




The north end of the historic Pima County Courthouse, 115 N. Church Ave., is one place the Tucson Museum of Art would like to use.
Other options, if a decision is not approved by the summer, include Marana or the Catalina foothills. (photo: P.K. Weis/Tucson Citizen)






Art museum could leave downtown
Trustees want answer on courthouse use from county

by TEYA VITU
Tucson Citizen
05.13.2008

Tucson Museum of Art trustees and executives over the weekend arrived at a firm vision for the future. They want to know by the end of summer whether the museum's future will involve the historic Pima County Courthouse, with the tile dome, at 115 N. Church Ave. If not, talks started last week with Marana to move part of the museum, if not all of it, to Marana. The museum also has offers along Sunrise Road near The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa, said Robert Knight, the museum's executive director. "There might be a wholesale move," Knight said. "There might be satellite opportunities. That will be discussed through the summer."

The museum's 30-plus trustees and staffers had the most substantive planning session in the three years that Knight has been at the helm, he said. "There was no pressure to reach a consensus or make a definitive statement," Knight said. "However, they did." The museum wants a definitive answer about the county-owned courthouse by the end of summer. Knight and Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry have broached the subject over the past two years with interest from both sides, but no sense of a pending decision by Huckelberry. "I don't think anybody can make that kind of commitment or assessment," Huckelberry said Monday about committing to the museum plan in the next four months. Huckelberry said an art museum expansion into the courthouse depends on the completion of the Joint Courts Complex, with no date set. Also, the estimated $10.5 million courthouse remodeling would be part of a bond issue that won't be on the ballot until November 2009. "We just want to know," Knight said. "I don't think we can go another 2 1/2 years of not knowing."

The museum, 140 N. Main Ave., flirted with expanding into the 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival courthouse in 1988 when Jolly Rancher Candies founder William Harmsen offered the museum his renowned Western art collection. Neither the collection nor the courthouse came the museum's way. The museum wants to fill the north half of the courthouse with its growing Western and American Indian collections. These are now exhibited in the 1868 adobe Fish House at the west edge of the museum's 4-acre campus. Knight said the historic house is too small and not ideal for displaying the art. Museum leaders are wrestling with the notion of leaving downtown. "We want to stay where we're at," Knight said.

Still, the status quo won't work because of parking, signage and expansion issues, he said. The museum has 53 parking spaces next to it and another 120 across the street that are destined to become Presidio Terrace or some other housing development. Parking has been at a premium the past two years with docent training on Mondays and the arrival of the Art Works Academy alternative high school on the museum's east edge. "Where do the museum visitors park? And staff?" Knight asked. "What we're looking for is about 288 spaces to take us into the future." Knight hopes to reach agreements with the county's El Presidio and Public Works garages.

Knight also bemoans the lack of signage for the museum - little in number and little in size. "People have an incredibly difficult time finding the museum," Knight said. "On Stone Avenue north of Speedway, there is a sign for the Desert Museum, 14 miles, but there is no signage for an art museum three-fourths mile away. "The courthouse would be our front door and our major welcoming sign to the community."

Meantime, Marana came into the discussion. Art museums generally are downtown but there are notable exceptions. The Kimbell Art Museum and adjacent Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, are not near downtown. Neither is the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tenn., nor the Getty Center in Los Angeles, nor New York's Museum Mile on the Upper East Side. Knight and some museum trustees met last week with Marana Mayor Ed Honea, who showed them the town's Heritage Park near the Santa Cruz River and some sites in Dove Mountain and along Tangerine Road. Knight said Honea was excited about the prospect. "Absolutely, what a tremendous asset," Honea said. "We did not go try to get them here. They were brought to us. We're not trying to steal anybody's anything."

The museum has a potential short-term home for its Western and American Indian collection. Museum trustee Jim Conley offered 10,000 square feet of gallery space rent-free for five years in his Santa Fe Square at Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon roads. Knight said the museum wants to resolve its future by the end of the summer so that formal planning and fundraising can begin. He estimated that a downtown expansion would cost $20 million: about $10.5 million to renovate the courthouse and $10 million for an operating endowment. The first phase of a Marana museum could cost $30 million. "We've been made attractive offers that won't be on the table forever," Knight said. "The aspiration of this organization is to be a major art institution."


