Citizen Staff Writer
OUR OPINION

Construction of a city-county courts complex downtown has been delayed because an old cemetery was on the land.

But Pima County did the right thing by taking the time and spending the money to exhume and store more than 1,800 sets of remains.

Saturday, the remains of 61 U.S. Cavalry soldiers and some of their dependents will be reburied in the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista.

The remains will be escorted from Tucson by scores of motorcyclists from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Patriot Riders.

Burial will come with full military honors at a new cemetery for historic burials near Fort Huachuca.

That’s as it should be. These soldiers from long ago deserve the same honors as current members of our military.

Citizen Staff Writer

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

The TCC hotel is on.

The City Council, with an “absolutely” from Councilwoman Nina Trasoff and “yeah” from Mayor Bob Walkup unanimously approved a development agreement Tuesday for a 525-room, 25-story Sheraton Tucson Convention Center Hotel.

“We’re coming here to build an astounding hotel edifice,” Trasoff said.

Garfield Traub Development is the hotel developer. Schematic design work will start this month, with construction of a new east-side main entrance for the TCC set to start in September. The hotel will be built where TCC’s grand lobby is now. Construction is to start at the TCC’s west lobby in March 2010.

The $239 million hotel, TCC expansion and parking garage project has become a priority for the city as it tries to save Rio Nuevo from the Legislature’s budget ax.

Focusing on the TCC complex came at the expense of the Tucson Origins museum complex on the West Side.

“I want to make sure we do not forget many of the things voters approved in 1999,” said Councilwoman Regina Romero. “We also have a cultural complex that the people of Tucson voted for.”

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich urged fiscal caution during economic hard times.

The estimated $167 million hotel will be funded with a tax-exempt revenue bond, and certificates of participation will likely pay for the $39 million TCC expansion and $33 million garage, Rio Nuevo director Greg Shelko said.

Citizen Staff Writer

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

Supporters of the shelved Tucson Origins mission complex pleaded for 45 minutes Monday to the Rio Nuevo board to revive plans to build the Mission San Agustín and Mission Gardens.

At the same meeting, state Rep. Frank Antenori said Rio Nuevo was dead in the Legislature unless the city sticks exclusively with Tucson Convention Center improvements.

Meanwhile, the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Board put off a decision on a master development agreement to design and build a Tucson Convention Center hotel, and the City Council on Tuesday is expected to delay its decision until May 12 for the same agreement with Garfield Traub Development to build the 525-room, 25-story Sheraton Tucson Convention Center Hotel.

Seven members of Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace reminded the board that Proposition 400, which created Rio Nuevo in 1999, focused predominantly on historic and cultural features on the West Side, not on a convention center hotel, which has come to the forefront in recent months.

“When the Legislature dictated, in their wisdom, that we need a hotel, convention center and arena, I feel betrayed,” said Velia Jimenez Morelos, who has lived near the Origins site for 40 years. “The history and culture component made a big splash in my life (in 2001). About eight years later, I am asking, what happened to all the promises you made to us?”

Gene Einfrank and former Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer in the past year moved into houses in the upscale Mercado District of Menlo Park with the belief that museums and a reconstructed mission would soon be their neighbors. The City Council in February put the entire West Side project on hold to focus on the TCC hotel and expansion.

“For now, we feel a little foolish, like we’ve been taken for a ride, frankly, a little outraged,” Einfrank said.

The Friends presented to the Rio Nuevo board a petition with more than 1,000 signatures asking for the Mission Gardens to be completed and a timetable established to build the mission.

Antenori warned the Friends, as well as the board and City Council, to hold off on any Origins demands while he and Sen. Jonathan Paton work to save Rio Nuevo in the Legislature with a budget amendment that calls for the Legislature to expand and appoint a new Rio Nuevo board and prioritize the TCC projects because they generate money.

“If any of you make an effort to undermine that, the Legislature will surely kill Rio Nuevo,” said Antenori, a Tucson Republican. “The only hope we have left is to sit tight.”

Citizen Staff Writer
Our Opinion

A parking garage isn’t an icon of culture and beauty, but the structure under way downtown is emblematic of much more.

When the underground Depot Plaza garage is completed behind north of One North Fifth apartments, it will mark the first major accomplishment in the Rio Nuevo downtown rehabilitation program.

Soon, that $13.5 million, 283-space subterranean parking spot is expected to be completed.

