By Joe Ferguson for Arizona Daily Star
The Tucson City Council approved a conceptual proposal to redevelop the downtown Ronstadt Transit Center, building a new hotel, apartments, commercial space while retaining the bus station.
The $60M deal with local developer Peach Properties would reshape the downtown landscape with four new high rises built mainly along North Sixth Avenue north of East Congress Street.
However, the multi-year construction schedule would require the temporary relocation of the transit center.
At this point, most believe Peach Properties will break ground sometime in 2021 if the federal government signs off on the project.
The plans to redevelop the downtown transit center still needs to be approved by the Federal Transit Administration, which initially paid for the development of the bus station.
City officials estimate that federal approval for the plans could take at least six months.
Current plans — which Schwabe said are still conceptual — call for an eight-story hotel, a nine-story tower offering a mix of retail and office space as well as apartments, and a second five-story tower that would primarily be apartments.
Read more at Arizona Daily Star.