TMA OPTIONS

• Expand into Pima County Courthouse

• Move to Marana

• Move to Sunrise Drive

• Move or expand elsewhere

[kdavidson3237]

hello everyone im new to the forum... i posted some pictures of Tucson a few days ago if anyone cares to take a look!

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...92#post3555192

[Azstar]

Good job, kdavidson. Thanks for posting those photos!

[sad face]

Finally great news for Tucson.

[Rive85]

Early 1900s look is just an old fronts removal away
TEYA VITU
Tucson Citizen

Restoring a 1912 look to downtown Tucson may be the ideal way to celebrate the state's centennial in 2012 and to establish a "new" identity for the future.
There are already nibbles to reawaken the downtown history that is still firmly in place - but mostly covered up, neglected or downright forgotten.
With all the talk about an arena, museums and rainbow bridges, 90 percent of downtown revitalization could already be in place: the buildings on and near Congress Street and Broadway.
Nearly all date from the 1900s, 1910s and 1920s - not that you'd necessarily know that with the awful mid-century facades that cover many of them.
Check out the Hittinger Building, 120 E. Congress St., next to the Chicago Store.
This building had a drab 1940s look until owner Warren Michaels in 2002 had architect Rob Paulus restore the 1901 neoclassical facade.
Michaels is selling the building to Melanie Morrison, who will occupy it with 30 employees and her Morrison Ekre Bart Management Services, one of Tucson's top two apartment management firms.
Michaels and Morrison unwittingly are providing the example of how downtown might be revitalized: spruce up a gorgeous building and fill it with people.
Take a walk with Jonathan Mabry, Tucson's historic preservation officer, and he will tell you he wants to have more buildings restored to their early 20th century looks and occupied by businesses that attract visitors: boutique hotels, restaurants, retail shops.
Sit down and chat with assistant city manager Karen Masbruch and Glenn Lyons, chief executive of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, and you will see they are about to unveil a facade program to add on to what Michaels, Morrison and Mabry are already doing.
Add it up and you could have Tucson's version of the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District or the Distillery Historic District in Toronto.
Tucson could have the full sense of the century-old downtown Tucson and can convert it into a unique downtown revitalization ploy: A rare Western big city downtown that is almost entirely early 20th century. Indeed, the entire block anchored by the Crescent Smoke Shop, 200 E. Congress, dates from 1900-1921 - the only fully intact historic four-street (four-sided) block.
Independent of the above players, in the two years I've reported on
downtown, I have observed a collection of empty and forgotten historic buildings that could spark a dynamic, history-oriented district. They could be Buildings of the Future.
These include but are not limited to:
• Marist College
(1916) - The city and Roman Catholic Diocese hope to find someone with $2 million to restore the adobe structure behind St. Augustine Cathedral.
• Reilly Funeral Home (1908) - Closed since 1990, the building at 102 E. Pennington St. was bought last year by developer Steve Fenton, who hasn't found a tenant for it yet.
• McLellan's (1948) - The building at 63 E. Congress St., which developer John Wesley Miller owns but wants to sell. A sushi restaurant called On a Roll should open in part of the building in summer.
• Scottish Rite Cathedral (1915) - the Scottish Rite Freemasons
own this building but would love to share it with others since the masons have only four major gatherings there a year.
• Jerry's Lee Ho Market (1900) and other Meyer Avenue buildings - Haley & Aldrich engineering and consulting company last year bought Jerry's Lee Ho Market building, 600 S. Meyer Ave., and plans to move 20 employees into it later this year.
• MacArthur Building (1908) - the city owns this triangle-shaped building, 345 E. Toole Ave., and the city is considedring four
private sector proposals to buy the building.
• Walgreens (1929) - Empty since Walgreens left in 2003 but the county-owned building at 44 N. Stone Ave. is destined for the market soon.
• Julian-Drew Building (1917, 1939) - Where Business Development Finance Co. had its offices at 186 E. Broadway before leaving last year. "I think the Julian-Drew (building) is just gorgeous and has a lot of potential," city historic preservation officer Mabry said.
• El Paso and Southwestern Depot (1913) - "I think there's enormous potential for the El Paso and Southwestern Depot, (419 W. Congress St.)" Mabry said. "I would say that's a slam dunk next to the new arena."
• Carnegie Library (1901) - The Tucson Children's Museum, 200 S. Sixth Ave., has occupied this building since 1990 but intends to move out if a new museum is built as part of Tucson Origins.
• Charles O. Brown House (1876-88)
- Mabry bemoans this house at 40 W. Broadway serves as offices for El Centro Cultural de las Americas and other businesses
rather than its popular historic go-to use as the Old Adobe Club.
Tucson could play off the trend many other cities have followed in converting derelict buildings, often abandoned industrial or warehouse structures.
"It definitely started in Soho in the 1970s, after London in the 1960s," said architect Paulus, who lives the Soho trend while working in the Hittinger building.
