Over the past five years, downtown’s historic Warehouse District has
been involved in a fight that resembles a rugged boxing match.

A series of recent blows to the district threatened to knock out the
artists’ enclave—but a new proposal just might put the district
back on its feet.

If approved, the proposal would transfer ownership of three
warehouses from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to City
Hall. According to Andrew Singelakis, of the city’s transportation
department, the City Council is scheduled to discuss the issue on Aug.
5.

Singelakis says the city would obtain the historic Steinfeld
warehouse on Sixth Street. In addition, two structures on Toole Avenue
near Sixth Avenue which house artist studios and Skrappy’s youth club
would be obtained.

These properties, Singelakis says, have been valued at $657,000. To
cover most of this cost, the city would provide ADOT with a piece of
land near Interstate 10 and Congress Street while also taking a credit
for improvements it previously made to an ADOT-owned building.

At the same time, the city may secure a 99-year easement on the
Citizens Transfer warehouse, across the street from the Steinfeld
building.

Midtown council representative Nina Trasoff sees these potential
steps as real positives. “Securing the buildings will ensure they’re in
the city’s hands,” she declares.

Where the money will come from to rehabilitate the old structures
remains uncertain.

“We’ll have to wait until money becomes available,” Trasoff says
about cash-strapped city finances.

The possibility of the city obtaining money to acquire and restore
the 15 ADOT-owned and artist-occupied buildings which constitute the
core of the Warehouse District has been debated for years. At the same
time, several steps taken by City Hall and ADOT have had severe impacts
on the area:

• The City Council approved a Warehouse District master plan in
2004, but it didn’t address how to fund the proposed improvements.

• In the summer of 2006, the city demolished a warehouse
building at the corner of Sixth Street and Stone Avenue. This was done
in part because of damage to the structure caused by a Tucson Water
line leak.

• Later that same year, for safety reasons, the tenants of the
Steinfeld warehouse, along with Zee’s mineral gallery at Stone and
Toole avenues, were told by ADOT to vacate their structures. That order
was complied with several months later, and both buildings now sit
vacant.

• In 2008, the City Council approved an alignment for the
Downtown Links roadway. This route will require the demolition of
several warehouses, both ADOT-owned and privately owned.

On a more positive note, the City Council at the end of last year
gave the go-ahead to a predevelopment agreement to encourage
private-sector improvements downtown. The package included a $2 million
revolving line of credit to help rehabilitate the ADOT-owned
warehouses. Unfortunately, the agreement was then changed to exclude
that rehab money before it completely fell apart, as a result of the
ongoing fiasco with the Rialto Theatre.

On top of that setback, in May, representatives of the Tucson Fire
Department, among others, inspected the 10 ADOT-owned warehouses which
had been classified as “dangerous buildings” in a 1999 structural
survey. After the inspections, an abatement order was issued on June 17
for six buildings, giving their occupants 60 days to correct the
problems or vacate the premises.

“We’re involved for safety reasons,” points out Assistant Fire Chief
Randy Ogden. “Can the tenants fix up the buildings? We really hope
so.”

Woodworker Bob Mick, of Astro Fab on Toole Avenue, had a
structural-engineering report prepared on his ADOT-owned space, and
predicts: “I think we can take care of all the problems.”

While the price of that work may be affordable, by many accounts, a
huge sum will be needed to rehabilitate the Steinfeld building. These
figures go as high as $1.4 million.

Can these funds be secured—or will the flagship building of
the Warehouse District continue to languish? Will all of the buildings
receiving TFD abatement orders be rehabilitated, or some of them
deteriorate further?

Marvin Shaver, president of the Warehouse Arts Management
Organization (WAMO), is hopeful. In addition, Councilman Steve Leal has
offered a proposal to obtain some funding.

This isn’t Leal’s first attempt to secure money to restore the
ADOT-owned warehouses. A few years ago, he suggested that some Rio
Nuevo redevelopment money be set aside for this purpose, but the idea
went nowhere.

Now, Leal—who is not running for re-election to the City
Council this year—would like to see the city sell the former
Volvo dealership site it owns on Broadway Boulevard. The proceeds would
go toward settling the Rialto situation, with any balance going, he
wrote in a memo last week, “to stabilize and develop the arts
warehouses with WAMO.”

“That’s sounds great,” Shaver says about Leal’s proposal.

Leal believes his approach is the best way to ensure the district’s
future without driving up rental costs beyond the means of most
artists.

“If we take this seriously,” he says, “we get to figure out how to
write artists into the district’s (future). If we don’t, it could
become another Scottsdale.”

This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.