99% PRE-LEASED FOR STUDENT HOUSING AT RETREAT AT TUCSON
Ron Dinwiddie, Marketing Director for The Retreat at Tucson, an affiliate of Landmark Properties of Athens, GA, said today that its student housing community, at 22nd Street and Park Avenue, in Tucson is 99% pre-leased. Scheduled for students to move-in on August 1, 2013, the property offers resort-style amenities such as free tanning beds, large pool, spa lounge, basketball courts, clubhouse, billiards and foosball, and golf simulator

RETAIL SPACE – 7069 E TANQUE VERDE, TUCSON, AZ
Precious Metals Refinery, LLC leased 680 sq. ft. at Tanque Verde Center, at 7069 East Tanque Verde Road, anchored by Big Lots, the center is at the northwest corner of Tanque Verde and Sabino Canyon. The tenant buys and sells jewelry, coins and other precious metals. Rick Volk and Dave Hammack of Volk Company Commercial Real Estate of Tucson represented the landlord, Sabino-Verde, LLC.

OFFICE SPACE – 5055 E BROADWAY, TUCSON, AZ
Health Information Network of Ariona, a Tucson-based company, lease 3,004 sq. ft. at New World Plaza, 5055 E Broadway Blvd. Jeff Casper of CBRE of Tucson represented the tenant and David Montijo of CBRE of Tucson represented the landlord, Pacific International Income Properties of Tucson.

INDUSTRIAL SPACE – 1646 S RESEARCH LOOP #130, TUCSON, AZ
Royal Renovations, LLC leased 1,185 sq. ft. at 1646 S Research Loop, #130, from Eastside Center, LLC. Dave Gallagher of Tucson Industrial Realty represented the landlord in the deal.

RETAIL SPACE – RILLITO CROSSING MARKETPLACE LEASE
Tran Corporation, doing business as Nite Nails Spa 2, lease 1,200 sq. ft. at Rillito Crossing marketplace, at the northeast corner of 1st Ave & Limberlost. Dave Hammack and Rick Borane of Volk Company Commercial Real Estate of Tucson represented the landlord, Rillito Marketplace One, an affiliate of the Krausz Companies.

INDUSTRIAL SPACE – 1634 S RESEARCH LOOP, #110, TUCSON, AZ
Long Tail Treasures, LLC leased 1,021 sq. ft. industrial space at 1634 S Research Loop, Suite 110, from Eastside Center, LLC. Dave Gallaher of Tucson Realty represented the landlord and Jean Barclay of Oxford Realty Advisors represented the tenant.

INDUSTRIAL SPACE – 1870 W PRINCE RD.#1, TUCSON, AZ
Total Presence Management, LLC lease 1, 300 sq. ft. at 1870 W Prince Rd, Suite 1, from Presson Corporation, Rob Glaser and Paul Hooker of Picor Commercial Real Estate Services represented the landlord. Brooks Spilsbury of Fielding Success Realty, LLC represented the tenant.

To submit sales and leases email REDailyNews@outlook.com

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Woori Enterprise, Inc. of Chandler, AZ (Kevin Suk Yoon, director) purchased the Holiday Inn Express Tucson Airport at 2548 E Medina Rd. for[mepr-show rules=”58038″]$5.15 million ($44,000 per room). The seller, Lyon Parks, Inc. (Debbie Miller, VP) of Bloomington, IL acquired the property in 2011 as part of a trustee sale.

The 3-story, 52,294 sq. ft. hotel sits on a 2.65 acre lot, and houses 60 one-bed rooms, 38 double-bed rooms, and 19 suites for a sum total of 117 rooms. Amenities include a 24-hour business center, a health center that was updated in 2009 with new treadmills, stair stepper, bicycle, elliptical cross-trainer, scale and television, and for recreation, there are barbeque grills and an outdoor pool for guests.

