Welcome back to our fourth in the series of videos on Tucson’s changing Urban landscape the we’ve so far talk about the history of what’s been happening in downtown taking it back to some of the voter approved initiatives in the 90s through some of the more recent developments with the streetcar coming in 2014. Excuse me. We have talked about what’s happening in the central part of downtown. We expanded that out into 4th Avenue and University area. And today we’re going to talk about some of the things that are happening on the outskirts of the downtown area, but still part of this Urban footprint today.

We’re going to share with you about Sunshine Mile. This is just east of downtown. It’s a stretch of road from Euclid. It’s a country club. So if you were in the downtown area, you’ve got the the snake Bridge right here you come out and they’re really talking about from Euclid the country club. It’s more than a mile. But we call it the sunshine mile was really prolific in the 60s and 70s.

So if you’re into mid-century modern type of architecture, this is a great place to go and check it out. It’s only undergoing some renovations right now, but here’s a sense of the style of Good texture that you’re going to see in the sunshine mile. You’ve got on the far East end of it. This is the old Sambo’s Pancake House built in the 60s with this with a space-age design was a chaffins diner for a while. And now it’s the welcome Diner the owners of this out of Phoenix came down and renovated. It made it a very modern facility with this historic footprint. If you go all the way to the other end of the sunshine mile on Broadway and Country Club, you have the Chase Bank, which is originally a Valley National. Hank got a lot of art sort of built into this design. It’s been a very well-received building over the years and still study. I believe by students at the U of A. So School of Architecture across the street from this the same developer put in her shoes. This is actually their first.

This is very interesting building if you Google her shoes and look at it from when I first started to Standalone building in the 50s, it’s a pretty cool site, but it’s now part of that Broadway Village area. You get to Bisbee Breakfast Club over here and a few other things Barrio bread is tucked away in here. So the sunshine mile is really undergoing some transformation because of the the widening project between the RTA is widening Broadway and that jeopardized a lot of the retailers that were on Sunshine mile. This is a so lot Plaza and this is just just to the east of Tucson Boulevard Tucson tomorrow. Ali companies no longer there but this whole place is pretty much empty at this point. The widening was going to take away whatever parking was available. So Rihanna juego has stepped in with the city to Take Over Control of this and their goal is to create a pedestrian Style Walking area for people to enjoy the the shops, even though they don’t have the parking here.

They’ll move the parking to around the back area. So we’ll see how this plays out over the next couple of years. And if you’re if you’re in that area just west of Campbell. There are some historic Bungalows that were right up on Broadway from the 1930s. And those were going to be destroyed and ran away with stepped in again and say hey, let’s not destroy those. It’s let’s find a way to save those and they’ve with the help of the city. They took them over from the city and they actually looked at them up and move them back about 20 or 30 feet. So they are no longer right up against that Broadway widening and they could be served the idea being that they would end up with this sort of cafes Gallery shopping area again more pedestrian friendly for people to to enjoy just east of downtown something that’s planned in the end. The sunshine mile is welcome Broadway.

So this is the welcome Diner. We showed you a picture that earlier on this is Broadway and Euclid the welcome Diner the owners of that it purchased a lot. Store, which is the old bowl of Broadway. They purchased that from the city and they are currently working on plans to create a Mercado like environment where you have shops retail, maybe some hospitality and restaurants in this area. So look forward to seeing what comes out of Broadway welcome Broadway currently working with the neighbors of the business owners to to finalize the plans will see how things are moving along. So let’s go that’s on the east side of downtown. Let’s go all the way over to the west side to the Mikado Saint Augustine. So the major part of downtown is here. We’ve come underneath the freeway and we were at the Mercado Saint Augustine. This is a very historic place. This is the birthplace of Tucson 4,200 years of continuous agricultural history on this spot lots of History to sift through and the developers are trying to work with that in conjunction with developing. The area so this project is completed. This is the West End station. This is Workforce housing.