He and wife Randi Dorman converted a 1920s ice storage factory into the Ice House Lofts between 2002 and 2005. They live in one of the 51 units there.
Michaels didn't realize the historic potential of the Hittinger Building when he sought to buy it. But when he inspected the building, he saw three arched windows that were covered up.
"I was pleasantly surprised," Michaels said.
Michaels brought in Paulus to remove the 1940s plastered facade and fix up the 1901 face.
"Fortunately, it was in pretty good shape," Paulus said. "We were able to sandblast the original columns of steel. It was rather inexpensive. A lot of it is just determination."
Brick blocks were scrubbed and holes filled where the 1940s facade was bolted onto the original wall.
Michaels said the restoration cost $125,000,
with $50,000 coming from him and $75,000 from a city Back to Basics grant.
"I think it honors Tucson's historic past and also brings the building into the new century with a modern storefront,"
Michaels said.
Do facades make a difference in making downtown more popular?
"I think it's obvious," Michaels said. "If the facades along Congress are improved, it will attract more people downtown."
Michaels sold the building to Morrison's group for about $1 million because he wants to retire. The sale is expected to close in June and Morrison's MEB firm plans to move 30 employees into the Hittinger Building in September.
"What we didn't want was a typical run-of-the-mill office building," Morrison said. "We want to be in a dynamic, creative atmosphere."
The apartment management firm has outgrown the 1920s adobe house it now occupies at 1039 N. Sixth Ave., the company's third address in its first 10 years in business.
"This will be our last move, I'm pretty sure," Morrison said.
Mabry, the city's historic preservation officer, loves the restoration of the Hittinger Building but is less in love with the idea of its office use.
Attorneys' offices dominate in many Victorian homes on the north side of downtown. And there's a string of historic hotels on downtown's south side that have little public access.
"I wish they weren't all office buildings," Mabry said. "Tucson has all these beautiful, historic hotels that have been rehabilitated as low-income housing or offices and nobody can go in. These could all be boutique hotels or restaurants or retail shops. We're not making the best use of our historic houses."
Teya Vitu is the downtown reporter for the Tucson Citizen.
Downtown is taking on an old look with streetcar tracks and subtle nudges to restore the early 20th century building facades that have been covered for decades.
While streetcar tracks are being installed around the Rialto Block, the city is making available $530,000 to restore the ornate 1890s to 1920s look of buildings hidden under less-inspired 1940s and 1950s facades along Congress Street, Broadway and Pennington Street between Toole and Church avenues.
"The location is based on the streetcar alignment," Tucson Assistant City Manager Karen Masbruch said.
The money comes from a dormant 1982 urban improvement project fund. This fund offered financial assistance via revolving loans to businesses within a 1980s downtown incentive zone, Masbruch's assistant, Fran LaSala, said.
The new facade improvement program will partially subsidize five or six facade improvements with the goals of a) stirring other property owners to upgrade their facades and b) finding more money to fund more facade improvements, said Glenn Lyons, chief executive of the Downtown Tucson Partnership.
"My hope is we get this oversubscribed," Lyons said. "Then we chase for money for Phase 2."
A building owner would 50-50 match the interest-free forgivable loan from the city. The city is offering up to $125,000 for corner buildings and $90,000 for mid-block buildings with the condition that facade improvements must be kept in place for 10 years, Masbruch said.
The partnership is collaborating with the city manager's office to find interested property owners and select the best proposals to fix up street-facing walls in pre-1948 buildings.
The private-sector partnership will do the legwork, with final project approval given by the city council, Masbruch said.
This is part of City Manager Mike Hein's mission to assign certain development projects to the private sector. This engenders public-private collaboration to revitalize downtown with the understanding that in some cases the private sector can achieve better results than government agencies.
A letter announcing the facade improvement program was sent last week to all property owners on the designated stretches of Congress, Broadway and Pennington. Lyons will meet with the owners June 15, and there is a July 22 deadline to turn applications.
The city has architects lined up to help property owners prepare facade proposals. The city will offer up to $7,500 to owners to prepare their plans, Masbruch said.
"We want to achieve an active, pedestrian-friendly downtown," Masbruch said. "This is an opportunity to start small."
The facade program ties in with the Congress-Broadway infrastructure project that will upgrade underground utilities and get them out of the way of the streetcar tracks.
A restored early 20th century downtown ties in with the eclectic Fourth Avenue area and the future Tucson Origins - all destined to be linked by the streetcar.
"It all connects and makes sense," Masbruch said.
City hopes to spur building owners to upgrade facades

