Hairmosa
Salon owner
Christine
Abeyta is excited about the completion of the Broadway Improvement
Project. Her small business, which opened amid the pandemic, received
support from the city of Tucson to stay afloat during the road
expansion.
“We
actually saw a lot of people from the neighborhood take advantage of
our new business which was nice and I think it was convenient for
them to support us in their own backyard,” Abeyta said.
The
2-mile improvement project that extends from Country Club Road to
Euclid Avenue features six new travel lanes, landscaped medians,
6-foot-wide bike lanes, sidewalks, bus pullouts and a new underground
storm drain system. On Thursday, Oct. 27, the city of Tucson unveiled
the new “Sunshine Mile.”
“It
helps traffic flow, people get anxious when driving in unfamiliar
places or when you add construction,” Abeyta said. “I think we’re
home free.”
“With
COVID-19 kicking in during the same time this project (was) being
done, it really took some dedication and grit for those companies to
hang on,” said Gen. Ted Maxwell, Arizona Department of
Transportation’s Regional Transportation Authority (RTA)
representative.
“There
are going be a lot of other businesses that are going to look to
relocate to this area and make it a thriving economic corridor.”
Dubbed
a “multimodal boulevard” by Mayor Regina Romero, the improvement
project was years in the making, including collaborative efforts
between the city and Rio Nuevo to preserve seven historic bungalows.
“All
seven of those bungalows will be converted to food, beverage cafes
and retail, including a culinary institute and visiting kitchen,”
said Fletcher McCusker, chairman of the Rio Nuevo Board of Directors.
In
2006, voters approved an eight-lane, 150-foot-wide transit corridor
that would have eliminated about 150 historic buildings on the north
side of the roadway.
“In
2014, the Tucson mayor and council voted to cap this project at six
lanes,” Romero said. “We also incorporated feedback from the
community and that for me as a mayor and at that time as a council
member was very important.”
Ward
6 Councilmember Steve Kozachik added, “In partnership with the
county and the RTA, we were able to preserve about 130 of the
businesses, small businesses, historic businesses and mid-century
modern structures that are going to really frame the character of the
Sunshine Mile going forward.”
The
mayor touted the responsible use of public resources, looking forward
to the next two decades of regional transportation planning.
Last
year, the mayor and city council adopted the Sunshine Mile Overlay
District, the next phase of investment that will provide more
opportunities for future development, historic preservation and
further opportunities for creating an “activated space for the
community,” according to Rio Nuevo.
“The
kinds of uses that are appropriate for being immediately adjacent to
residential neighborhoods, because this is a roadway and people are
living behind it,” Kozachik said.
“I
have always said one of the most important investments governments
can make is in public infrastructure, because public infrastructure
leverages private investment and (the) Sunshine Mile has all of the
right pieces to be a corridor that demonstrates what we can do along
many of our major corridors in the city of Tucson,” Romero said.
“I
hope that the experiences we’ve had in this project serve as a
template for how we move other transit corridors,” Kozachik said.
Maxwell
said “economic investment is sometimes a bad word,” but he added
he thinks it’s time to acknowledge that it is valuable to the
community.
“New
roadways, new corridors, when they’re built attract investment,”
Maxwell said.
Tucson’s
first Ethiopian restaurant Zemam’s, which opened in 1993 in a small
house on Broadway, is also preparing to expand its footprint in the
Sunshine Mile Overlay district, by creating an international ethnic
and cultural center in the Bungalow Block.
“Working
with the city and the RTA, Rio Nuevo has acquired the three
properties west of (Zemam’s) and we’re going to help them convert
that into an African bazaar, Ethiopian coffee shop, international bar
and parking lot,” McCusker said.
“(Our)
parents opened (Zemam’s) on a credit card with nothing else,”
said Lucas Gebremariam, manager of Zemam’s.
“We
want this to be a destination for Tucson but we also want it to be an
opportunity for local people in Tucson, who want to start a business
but don’t have the capital to come and share their food, culture
and tradition,” said Favin Gebremariam with Zemam’s.
“We
want to be a place that’s inclusive and driven by community,”
Lucas Gebremariam said.
The
expansion, Z Street, will be an internationally themed space with a
niche sports lounge, food vendor stalls and a communal kitchen.
“The
goal when you come in is to be transported to a different place
that’s not like anywhere else in town,” Lucas Gebremariam said.
Rio
Nuevo also awarded two 16 property blocks to local companies, the
Solot Plaza to the Larsen Baker commercial real estate company
between Tucson Boulevard and Treat Avenue, and the Friedman Block
between Tucson Boulevard and Plumer Avenue, to the Grant Krueger
Team.
“In
the next two years, you’ll see something in the neighborhood of 50
different stores, restaurants, cafes, shopping opportunities along
the Sunshine Mile,” McCusker said. “The artery to the heart of
Tucson Downtown.”
“We are grateful
for every choice that led to the preservation and redemption of
historic and significant spaces,” said Andy Littleton, president of
the Sunshine Mile Business Association. “For every choice that
moved this area to be more artful, accessible and keeping with its
history than it could have been.”
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2022.