Then work can commence on a six-story public housing tower above to provide 68 units for low-income elderly and for disabled residents.

Tucson long has waited for visible signs of progress with Rio Nuevo, and setbacks and inadequate leadership have resulted in repeated delays.

Now concrete evidence of progress is here, giving us something to celebrate – even if it is merely a parking garage.

Citizen Staff Writer

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

The parent organization of the Skrappy’s youth club is expected to get the lease for the warehouse at 191 E. Toole Ave. now held by the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Skrappy’s, which provides a drug- and alcohol-free environment for youths to socialize and take part in arts programs, moved into the warehouse March 3 with a right of entry giving the group limited occupancy of 49 people.

Tuesday, the City Council will consider terminating MOCA’s lease and approving a renewable three-month lease with Our Family Services, Skrappy’s nonprofit parent.

The lease terms are similar to MOCA’s, where the museum paid $1 per year and was responsible for all expenses with the building. Our Family Services will pay $1 for the three-month term, according to the lease document.

Skrappy’s move to Toole was a collaboration among Our Family, MOCA, the city and developer Jim Campbell, who is committing $250,000 over five years to do necessary structural work. Campbell plans to install a back door in the next 90 days.

The lack of a back door limits Skrappy’s occupancy now and also caused MOCA to abandon the warehouse for exhibition space in 2006. After the door is installed, Campbell plans to add a sprinkler system.

“We’re getting the building prepared to run workshops,” said Victor Quiros, community services manager for Our Family.

In the meantime, Tucson Youth Collective, a group of former Skrappy’s youths from a decade ago, has applied for Internal Revenue Code 501(c)3 nonprofit status to acquire the club from Our Family, which has operated Skrappy’s since 2000. The club was started in 1996.

“Once they get (nonprofit status),” Quiros said, “we will let them take on the Skrappy’s project.”

Citizen Staff Writer

TOM STAUFFER

tstauffer@tucsoncitizen

Janos Wilder, who broke downtown’s collective heart when he moved his award-winning, namesake restaurant to the foothills 11 years ago, is planning a return to the city’s core in a big way.

Wilder, chef/owner of Janos and J BAR, 3770 E. Sunrise Drive, will open a new restaurant, bar and demonstration kitchen in three adjacent units on the southwest corner of Congress Street and Fifth Avenue.

“If everything goes well, we’ll open in the fall,” said Wilder, who has been in Tucson since 1983 and won the James Beard Foundation award in 2000 for Best Chef: Southwest.

Wilder said he’ll continue to operate Janos and the adjacent J Bar at The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa.

“I love it up there,” Wilder said. “It’s been great to us, and we’re not going anywhere, but there are great things going on downtown, contrary to what you read in the papers every day, and we’re really excited to be getting back there.”

Scott Stiteler, the owner of the building that stretches from Fifth Avenue to Arizona Alley on the south side of Congress, said Wilder researched a variety of downtown locations for his new venture. Stiteler also owns the One North Fifth residential and commercial project across the street, is a 50-50 partner with Don Martin in the Rialto Block on the south side of Congress between Fifth and Fourth avenues, and is a partner in the Downtown Tucson Development Corporation.

“We’ve been kind of bouncing back and forth from the old to the new for about the last 90 days, but he finally settled on the old,” Stiteler said. “It’s a good fit for him, and it’s a validation of all the good things that are happening around downtown that he’s doing this.”

Current tenants of the units that Wilder will occupy are Tooley’s Cafe, a boutique clothing store and an art gallery, all of which remain open for the time being, Stiteler said.

“Some things are out of our control as far as a timeline, but we’d like to have it open by the high season,” Stiteler said. “Patricia Schwabe (owner of Tooley’s Cafe) has been really terrific with this transition.”

Wilder said his plans for the 2,500 square feet of space in the unit call for a 30- to 50-seat restaurant, a bar catering to both young adults and professionals, and a demonstration kitchen that will function as his “food laboratory.”

“It will be something I can use for recipe development, cooking classes and a private dining room,” he said.

The restaurant will have a similar focus to that of Janos and J BAR in a more casual setting, Wilder said.

“We want to do things that focus on the foods of the region with a very heavy emphasis on local foods and food from Native Seeds/SEARCH,” he said. “We’re looking at something casual, with a price point that’s geared to what’s happening in the world today.”

Wilder’s announcement was lauded as “fantastic news” by Glenn Lyons, CEO of the Downtown Tucson Partnership.

