By BEX Staff for AZBEX
After several years of planning and buildup, the Rio Nuevo Board has set in motion the needed steps for The Bautista Apartments project in Tucson to begin construction within the next 30 days, according to a recent announcement.
The Board voted unanimously to amend its easements and property lines on the west side to facilitate the start.
Rio Nuevo voted to invest in the $72.5M project in November 2019, and developer The Gadsden Company set an expected start date of Q2 2020 with a 22-month construction timeline. The Board agreed to purchase the land in March 2020 so Gadsden could proceed under a Government Property Lease Excise Tax incentive deal that included $1.8M in cash from Rio Nuevo and $1M in sales tax rebates.
In August 2020 the Board listed the project among its public/private partnerships for which funding had been secured by private lenders and that would not be impacted by pandemic-related state revenue reductions.
As originally planned, The Bautista Apartments project consisted of 256 rental units, a restaurant and 16.5KSF of retail space with a construction valuation of $72.5M. In the intervening period, the cost estimate has grown to $110M with luxury multifamily, 14.5KSF of ground floor commercial and retail space, parking and riparian restoration, according to the latest information from the Rio Nuevo Board.