So your rent is based upon your qualifications to be here and your rent is based upon the amount of income that you make to other Provisions with that but that is completed. It’s called the West End station and then write this picture below that is the mounier apartments. This is market rate Apartments. So there are no qualifications, whatever the market will bear expect that to be higher. Our end the mounier will end up being a hundred twenty two apartments. There’s going to be 13,000 square feet of retail and then a hundred Forty-Eight underground parking spots. The name of this came after a gentleman in quintus mounier. He was an architect and he also had the Tucson pressed Brick Company, which operated on this site and the Tucson those brakes are all over the foundation of Tucson and University of Arizona. So quintus mounier, very important name in Tucson history and the Mounier Apartments named after him.

This is underway. This is actually not even updated picture ratio. You need to update thiss is from when the gem show is here in January, but this has come a long way since then but it’s definitely something to be completed later this year. You will see what 2021 looks for the master plan of the Mercado area. Is very interesting. You’ve got the money a building which is almost complete. You have the original Mercado the the shops and restaurants that was sort of the foundation of the area and the homes in here for my around 2010. The MSA Annex came in a few years ago. These are cargo containers. Converted into retail and dining opportunities at the annex. This is an empty lot still used for parking as is this area here, but there’s plans for both of those the West End station is complete. We showed you that over here you do have senior housing. So you’ve got a market rate Apartments. You have income based housing and you have senior housing and you also have a home ownership opportunities to hear very diverse intentionally diverse part of the Tucson this here the Bautista.

This is getting some tractions got some approvals with Rihanna wave on the city council. So it’s moving forward and it’s going to look something like this. This is the Mercado in the background. This is about teesta, and this is a massive project. Rick again CDs that that will that word a lot but the Bautista it’s a series of apartments and retail office space very large project here and you’ve got this sort of walk down Amphitheatre these stairs that take you down to the Santa Cruz with the the potential that there might actually be water flowing and that Santa Cruz see how that plays out. That’s the Bautista one of those. land projects So we are on the west side of the freeway. We’re going to jump over to the convention center and take a look at what’s going on. There. Here’s the the footprint of the are you got the convention center of the Arena where the roadrunners play in this parking and they’ve added this new hotel here.

It’s going to be the Doubletree and few very first episode we talked about the importance of the AC hotel that has done really well in downtown and the second episode we talked about the The new hotel that’s coming to downtown the Hampton Inn. HT sweets the last episode we talked about the hotel The Graduate Hotel going in at University. And now you have the Doubletree coming into the convention center. So massive amounts of a hotel rooms coming to the area and that doesn’t even include the renovations of places like Soul Tucson which way it used to be a Motel 6, and that’s been renovated. You got Hotel McCoy, which is been renovated as a mid-century. Modern iconic place to stay the clip downtown Clifton has expanded their their boutique hotels expanded 20 some rooms. So you’ve got a lot of places for folks to stay here in Tucson. This is the Doubletree it’s connected to the convention center. This is underway.

This is a parking garage that is part of the the proposal and this has just begun construction. So they’re taking out a lot of parking to be put in this hotel in exchange for That they are building this parking garage here. This is what it looked. Like. I don’t know probably about a month ago well underway. So this is the hotel here in the convention center. He can’t really see it. But off to the right the parking is underway Railway was investing a lot of money to the convention center. So not only are they bringing in hockey teams and arena football teams the bring it at hotels there. They’ve just recently announced about a 65 million dollar. Give or take investment into the convention center with high-tech meeting spaces more meeting spaces. They’re going to work with Leah Rich theater and the Music Hall to update them as they did with the arena with more modern amenities that are sound systems Etc. They’re putting a parking garage on both the east and west side of the of the convention center to increase parking opportunities, and they’re also investing money in this Expo Plaza. This is the Theory or the convention center that was designed by Garrett Expo in the 60s.