“I’d heard the rumors, but I tried not to take them too seriously because sometimes you can kill the goose that lays the golden egg if you talk about it,” Lyons said. “I call this one a great victory for downtown.”

Wilder’s return to downtown is a significant boon to downtown revitalization efforts, said City Councilwoman Nina Trasoff.

“I’m excited on a food level and when you add to it that amazing concept of the open kitchen, it’s a perfect fit for Janos,” Trasoff said. “But when you also look at the business of Rio Nuevo and the business of downtown revitalization, the fact that someone of Janos’ caliber wants to come back to downtown speaks volumes about what’s happening here.”

Across Fifth Avenue from Wilder’s enterprise, restaurateur Kwang C. An is developing An Congress, a 10,000-square- foot Asian restaurant in the Rialto Block. Those restaurants and the nearby Cup Café in the Hotel Congress and Maynard’s Market in the Historic Depot on Toole Avenue will result in an food epicenter of considerable appeal, Stiteler said.

“If you look at all the other new restaurants that have opened downtown such as Maynard’s, On A Roll Sushi, Chileverde and Burger City, and then at mainstays like Cafe Poca Cosa, El Charro Cafe and Barrio (Food and Drink), it’s a food mecca,” Trasoff said.

Lyons said the demonstration kitchen could also provide a significant draw in itself given Wilder’s status as a chef and his experience with hosting cooking classes, fundraisers and other special events.

“There’s a chef in Albuquerque who opened up a similar demonstration kitchen downtown there and it draws people from all over the country to take her classes,” Lyons said “I think this will also have people coming from all over the city who might not otherwise be coming downtown.”

Wilder opened Janos in 1983 in the historic Stevens House, 150 N. Main Ave., in the Tucson Museum of Art & Historic Block. He moved it to La Paloma 15 years later after the Tucson Museum of Art board of directors voted to evict the restaurant when its lease expired to take over the space as part of an expansion and renovation.

Though Lyons came to Tucson many years after Wilder’s departure from the Stevens House, he’s been made well aware of what Janos meant to downtown, he said. “Almost every day I talk to someone who tells me how great it was to have Janos here and how sad they were when he left,” Lyons said.

“I’d always wanted to get back there, and I never lost sight of downtown,” said Wilder, who was a semifinalist this year for the Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef in the Country award. “What made it possible was the city has provided some really great behind-the-scenes leadership in forging partnerships with the private sector, and I think we’re on the verge of some really great things happening downtown.”

Citizen Staff Writer
Our Opinion

Battered by an unforgiving world economic crisis the likes of which hasn’t been seen for eight decades, Rio Nuevo is going back to its basics.

Museums – seen as a way to attract out-of-town visitors and celebrate Arizona’s centennial in three years – have been put on hold.

Instead, limited funds are being earmarked for projects that will generate money – a decision that makes sense but will be tough for some to accept.

Much of the funding for Rio Nuevo comes from tax-increment financing. The city keeps a share of increased sales tax revenue collected downtown and along East Broadway – revenue that usually would be sent to the state.

The numbers tell the grim story: Money from the tax has plunged from $16 million in 2006 to $8.6 million in 2008. Bonds have been sold so work can commence on Rio Nuevo without waiting for all the revenue to come in – but with sharply decreased revenue available to repay those bonds, the work must be delayed or scaled back.

Given that, City Manager Mike Hein did the right thing when he put on hold construction of Mission San Agustín, the University of Arizona Science Center/State Museum, the Arizona History Museum and the Tucson Children’s Museum.

Instead, the limited money will be used in and around the Tucson Convention Center – mostly for a new arena and convention center hotel.

That’s not popular with West Side advocates – but it’s logical.

Those projects should make TCC and downtown far more salable to conventions, trade shows, performances, sporting events and large meetings – all of which would bring new revenue into the tax increment financing pot.

But it is crucial that the museums not be forgotten. They were the key element in winning voter approval of Rio Nuevo almost a decade ago and remain an important promise to residents living west of Interstate 10.

The goal was to build not only a thriving retail and commercial district, but also a tribute to Tucson’s storied past. The museums and historic re- creations were to fill that role.

The modern streetcar line that will run from north of the University of Arizona through downtown and west of I-10 is key to joining the museum campus to the rest of downtown.

So it was helpful for City Councilwoman Regina Romero to insist that her colleagues include language ensuring that work will continue on a bridge the streetcar will use to cross the Santa Cruz River.

