We all know about Downtown Tucson’s Modern Streetcar, the brewpubs, the innovative restaurants and upscale student-housing. But there’s more of everything deciding to come to our revitalizing downtown and these ventures are critical to the success of our fair city.
AC Hotel by Marriott chose Tucson for a new concept, 8-stories, 150-room hotel at 5th Ave. and Broadway. The District and City have been working on this public private partnership (P3) project for a very long time, funded by private capital at a cost of $32 million, the P3 hotel got its final go ahead this month and is scheduled to open in 2016, creating 220 new jobs downtown and more than 220 construction jobs.
The hotel will be adjacent to the first downtown grocery store in decades, at 11 S 6th Ave. slated to open in December. The “Johnny Gibson’s Market’ leased by former and current owners of the Rincon Market is to share a common area with the new hotel.
The former First Baptist Church Educational Building at 222 E. 5th St. is being redeveloped as a national headquarters for Mister Car Wash and Express Lube. The 25,216 SF property commanded a sale price of $1.5 million when it sold in November.
The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., will begin showing current movie releases next month as Grand Cinemas takes over daily operations from the nonprofit Arizona Media Arts Center. The theater also will show independent films and will continue to host the annual Arizona International Film Festival, said Grand Cinemas managing partner Kent Edwards. In addition to plumbing and electrical upgrades, the $100,000 renovation project includes a new state-of-the-art screen and seats, an expanded snack bar, and a $45,000 HD digital cinema projector like the ones used by large multiplex companies. The theater will seat 120 people.
Historic, mid-town El Con Center sold this month to a group fronted by St. Louis Rams owner, Stanley Kroenke, for $81.75 million. The 785,000 SF center and leased pads are on 93-acres at 3435–3699 E Broadway. This center is the largest tax feeder for downtown development within the Rio Nuevo TIF District.
As part of the settlement between the City and Rio Nuevo the deed to 8.5 acres along the freeway between Congress and Granada was awared to the District. In preparing to partner with a private developer to develop this easterly gateway to downtown it has released an RFP inviting private developers to propose a purchase or lease. Ideas for development are due by June 30th.
Looking for space Downtown still? No problem. There are six contiguous 10,000 SF options still available; total square footage available downtown: 318,673 SF; much less than there used to be.
This article was first published in the TAR Scorecard, to see the complete TAR Scorecard June, 2014 go to https://www.tucsonrealtors.org/tar-v2/0614ScoreWeb.pdf