Downtown Tucsonan - January 2008 - (Page 5)

f r om th e e dito r W h at t o E x p e c t Downtown in 2008 ’ve found it to be advisable, after several years of being involved with downtown, to avoid promising that certain actions to be performed by others will come to pass within a particular timeframe. with that in mind, here are some projects that I have a high degree of confidence in coming to pass in the coming twelve months. I’ll start off with a project that won’t be completed in 2008, the 4th avenue underpass— although significant progress will be made this year. construction will continue throughout 2008, but the congress/toole area should be reopened by spring. Getting congress street fully open again will help pave the way to some new businesses and housing coming this year to the congress street district. Renovation continues at the old MLK apartments, now known as one north Fifth. Leasing will begin this winter and spring and the developers—williams and dame and Peach Properties—expect tenants to start moving in this summer. across the street at the depot, the restaurant space formerly occupied by central Bistro will become Maynard’s trackside Market & Eatery sometime before summer. Richard oseran and Ross Rulney’s new venture sounds appealing and exciting, and should be a great way to activate the landmark building on toole. the two buildings opposite one north Fifth and the Ronstadt transit center have suffered from a vacancy rate of almost 50% in recent years, but have you noticed that the approximately 15 storefronts on the south side of congress are almost all occupied now? the Post will hopefully be under construction this year, and one can plainly see signs of progress across the street at the McLellan’s building, where on a Roll should be open by april. we’ll look for the reopening of some kind of bar next door this year at the old Heart Five, too. around the corner, the relocation of county employees from the old walgreens building (actually called the Roy Place Building) to the Bank of america Plaza has opened up the opportunity again to bring commercial activity back to the southeast corner of downtown’s busiest pedestrian intersection, stone and Pennington. In november, city staff pledged to return to the city council in February with some memoranda of understanding concerning the convention hotels. this would include, for example, agreements with HsL Properties and alan norville to acquire their property, and development agreements with Hensel Phelps construction and Garfield traub to renovate the Hotel arizona and build the new sheraton convention headquarters hotel, respectively. Hopefully, the renovation of the Hotel arizona will commence in 2008. one of the signature projects of Rio nuevo, the Mission san agustin (or “convento”) should be under construction during the first half of the year, on top of what had been a 20th century landfill between “a” Mountain and the santa cruz River. this project will include the convento, a chapel, other structures re-created from the Mission complex, and the Mission Gardens. still to be determined is the size and scope of a proposed interpretive center. In the embattled and beleaguered warehouse district, a decision is expected fairly soon from the arizona attorney General on the fate of warehouse district buildings owned by the aZ dept. of transportation. the aG is reportedly considering whether the warehouse district Master Plan, adopted a few years ago by the city council, constitutes a “public purpose” and whether to authorize adot to sell district properties to the city of tucson for arts-related uses. Hmm, what else? More construction in the Mercado district on the west side, the installation of aLL of the long-awaited parking and directional signs in downtown, another year closer to the end of the I-10 construction, and determining the next move for Presidio terrace. Perhaps there will be some forward movement with regard to the santa Rita Block and Plaza san agustin. Hopefully private businesses leaving the Bank of america Plaza can be retained in other downtown office buildings. Finally, we will soon welcome Glenn Lyons of calgary, alberta to our staff. Glenn will be assigned the task of overseeing some of these projects, including finding a new developer for Presidio terrace, bringing retail back to the walgreens building, and launching the Façade Program for older buildings needing a facelift. More on Glenn and those projects to come. clearly, downtown tucson’s revitalization is gaining some momentum. donovan durband Executive director, downtown tucson Partnership I january.08. downtown tucsonan 5 http://www.foxtucsontheatre.org http://www.foxtucsontheatre.org http://www.foxtucsontheatre.org http://www.foxtucsontheatre.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Downtown Tucsonan - January 2008

Downtown Tucsonan - January 2008 Contents From the Editor Downtown Lowdown Vital Signs Downtown Restaurants & Cafes Downtown Live Arts Galleries Performance Film Events Museums Historic Downtown Billboard Classifieds

Downtown Tucsonan - January 2008

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