Both investor and seller are privately held companies. The property reportedly plans to continue operations as a Holiday Inn Express a brand owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group of Utah (NYSE: IHG) that consists of nine hotel brands in the industry: InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express, Even Hotels, Candlewood Suites, Hualuxe Hotel and Resort, and Staybridge Suites. The IC Hotels Group includes more than 3,600 hotels located in nearly 100 countries.

InterContinental Hotels Group can be contacted at (800) 621-0555 and the Holiday Inn Express at Tucson Airport is at (520) 889-6600.

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After four years of negotiations, the elected officials of the City of Tucson (COT) voted unanimously to kill the sale of 22 acres at the northwest corner of Irvington and I-19. The City canceled the purchase option it had with Irvington Interstate Partners, an affiliate of Irvington Interstate Manager, LLC (Paul Schloss, manager) in September, 2011, when it was ready to sell the property for $4 million ($182,000 per acre) for development of a Sam’s Club.

The City however, ignored its own contractual land use restrictions on the property that it conceded in 2009 to the developer of the southwest corner of Irvington and I-19, the Barclay Group of Scottsdale, for the Home Depot and Target anchored, Tucson Spectrum. According to the Arizona Daily Star, the deal with the Spectrum provided encumbrances to restrict retail competition that favored the Tucson Spectrum until 2017. Restrictions such as these are certainly not uncommon, intended to persuade developers into economically disadvantaged areas, however, this restriction was never recorded. So who knew?

When the Barclay Group heard of the potential sale, in August 2011, it filed a claim against the City for a $112 million, just before the City decided to cancel its purchase option the Irvington partnership. This in turn prompted the Irvington partnership to file its own claim for $13 million against the City, for negotiating in bad faith.

Last October, the council re-opened discussions with the Sam’s Club developer, when the Tucson mayor and city council discussed the lawsuit and revisited the potential sale of this property. The following excerpt is from this Executive Session meeting dated Oct. 23, 2012:

“… it was moved by Council Member Romero, duly seconded, and CARRIED by a voice vote of 6 to 1 (Vice Mayor Kozachik dissenting), to authorize negotiations with Irvington Interstate Partners regarding possible terms for a sale and purchase agreement pursuant to the following conditions:

1) Interstate shall commit to analyze the feasibility of limiting the size of the retail development to less than one hundred thousand square feet in compliance with the City’s large retail establishment ordinance and that the City will reject Interstate’s proposal in the event that Interstate determines that it will not limit the retail development as described.

2) Interstate shall commit that as part of any purchase of the property; it will take the property subject to any enforceable condition on retail development on the site and will indemnify the City against any claims relating to such prior conditions on the property.”

Developers can’t easily redesign store sizes to oblige Tucson. The City passed the big box ban in 1999. Since then, the City should have learned from lessons such as The Bridges of Tucson, where a decision to waive the big box ban was met by cheering Southside residents in support of the waiver. Jobs were important on that day in 2007, and could be argued even more important today, with unemployment even higher.

It also seems a far-stretched idea for the City to ask a private developer to accept liability for any maltreatment of the City’s own contractual land use restrictions.

Sam’s Club would have been completed this year, in an underdeveloped, economically poor area in Tucson’s Ward One. It would have added approximately 160 new jobs; it would have brought about $4 million to the city coffers from the sale and as much as $750,000 more in impact fees. In addition, it would have brought an estimated $1.5 to $2 million annually in sale taxes for many years to come.

The Irvington partnership still has time to move forward with its claim against the City if it so elects.

However, many questions linger for the public following the death of this project. Why did the City allow such a long time lapse, after full disclosure was made that the site was going to be used for development of a 136,000 sq. ft. Sam’s Club? Shouldn’t the City Planning Department be privy to contractual land encumbrances for city property? How can a city plan without knowing where encumbrances lie? Then, exactly how far reaching are these retail restrictions for Tucson Spectrum, across the street, within a one-mile radius, two-mile, or more?

No one we spoke with at Tucson City Departments was able to answer any of these questions at this time.