This is part of that urban renewal which took place of where the neighborhood used to be. But Garrett X-Bow is a renowned landscape architect. And if you see his projects around the country, they’re usually pretty well preserved and revered. Well 2010 after the economic collapse here in Tucson. We didn’t have the money. So the this hasn’t been kept up and now it’s really just more of a hazard if you really look at it got these gaping holes a big boulders. So part of ran away those investment in the convention center is to update this Expo pause and bring it back to what it’s supposed to be which is flowing water throughout that just takes you all the way through this convention center area should be a very popular place for people to come. This is the the Music Hall here. And if you can remember back to the second video series that we did and we talked about that project called the Flynn. Remember this massive project called the Flynn 243 some apartments is right here. So when you walk out of the convention center.

You’re going to be seeing the Expo Plaza right here, you know this water flowing through it and then the Flynn so massive amount of investment in the area and it’s it’s it’s tying it all together. So the convention center is here. We’re going to go to South on Meyer a little bit. This is Simpson admire. This is what it looked like a few months ago. It was an empty lot. Probably about a year ago. This is what I look like probably a year from now with all these Townhomes. One of the first projects where things are available for sale in downtown everything else we’ve talked about in the other videos have been condo been Apartments. Meaning that they are for rent. This is an opportunity for someone actually have ownership in a property in downtown. They can buy these townhomes and they are underway project is farther along than this is probably from I think January or so, but you can see it’s a masonry construction, which the developers of Miramonte to had to do to meet with the Removal of the stork board there exists this area here is borrow viejos, very strict on new development.

So, you know, I quality home there Miramonte tank. And we’re going to head over to my think is one of the biggest areas of development that we’re going to see of course. We don’t know how the the economy will play out over the next few years because of the sudden onset of the covid-19 pandemic, but outside of that date of the plans for Five Points have been very exciting Five Points is the The convergence of Stone Avenue 6th Avenue and 18th Street. So you have these Five Points here really nice restaurant. There are five points Market did a really good brunch and breakfast and brunch there. But the the Five Points area there’s several neighborhoods around they’re all going to get these little banners that go across the street talking about the different neighborhood names. If you’re familiar with the area. This is the ones the auto sales it says ugly, but honest it’s a very iconic photo here in Tucson that we some Art and that general area.

And again, this is Five Points before we talk about this that is going to give you kind of a general idea. What’s happening around here. If we were to go up Stone the police station is over here and I used to be a restaurant called Casa Vicente that is actually come down and the developers of that taking that footprint and the footprint of that parking lot and are working on condos again everything we’ve talked about in the other episodes have been apartments for rent. This is Another project by Miramonte where they are proposing condominium something that you could actually own the before stories 28 condos and then because of Casa Vicente they do want to make sure that this bottom remains a restaurant so very interesting project underway for lots of reasons, but hopeful that this will come to fruition here. So that’s up here.

That’s the casa Vicente if we were to come down just off to the side here. There’s a small development. Seven homes that are the more to see billa’s. These are higher end homes. There’s going to be seven of them all together to three bedrooms. Just kind of what it’s going to look like very modern feel to it. Some of them have been completed. I know one at least one of sold to this point, which means you’re very modern interior beautiful layouts. That’s the more tasini Villas. So home ownership opportunities in the urban core do exist for new construction that’s over here. We have the 18th Street Bungalows on this side. These are for four buildings for sale. They were developed by the architect of this is Rob paulus. If you listen to our last episode you heard his name as part of the development of Trinity. He has a local architect as a lot of influence here in Tucson that these Bungalows are complete eventually the looking for the mature landscape that in that goes around there. For now, they’re they’re still a little bit more the infancy stage of that but they are complete and for sale across the street from these Bungalows is an empty lot that will soon how’s the baffert?

So this project here is very interesting is empty lot is part of the the Armory Park is historic designation and the work of the baffert would not fit within those designations. So the owner swapped with the city and they took This out of the historic designation, but they put this corner. This is tip of Five Points in the historic designation and it seems appropriate because this is a this is that ugly but honest sign ones the auto sales it’s pretty iconic place in Tucson. So this will have this work restrictions this will not so this is the current view this is what that same view would look like when the baffert is put into place and you’re looking at 14 Apartments 5,000 6,000 For the retail some dining down at the bottom back in parking here. So not a huge project but a nice infill project on an empty lot. So that would be here’s the baffert. These are the 18th Street Bungalows. There’s the baffert.