The museums are not dead, only waiting for economy to catch up with the plans.

Rio Nuevo is struggling – partly because the city has not maintained a clear vision, but mostly because the economy has worked against it.

Focusing on convention- and business-related projects now will ensure a strong financial base when the recession ends.

With revenue to Rio Nuevo coffers dropping, the city must turn its attention to projects that will raise money.

Citizen Staff Writer

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

Whimsy drives John Wesley Miller’s life.

In September, he decided to move from his mid-town office to the back of the empty former McLellan building downtown. About 75 feet of vacant space set his office apart from the sidewalk-side windows.

Miller has built solar-powered homes around Tucson since 1973, long before alternative energy sources became popular. He figured he could build an entire downtown development in which solar panels largely powered the houses.

The resulting Armory Park Del Sol development has 88 families living downtown along South Third Avenue in Miller homes on what was undeveloped land in 2001.

Last fall, producers of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” television show approached Miller to build a house for the show, but “I said I’m too busy,” Miller said. “Three hours later I said, ‘Absolutely, I’ll do it.’ ”

He will honor the 1,500 people who volunteered to demolish and build the home for the John and Kathy Bell family with a live transmission of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” at the Fox Theatre when the show airs at 7 p.m. Sunday. Miller was won over by the story of 14-year-old Lizzie Bell, who doesn’t let her rare Diamond Blackfan anemia stop her from being a blood donor activist.

Miller, 75, has made a life of setting his own agenda.

Today, the top of his agenda is finding tenants for the 27,000-square-foot McLellan Building, which has sat vacant at Congress Street and Scott Avenue since 1990. Miller bought it in December 2005 for $1.3 million when the rest of the local business world largely did – and still does – steer clear of downtown.

“My view of success is you get a vision or concept and you commit to it,” Miller said, sitting behind the 10-foot-wide conference table made of recycled planks that serves as his desk. “If you truly make a commitment, you become passionate about it. That’s what allows you to be successful.”

Miller moved from an office on Craycroft Road.

“I didn’t give up anything by moving here,” he said. “I gained in all aspects. If I want to walk to the city, the county (offices), El Minuto Cafe, El Charro Café, I’m there in a few minutes. I love being able to walk around downtown because it’s what I did as a kid.”

Despite brimming optimism, Miller hasn’t filled much of McLellan in three years, and a year ago he put up signs to sell the 1947 structure. Now, he’s leaning toward leasing space and he said he’s in talks with four potential tenants that could land a restaurant or lounge in the next two months.

He said having his office in the building sparked interest.

“It’s fun to bring people in through a warehouse and you have a nice office that could be in a deluxe building,” Miller said. “We’re already seeing people interested in being ahead of the curve (for downtown revitalization).”

The On a Roll sushi restaurant opened in September at the western edge of Miller’s building.

“On a Roll is so successful in the evening time,” Miller said. “My view was build it in a quality manner, have good food and good service and you will succeed. The market is here.”

On a Roll owner Dominic Moreno confirmed the restaurant is performing ahead of his business plan.

“When I first met John, you talk about who are true Tucsonans, he really defines that,” Moreno said. “You get that from the sense of commitment. He’s a true believer. He was always, always promoting our place. Always.”

This week Miller is focusing on the Fox Theatre, one block west of the McLellan building. The event is for as many of the 1,500 volunteers as he can get into the 1,200-seat theater.

Miller led seven construction crews to demolish and build a home for the Bell family near Craycroft and River roads within seven days, with television cameras running.

“If you can imagine ants on a candy bar, it was busier than that,” Miller said. “At one point, we were 15 hours behind, but we made that up in two days. When we put out calls, guys just started showing up.”

Miller muses about how a large house could be built in seven days, while downtown languishes year after year. He noted that Pima County building inspectors were constantly on hand to execute instant inspections.

“I think what we learned was there are three parts of a successful project: communication, collaboration and the one we usually forget about, cooperation,” Miller said, illustrating cooperation with how the Makeover team dealt with multiple crews wanting to work at the same spot at the same time. ” ‘If you need to get into that room in the next five minutes, I’ll go to another room.’ Everybody was on board. We can learn from them.”

Citizen Staff Writer
Our Opinion

We’re sorry to see progress slowed on Rio Nuevo, but the University of Arizona’s decision to delay its piece is wise.

