Archive for October 26th, 2008

Another in depth look at Rio Nuevo in todays Arizona Daily Star.

Nine years later, Downtown Tucson has two refurbished movie theaters, a re-creation of the Presidio wall and a wider freeway underpass.

Can a community redevelop a downtown? Check out the WSJ article HERE.It covers the successful revitalization of El Paso’s downtown. From WSJ;

The difference between this and earlier revitalization efforts that fizzled is the involvement of deep-pocketed investors, who decided in 2004 to gather their own resources and chart a course for revival.

Everyone realizes there must be a public private partnership to get Rio Nuevo off the ground and successful. Tucson missed the opportunity during the big boom to attract the private sector. Feet dragging, buearucratic wrangling and road blocks caused costly delays. Our downtown redevelopment is as much a case of timing as it is planning.  We missed the housing boom. We couldn’t capitalize on the commercial boom because the residential base wasn’t there. Add in the red tape delays and we see developers unwillingness to re-develop or start new projects. We are left with ‘big hats and no cattle‘ or lots of talk and no action.

They key to the El Paso plan? Business leaders created the plan with MINIMAL neighborhood input.

The group brought in city officials to advise it on the plan’s feasibility, but in a move that proved controversial, the business group elected not to subject the plan to widespread public scrutiny in its early phases, reasoning that too many opposing viewpoints might stymie the process.

“El Paso is going into the 21st century with our running shoes on,” he says. “Right now, this town is poised for takeoff.”

Hey can’t Tucson get ‘poised for takeoff’ in my lifetime?

Now, a bit of opinion on Tucson’s downtown revitalizing efforts. Read the full Steve Emerine story HERE.

The city persuaded the Legislature in 1999 to approve a district containing Tucson’s downtown area and a strip along both sides of Broadway all the way to Park Place, where incremental revenues from state sales taxes would go to finance Rio Nuevo downtown revitalization.

But apparently no one under Keene or Hein really knew how to revitalize a downtown. Just as the fictional emperor feared his subjects would realize he had no clothes, city bureaucrats have feared Tucsonans would realize they were naked with no ideas of how to fix downtown.

They have rejected or ignored some proposals from private investors, invented reasons to delay others and insisted on complete control – plus city ownership if possible – for most downtown proposals.

Now, city officials are hesitating to build a new downtown arena because they aren’t sure when they can build a convention hotel to go with it.

They haven’t started the hotel because they’re not sure they can afford the arena.

The city has no strong and experienced elected leader, and it continues to show.

Couple El Paso’s capital investment in it’s downtown with an incentive program to entice employers to locate in geographic areas with higher paying jobs and you have a working program. Click HERE to learn more.

Read some great background stories on our Rio Nuevo challenges – HERE – HERE – HERE – HERE – HERE- And Foraker’s detailed analysis HERE.

With the pending wold wide financial crisis and complete shut down of funding options don’t look for any Rio Nuevo success in the near future.  From the East Valley Tribune (Phoenix) projects all over the state are being put on hold. Of interesting note, the Gaylord Hotel deal to build a convection center and hotel in Mesa is being put on hold. Gaylord proposed a similar deal here in Tucson but our Rio Nuevo team cut them.