This is the Five Points we talk about the housing up here this structure right over here. This is area here. This is 18. This is going to be 18 West 18th Street. This is a currently an alignment shop. Let’s now defunct but it’s there and then this is a historic Bungalow. So they’re going to redevelop this into something that looks more like this with single family residents and apartments on that lat. They are keeping that historic Bungalow turning that into a cafe or a retail spot if you’re on 18th Street now, it looks a lot like this. Here’s that Bungalow there that you can that you can see so lots of things happening around that Five Points area just around the corner from 18th West 18th is The Flash. This is a new development that is underway there taking multiple buildings that are there and they’re redesigning them to be retail and office space. I don’t think that there’s housing in there. But there maybe if you’re down there you can see the iconic TV Flash TV sign. And that’s why this named is the Project’s named The Flash. It’s got these.

This is used the most recognizable peace and Amity the names of all of the appliance makers that were in there, but from here to the corner there. This is all fenced off now, so it’s been hollowed out and got it out. So they are working on putting that in the development stages while we’re in Five Points 19th Street and 6th Street. So this is the Five Points area is the these are the Bungalows are right over here. The baffert will be here. This is The Flash right through here. This area here is potentially going to be redesigned by a local Brewery currently. It’s got this fence around it and is a an old auto mechanic place and it kind of an aerial view, but imagine if Webelo Vita gets their hands on it and does what they want to do. You have a Taproom and a little cafe. Down here at Five Points. So lots of things happening in the Five Points area. so if you’ve been listening to These series of videos you’ve it’s been about an hour of your life and it’s really been a fast-paced.

Look at what’s what’s happened. What’s underway what’s planned and what’s possible and it’s it’s just amazing to me and looking at the urban core that that’s so much has happened all these hotels all this office space all these apartments their underwear. They’re all going to be completed this year next year. It is quite amazing to me and you think about projects that we’ve talked about today like the Bautista last series. We talked about Speedway Campbell. We talked about welcome Broadway today as a potential we talked about the Maloney’s pad and what that could look like from From perspective of 4th Avenue and the Ronstadt Center and 75 Broadway six major projects that haven’t even gotten to that development stage yet. They’re just still percolating. So all the development we’ve seen all this all this infrastructure has been put in place really just the foundation and we haven’t seen what truly Tucson is going to become over the next five to ten years. We’ll see how things play out but stay tuned in order to keep sharing this with you.

If you want to stay in the know check out downtown Tucson Partnerships economic blog. They do a really nice job of keeping you up-to-date re in a way will shares all the projects that they’re involved with all the money. They’ve spent what the return on investment has been with the expectations of the developers are a great place to go to Saint Improvement beautification org, Tebow AZ dot Biz the great site for economic development around the entire metropolitan area. Really high quality website put together their website. I am personally like is mine Life along the streetcar dot-org. It’s the house that has all the rebroadcast of all radio shows that have done over the last few years with downtown radio and 99.1 FM Life along.

The streetcar is a show that focuses on social cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban core and we get to talk to a lot of the decision makers to change makers the people on the ground making so much of this Economic Development and keeping so much of our history and culture alive and those videos are on available for available on demand for my lifelong the streetcar dot-org and I’m in the mortgage business. I’ve been doing mortgages for 20-plus years. If you would like to know more about how to work with us, if you’re a real estate agent or if your client you can always reach out to us as well to the heath team.com. If you’re a real estate agent, I recommend you go to Tom’s tools for agents.com and check out the things that we can help you take presentations like this and create things. Things for your clientele, and we do a lot more than just the urban core, but this is a great source for you. Again. My name is Tommy. I’m with the health Team and Home Loans. Hope you’ve made it through all the videos in the series, and I look forward to sharing more updates with you as a Tucson continues to grow. So, thank you for your time.