UA is suspending work on its combined Science Center and Arizona State Museum – but only until the economy rebounds, promises UA President Robert N. Shelton.

We want UA to keep that promise, as its presence downtown will be imperative to Rio Nuevo’s success.

Nonetheless, this is a good time to suspend work, given the major budget cuts at UA, plus questions over reimbursements it has received from city government for its Rio Nuevo work.

Those issues should be resolved, and the UA’s economic situation improved, before work resumes on the museum and science center.

In the meantime, though, we trust that other Rio Nuevo projects will proceed apace, keeping our vibrant new downtown moving forward.

Citizen Staff Writer

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

The City Council on Wednesday took in stride the indefinite construction delay of the downtown University of Arizona Science Center and immediately focused on infrastructure and the Tucson Convention Center hotel.

The council agreed in a study session to prioritize building the streetcar line and the Cushing Street bridge across the Santa Cruz River to link downtown with the West Side.

“We have to come back to basics,” Councilwoman Regina Romero said. “We have to make sure we’re investing in infrastructure to make sure private investments is happening.”

Councilwoman Nina Trasoff asked City Manager Mike Hein to revise the Rio Nuevo capital improvement program to set aside the Science Center and reach out to the private sector for development projects in conjunction with the TCC hotel project, which is scheduled to start construction in March 2010.

Mayor Bob Walkup was especially eager to make the hotel a priority to show organizers of the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show held at the TCC that the city is making progress with convention center improvements.

“We’ll do whatever it takes to protect (the gem show),” Walkup said. “If we have to reprioritize projects, we will do that.”

No mention was made of threats in the Legislature to pull Rio Nuevo funding, which comes in the way of sales taxes generated in the Rio Nuevo district downtown and along Broadway to Park Place.

The state Senate Republican Caucus, composed of 18 of the 30 members in the Senate, is meeting this week and next to discuss a number of state-funded programs, including Rio Nuevo. Sen. Jonathan Paton, a Tucson Republican, and Sen. Jim Waring, a Phoenix Republican, have told the Tucson Citizen there is no clarity regarding Rio Nuevo’s fate at this early stage of the budget process.

Neither senator said he has a sense whether any Rio Nuevo action in the Legislature will be limited to one fiscal year or the full life of the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District through 2025. But Paton said he figures there will be significant changes to Rio Nuevo by the time the state budget gets through the Senate Finance Committee, the full Senate and the House of Representatives in the next six weeks.

City Council agrees to make TCC hotel project a priority

Citizen Staff Writer
IN BRIEF

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

Three artists are putting on a Downtown Scavenger Hunt to generate ideas from participants on what can be done with 10 vacant buildings.

Clues to find the 10 mystery buildings will be given out between noon and 2 p.m. March 1 at Shot in the Dark Café, 121 E. Broadway.

Small activities will take place at each scavenger hunt building, especially jotting down thoughts of what could happen with each building. Organizers plan to compile participants’ ideas and present them to the building’s owners, said graphic designer and writer Julie Ray.

The scavenger hunt is put on by Pop Up Spaces, a new collaboration with Ray, artist Rachelle Diaz, founder of the Tu Scene blog, and photographer Molly McClintock, a founder of MAXED ART, a multidisciplinary artist collective.

For more information, contact Ray at 891-8098.

Citizen Staff Writer

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

Rio Nuevo proponents will face the state Senate finance committee Wednesday as senators evaluate a wide range of potential budget cuts.

At the informational hearing, senators will hear from various entities getting state funding and use that information for budget considerations, said Mary Okoye, the city’s director of intergovernmental relations.

“In terms of threats, we have not gotten any direct specific threats (to end Rio Nuevo tax increment financing),” Okoye said. “No legislators have sent us letters. We have been dealing with a lot of bad press.”

Okoye said Mayor Bob Walkup has met with several legislators in the past two weeks and has heard of no threats to sales-tax derived TIF financing that funds the Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District.

“We’re telling them the district works,” Okoye said. “We have proof. One: We have private investment. Two: our bond rating has increased and we have been able to bond in this environment.”

Rio Nuevo director Greg Shelko will address the finance committee. He will be joined by Jerry Dixon, developer of the Mercado District of Menlo Park luxury housing; Glenn Lyons, chief executive of the Downtown Tucson Partnership; Okoye or one of her staff; and possibly Anne-Marie Russell, chair of the Rio Nuevo board of directors and executive director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson.

