By Rio Nuevo
Continuing its aggressive pursuit of urban restaurants and beverage establishments, the Rio Nuevo Board unanimously approved two large developments with more than $20M of new annual revenue by activating vacant space at Stone and Congress and at Broadway and Plumer in Tucson.
Church & Congress Development
Mat Snapp, a member of Barter and Shake cocktail entertainment company, which has developed some of the most popular and highly ranked bars in Phoenix, has partnered with local entrepreneur Brandt Hazen. They have acquired all the restaurant properties west of The Fox Theatre on the north side of Congress.
Their vision is to increase traffic to the western end of Congress by remodeling this area to add a street level coffee shop, second story residential lofts and to launch two entertainment/cocktail venues in the now unused basement. One of the bars will mimic a moving Pullman train dining car, Platform 18, and the other an adjacent New Orleans apothecary shop, Grey Hen.
With more than $9M of private sector dollars budgeted, Rio Nuevo committed $1.5M as an incentive to accelerate development.
Country Home Block Development
The Rio Nuevo Board then unanimously approved an entertainment complex to transform the former Country Home store and adjacent store fronts on East Broadway. Nate Ares and the Ares Collective announced plans to build an array of eating establishments, a boutique bowling alley, a fully functioning brewery, a large shared outdoor patio area and a Social House within The Sunshine Mile.
With a construction budget of $5.1M coming from the owners of Prep and Pastry, Flora’s Market Run and Commoner and Company, Rio Nuevo committed to $1.25M of cash and sales tax rebates to accelerate the project.
In the last year, Rio Nuevo has enabled 19 new restaurants with a taxpayer contribution of $10.5M dollars and private developer contributions of $44.7M dollars.
