Missing Links

When he left a citizens’ advisory committee meeting regarding the
Downtown Links roadway a few weeks ago, Mark Berman thought his
Benjamin Plumbing Supply business was doomed to a forced
relocation.

The $76 million Links project (www.downtownlinks.info) will slice
across the northern edge of downtown, connecting the Barraza-Aviation
Parkway with Interstate 10. Based on what was decided at the Aug. 10
meeting, Berman believed his business would lose vehicular access, and
he’d be forced to move.

But now, thanks to some political intervention, Berman says things
are looking much more hopeful.

After the citizens’ committee meeting, Berman assumed he would have
to abandon the historic Tucson Warehouse and Transfer Building at Sixth
Street and Seventh Avenue. He owns that massive structure and rents out
some other space on the same block to various businesses, including a
number of arts-related organizations.

With its designer fixtures and other specialty items, Benjamin
Supply has been a downtown institution for almost 60 years, in several
locations. Despite those deep roots in the area, Berman has thought for
some time that his chances for staying in the Transfer building were
slim. (See “Funky Places,” Sept. 4, 2008.) Then, based on a recent
modification in the alignment of the proposed roadway, Berman concluded
he would definitely be forced out.

“The real problem,” Berman says about the alterations to the
proposed roadway design, “was there’s no access to my property. … It
came down to: I’m out of business, because there’s no other place to
put the road.”

The projected alignment was going to eliminate the possibility of
18-wheeler trucks delivering to his business. Even though he and his
architect had tried over the past several months to work something out
with the project-design consultants, Berman firmly believed those
efforts had failed.

He didn’t even say anything at the August meeting, since he thought
the issue was decided.

“I didn’t speak,” Berman remembers, “because it didn’t matter what
I’d say. … The city controls the committee.”

Instead, Berman began making plans to vacate. He says he received an
estimate that it would cost more than $1 million to move his business,
including its extensive inventory of plumbing supplies and
fixtures.

At the same time, he shakes his head over the fact that the city of
Tucson was forcing him out. “I’ve spent my life in business downtown,”
Berman says, “and I want to stay here.” He calculates that more than
$300,000 of his total revenue went into city coffers last year,
including the downtown Rio Nuevo redevelopment effort.

In a last-ditch effort to stay on Sixth Street, Berman last week met
with Councilwoman Nina Trasoff to discuss his plight. In addition to
his architect and attorney, he says, there were six city
representatives in attendance.

“We had a shockingly good meeting,” Berman exclaims of the
get-together. “It literally could not have gone better.”

While a few buildings on the southern end of his property will have
to be removed as part of the roadway work, Berman has hopes that the
other businesses can remain.

“The city is willing to move the road far enough,” Berman says of
the results of the meeting, “and keep me in business. I heard things I
never heard before.”

Tucson’s transportation director, Jim Glock, participated in the
gathering and explains: “We got a better understanding of what his
(Berman’s) needs are. Our goal is to maintain his business
viability.”

To do that, Glock says, a couple of options will be analyzed. The
first involves changing the connection of the Downtown Links roadway
with Sixth Street, from a 90-degree intersection to one at a
“skew.”

“That gives more room to move the road a little way more from the
structure,” Glock explains of the Transfer building.

The second change is more substantial: Instead of dead-ending
Seventh Street on the south side of the block, the possibility of
connecting the street into the new LINKS roadway will be explored.
Doing that would allow trucks to access Berman’s business from the
south when Sixth Avenue, as planned, becomes a two-way street.

Sounding optimistic, Trasoff hopes things work out.

“I think we’ll do everything possible within the guidelines set by
the committee,” she says of keeping Benjamin Supply where it is. “We
don’t want to lose them as part of the greater downtown area.”

Architect Corky Poster also hopes the business stays put. His firm
just completed a Land Use and Urban Design Plan for the entire length
of the Links roadway.

The City Council was scheduled to consider the plan earlier this
week. “Our thought all along was that Benjamin Supply is a real asset,
and we assumed they would stay,” Poster says.

Mark Berman thinks that is looking much more likely now.

“My architect had more interaction (at the recent meeting with
roadway engineers) than he has in the last six months. I bet in a
month, we’ll have some concepts (for the roadway),” Berman says.

Berman can only speculate about what caused the sudden change.

“The city knew what it needed to do,” he says, “but didn’t want to
do it until pushed.”

This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2009.