“We’re fairly confident that when the truth is told about what is happening, that they will understand the importance of the critical work going on,” Shelko said. “Things might not be the way they read: that nothing is happening.”

Projects that will be touted include the Tucson Convention Center hotel now in the design phase; Depot Plaza and its one finished element, One North Fifth Apartments; the Mercado District and the streetcar project that should see tracks lain through downtown this year.

Citizen Staff Writer

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

Skrappy’s, a club for teens, will be revived in its third downtown incarnation, possibly as early as next week.

Skrappy’s will become a neighbor and collaborator with the Museum of Contemporary Art.

It will occupy the white warehouse at 191 E. Toole Ave. adjoining the blue warehouse occupied by MOCA offices and artists in residents. MOCA leases both warehouses from the city.

“For now, it will be the after-school program we’ve done in the past,” said Victor Quiros, community services manager for Our Family Services. The nonprofit offers the Skrappy’s program, which gives youths a chance to socialize and enjoy the arts in a drug- and alcohol-free environment.

Occupancy will be limited to 49 people in a portion of the building until the warehouse is brought up to building code.

“We’re looking at the possibility of turning it into a permanent location,” Quiros said. “It’s hard to tell at this time (when Skrappy’s can fully occupy the warehouse).”

The new Skrappy’s home came about because of a pledge by the Downtown Tucson Development Co. as it seeks a 20-year development agreement with the city to redevelop up to 75 acres in the eastern portions of downtown stretching from Sixth Street to Armory Park.

The company pledged $250,000 to Skrappy’s over five years in rent abatement or space improvement. The rent ended up minimal: $1.03 per month.

“We have found the location (for Skrappy’s) and we’re spending $50,000 this year to fix up that space,” said Jim Campbell, the company’s manager.

Kids at Skrappy’s will interact with the 26 MOCA artists in residence next door, said Anne-Marie Russell, MOCA’s executive director.

Skrappy’s, founded in 1996, had become a popular youth facility, especially with the concerts staged at its longtime home in the former Continental Trailways bus depot, 201 E. Broadway. But Skrappy’s has operated in scaled-down fashion or not at all since its eviction from the former Broadway Volvo dealership building at the end of July 2007.

TEYA VITU

tvitu@tucsoncitizen.com

Even with Williams & Dame Development no longer part of the Downtown Tucson Development Co., the 20-year vision to redevelop much of the east half of downtown remains in place.

The Portland, Ore., developer recently parted ways with partners Scott Stiteler and Jim Campbell after financier Stiteler and Williams & Dame “were not able to come to agreement on our role in the company moving forward,” Williams & Dame said in a statement.

“It purely had to do with the economics of the situation,” company manager Campbell said. “Is it smart to spend spend $2 million on planning (in this economic climate)?”

Campbell said the company is pressing forward to show results on the Rialto Block, owned by Stiteler and Don Martin; the neighboring city-owned Rialto Theatre; and getting the Skrappy’s youth entitlement center into a new home as soon as next week.

“The big difference as of yesterday (Wednesday) is the discussion of planning,” Campbell said. “The focus is on sticks and bricks instead of paper. What we want to show is activity and progress.”

Williams & Dame served as the team’s planner and had completed about 90 percent of the conceptual plan due to the city by late April. This will include plans, sketches, photographs and text that describes an overall vision for the 75-acre area that includes the Warehouse Arts District up to Sixth Street and the Congress Street Entertainment District.

Stiteler, who quietly negotiated a pre-development agreement with the city, is the company’s financial arm. He also is half-owner of the Rialto Block and majority owner of the One North Fifth Apartments and three storefronts on Congress Street across from One North Fifth. Williams and Dame and Tucson-based Peach Properties remain minority owners of One North Fifth, but otherwise the Portland developer no longer has active projects in Tucson.

Williams & Dame had taken the lead in discussions with the Warehouse Arts Management Organization, which the company wanted to help renovate warehouses along Toole Avenue. Stiteler has assumed direct relations with WAMO and met with the warehouse group Thursday, Campbell said.

The company in the pre-development agreement committed to giving WAMO $2.5 million to assess and rehabilitate the two dozen state-owned warehouses that are occupied by artists. But a stall in negotiations between the state transportation department and the city to transfer ownership to the city has put WAMO on the company’s back burner.

“It makes no sense to assess the warehouses now,” Campbell said. “When ADOT got pushed off, the whole warehouse thing was put on hold.”