[Rive85]

GARRY DUFFY
Tucson Citizen


The tracks for the Old Pueblo Trolley are going into place and should complete a downtown loop by the end of next month.
The circuit will run from a new, $26 million Fourth Avenue underpass west on Congress Street, south on Fifth Avenue, and east on Broadway, returning back north on Fourth.
Crews on Thursday began laying track on Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Track for the historic trolley already is in place south of the underpass and west on Congress.

"The loop on the south side of the underpass should be completed by the end of June," said Michael R. Graham, spokesman for the Tucson Transportation Department.
Crews installed the track south from the underpass and west on Congress to Fifth Avenue earlier this year, working 10 hours a day, six days a week.
The track work was temporarily halted to allow workers to make underground utilities improvements on Fifth and Broadway.
Now that the utilities work is done, the crews have resumed laying the track south on Fifth and east on Broadway.
The city has grander plans in mind than a simple downtown loop for the Old Pueblo Trolley. Plans ultimately call for the trolley to run an unbroken route from the University of Arizona west gate on Park Avenue, along University Boulevard to Fourth Avenue, through the underpass, and into downtown.
The complete route won't come about until the spring 2009 opening of the new underpass, Tucson Transportation officials have said.
Long-term plans call for a modern streetcar to also run through the downtown area.

Voters in 2006 approved the Regional Transportation Plan that included a streetcar system that would run from the University Medical Center area off Campbell Avenue, through UA, on University to Fourth, and through a completed new underpass, and through downtown to the area of the Santa Cruz River.

That project won't get under way until at least 2013 and depends on approval of at least $75 million in Federal Transit Authority grant money that has been applied for but not yet been allocated.

[Locofresh55]

I was just in downtown a couple of days ago.....it's nice to see progress. I'll have to snap some pics of the newly painted St. Augustine cathedral. Also, One NOrth Fifth has new windows installed and 44 E Broadway all of asudden is being worked on. Good stuff....little progress is better than no progress I guess.

[Rive85]

yeah they have been chipping away at 44 Broadway for a couple of years now... but i did notice they have accelerated progress, i actually saw construction workers for the first time a few weeks ago. and also One Norht Fifth has a video walktru on youtube.

[kaneui]

^^^^Here are a few photos to give some visual perspective to the article posted above on downtown facade rehabs:



Before: History disappeared under this 1940s facade on the Hittinger Building, 120 E. Congress St.
After: Architect Rob Paulus and building owner Warren Michaels restored the original 1901 facade of the Hittinger Building in 2002.




The Crescent Smoke Shop building, 200 E. Congress, dates from 1900. It is believed that the original facade (before) still exists under the modern covering (after).
Many downtown buildings have hidden original facades that could be revealed through the city's facade improvement program.




The vacant El Paso & Southwestern Depot (1913) has great future potential if the proposed convention center hotel and arena are built.
(photos: Tucson Citizen)

[PHX31]

Very interesting (facade retro-renovating)... I brought this up a few weeks ago in regards to some buildings up in Phoenix that would look much better if they would just be brought back to their original facades (and I wondered if it were even possible).

The top building Kaneui posted looks much better "after", obviously. The second building looked awesome back in the day, however, I don't think it can be restored... previously it looked like it had a squared end, and in the "after" it's squared end is cut off. It would be awesome if it could be brought back, though.

Here is the building in Phoenix that I wondered about, you can still see the brick on the side, the front must have been pretty great too. (pic courtesy of hx_guy.)



There are several others that would be prime candidates to be brought back to their original look.