By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX
The Hotel Tucson City Center, a 279-room hotel at 475 N. Granada Avenue, is expected to be transformed into a new 15-building, 364-unit multifamily residential development called CITYcenter.
Lazarus & Silvyn, PC, on behalf of developer, Sterling Real Estate Partners, submitted a request to the City of Tucson, for the rezoning of the 10.37-acre property from I-1 Industrial to C-2 Commercial. Sterling Real Estate Partners is planning an adaptive reuse of the seven-building hotel and new construction of eight additional buildings.
CITYcenter will house a mix of 145 studio, 150 one-, and 69 two-bedroom units. Two hundred and ten units will be located in the adapted hotel buildings while 154 will be located in the new buildings. The eighth building of the hotel, which comprises the existing hotel lobby entrance, will be demolished to make way for the new buildings. The new buildings will vary in height. Six will be three stories and two will be two stories. The project documents show a maximum building height of 38 feet and a density of 35 residential units per acre.
An extra, small building will be added to the development and be used as a community/fitness center. This building will be centrally located adjacent to the pool and barbeque/picnic areas. Other amenities include a dog park and playground area.
The project will include improved surface parking with a total of 465 spaces, as well as +/-250 bicycle parking spaces. The preliminary documents tout improved landscaping around the property by incorporating approximately 118 shade trees to the current vegetation.
An existing five-foot stucco wall sits along the eastern boundary and a six-foot chain link fence sits along the southern boundary. The northern boundary includes a six-foot stucco wall and a six-foot wrought iron fence. According to the documents, upgrades to the screening may be proposed when the development package is submitted.
The rezoning request is anticipated to be heard at the City of Tucson’s Zoning Examiner meeting on August 19th. During a virtual neighborhood meeting on May 11th, 2021, the planning/zoning consultant stated that the project is expected to be done in phases with the adaptive reuse portion to take place first.
“The entitlement process will likely go through October, and once the entitlements are completed, the plan is to phase the construction. Phase 1 will include the renovation of the existing buildings and will take approximately one year to complete. Phase 2 involves the new construction, and it will begin after Phase 1 is complete. Phase 2 is expected to take approximately 18‐24 months.”