Campbell said WAMO has to plan for three contingencies: the city acquiring all the warehouse, some of them, or none of them.

City Councilwoman Regina Romero said the council on Tuesday will consider releasing $65,000 to WAMO to start a business management plan. The money will come from the city trust fund funded by rents warehouse tenants pay.

Romero met on Wednesday with Stiteler; Campbell; WAMO President Marvin Shaver; Jaret Barr, an assistant to the city manager; and C.T. Revere, chief of staff to Councilwoman Nina Trasoff.

“I feel much more comfortable,” Romero said. “They are still very committed to WAMO, still very committed to Skrappy’s and still very committed to the Rialto Block. They still want the arts district to flourish.”

Williams & Dame was a signatory to the pre-development agreement. Barr was not sure how that would affect the document, adding that it was a precursor to a formal development agreement that will likely be done in summer.

Downtown development still on despite partner pullout

Citizen Staff Writer

MARK KIMBLE

bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com

After 94 years, the hulking downtown building – scarred by protective blue tarps and propped up with steel beams – seems ready to give up and melt back into the earth from which it came.

But the building is stronger than it looks. And with some repairs, it could easily last another century or so.

That, however, seems unlikely. A rescue mission will take money – in an economy where money for things like saving old buildings is hard to come by.

Nonetheless, Ken Scoville is not giving up.

The building is the former Marist College, a massive adobe structure owned by the Catholic Diocese of Tucson. It is west of St. Augustine Cathedral and across the street from the Tucson Convention Center.

Although it is in the heart of downtown, the building has been overlooked as redevelopment gets under way all around.

The Marist College building is worth saving. Including a full basement, it has three stories with about 10,000 square feet inside. The two stories above ground were built with adobe. The top portion, above the second-floor ceiling line, is brick.

Scoville, a local historian, said the building is the largest adobe structure remaining in southern Arizona – and possibly in the state.

It was unusual to build multistory buildings from the mud bricks because of the crushing weight two stories would place on the bottom bricks. The concrete basement was an innovative foundation that helped support the weight of the adobes, which are stacked to make walls 18 inches thick.

In addition to the size of the building, the timing of its construction was unusual. Adobe was the building material of choice in the early years of Tucson because there wasn’t much else available.

In 1880, the railroad arrived, and with it came bricks, wood and more “sophisticated” buildings materials.

“This was built at the end of the adobe era in Tucson,” Scoville said.

According to Scoville’s research, four Marist brothers came to Tucson in 1914 to teach English. The building went up a year later with boarding and day students from elementary school through the sophomore year of high school accepted for classes.

The building was used as a school until 1968. After that, it was used as offices for the diocese until 2002 when it was vacated because of stability concerns.

Eric Means of Means Construction, a local preservation contractor, said the damage could easily have been prevented. Drains became clogged with fronds from nearby palm trees, causing water to pond on the roof. It eventually seeped down through the adobes, causing them to melt. A nonpermeable coating applied to the outside trapped moisture, accelerating the damage.

The corners of the building were the first to go. The northwest corner is held up by steel beams and covered with a blue tarp, but pigeons fly in and out. In recent months, tarps have been put on the other corners to minimize damage.

Means said the temporary measures have saved the Marist College, which has shifted less than 1/32 of an inch in the past several years.

“This building is unique and valuable,” Means said. He estimates it would cost $1 million to remove the harmful coating, replace the damaged adobes and bring the building back to structural stability. “It’s cheaper to restore it than put up a new building” of comparable size, he said.

John Shaheen, property and insurance manager for the diocese, said the church doesn’t have the money to restore the building.

If someone wants to restore it and has a proposal, the diocese is interested in listening, he said. It would have to be a use compatible with the cathedral, so don’t expect to see a bar in the building.

If you haven’t looked at the Marist College building, it’s worth a trip downtown. Walk around it and look at it – rounded window openings, the statutes on the north side, the detail around the doors. Despite the peeling exterior, it is a beautiful structure.

“It’s just melting away,” Scoville lamented. “But I still want to believe we can save it.”

Mark Kimble appears at 6:30 p.m. Fridays on the Roundtable segment of “Arizona Illustrated” on KUAT-TV, Channel 6. He may be reached at mkimble@tucsoncitizen.com or 573-4662.

TO HELP

Ken Scoville (above) is trying to raise money and interest for preserving the Marist College building. Contact him at opt1775@yahoo.com.