In February 2014 the City of Tucson prepared a request for proposal (RFP) for the sale and redevelopment of the 4.7 acre Ronstadt Transit Center in Downtown Tucson at Congress and 6th Avenue. Two bidders responded to the RFP that has since passed through multiple stages of public input. Wednesday evening, the public was invited to hear conceptual plan presentations for two mixed-use, yet very different projects. One, by Team Alexander Company of Wisconsin and Oasis Tucson as co-developers, and the other presentation delivered by Team Peach Properties of Tucson.
Presenters for Team Peach Properties at the meeting comprised Ron and Soleil Schwabe of Peach Properties as Lead Developer; Matt Brown of EB5 Global as Hotel Developer and Pam Sutherland as Financial Consultant; Phil Swaim of Swaim Associates as Lead Architect and Miguel Fuentevilla and Sonya Sotinsky of FORSarchitecture+interiors as architects; Steve Jordan of Ryan Companies as General Contractor; Jim Schoen of Kittelson & Associates for Transit and Traffic; Mike Barton and Matthew Taunton of HDR for Transit and Civil; Laura Mielcarek of Wheat Design Group as Landscape Architect; and Rick Kaneen of Kaneen Public Relations for Communications, along with the City of Tucson and community.
In brief, the Peach Team's conceptual proposal includes a transit oriented development anchored by 250 housing units (20% affordable) for all ages and economic backgrounds, 450 parking spaces and a 144-room hotel and conference center. Retail with restaurants along Congress and 6th Avenue and public plazas to include a public market integrated with the transit mall and welcome center, open space, urban rooftop food production, rooftop swimming pools, artist studios and live/work lofts. University of Arizona Arts and Science Center have already shown an interest in the project to expand the UA presence downtown.
Peach also proposed a conceptual solution to the greyhound bus terminal that is to be relocated downtown, placing it at the Historic Corbett Building and connecting the two transit centers via skywalk to overpass the highway and railroad tracks and allow for additional parking.
The Alexander / Oasis Team presenters comprised Randy Alexander and Matt Meier of Madison, WI and Jim Campbell of Tucson as co-developers; Aleks Istanbullu of Aleks Istanbulla Architects for Urban Planning and Architecture; Demion Clinco of Frontier Consulting Group for Historic and Contextual Analysis; Stacey Weaks of Norris Design for Planning and Landscape Design; Steve Tofel with Tofel Construction as General Contractor; Jim Glock of Structural Grace for Transportation / Structural Engineering; Mick Mathieu of Mathieu Engineering for Traffic Analysis; and Jan Gordley of Gordley Group for Communications.
The Alexander / Oasis conceptual proposal includes 378 housing units, 626 structured parking spaces, 21,600-square-feet retail and 3,200-square-feet commercial space, first floor live work space, and open space.
Public comments on the two projects are being accepted until Friday and allow for time for the development teams to respond to public feedback. Committee Phase II Evaluation should be complete by September / October for recommendations to Mayor and Council by November 2015. A final development agreement could possibly be as soon as Mid-2016 to begin redevelopment of the Ronstadt Transit Center and the two parking lots to the north.
To learn more about the project go to https://www.tucsonaz.gov/integrated-planning/ronstadt-transit-center-joint-development and to submit your comments to Rebecca.ruopp@tucsonaz.gov by Friday.
