Retail Pad Tucson’s Foothills Mall Sells with Priceless Tile Project Memories
Lippow / Dana Park 1, LLC of Martinez, Calif (Larry Lippow, CEO) purchased an 8,060-square-foot, multi-tenant retail building from Foothills Mall Pad No. 7, LLC of Tucson (Greg Furrier and Bruce Ash, managers) for $3.6 million ($446.65 PSF).
The property, located at 7555 N La Cholla Blvd in Tucson, is just north of the Ina Road and La Cholla Blvd. intersection, at the Foothills Mall and the entrance to the Walmart Supercenter.
Anyone who has ever visited the property has noticed the beautiful tiles placed at the base of the pillars, here’s the story of how those handcrafted tiles came to be placed there.
It was Jennifer Furrier who undertook the ‘handcrafted tile project’ for the 16 pillars surrounding the building. “You have no idea how much floor space in our house the approximately 800 tiles consumed when laid out by pillar, and by group,” Greg Furrier remembers.
The Furrier’s three children may be somewhat disproportionately represented as artists of the project, as it seemed they made a new tile every time mom worked on the project, Greg acknowledges. Jennifer reached out to schools, swim teams, girl scout troops, and other youth organizations and set up tiling workshops for children.
All of the tiles have memories, and the pillar reserved for Starbucks’ Partners (employees) has some extra special ones. Jennifer had set up a tile painting table inside the Foothills Mall in mid-2003, when a curious five-year-old girl named Haleigh approached the table with her mother and 7-month old brother Max to inquire what Jennifer was doing. When she explained the tiles would be placed on the Starbucks building, Haleigh shared the news that her father was terminally ill and told Jennifer, “Starbucks was his favorite place to go in the entire world!”
Jennifer included Haleigh and Max’s tile in the Starbucks group, located on the pillar closest to the Starbucks patio. The Angel shown in the photo is above their tiles. Haleigh and Max are now young adults, and I’m sure cherish this work as the Furriers have always.
This is but one of the tile stories.
“This tile project has many stories and the Artists who created the tiles still visit to this day and feel they own the building,” Greg said. “The Tile Project became the most meaningful addition Jennifer and I have ever done to any of our properties.”
Greg’s father’s 72nd birthday is also memorialized in tiles on the Chipotle patio.
It’s for these reasons the building was never on the market for sale, Greg told us, but the buyer owns other properties in Tucson and with a 1031 deadline looming was persistent, so it was agreed to sell, however, the building will always truly belong to all the children who handcrafted the tiles that surround it.
The property sold with established tenants including Starbucks, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Baskin Robbins and others, with 700-square-feet vacant and buyers with a tenant in tow at time of sale.
Greg Furrier, Retail Specialist with Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR, and Principal in the transaction handled the sale.
For more information, Greg Furrier should be reached at 520.546.2735.
To learn more, see RED Comp #4127.
