Investors purchase El Parador restaurant, planning to redevelop

The former El Parador Restaurant on East Broadway has been sold to a local real-estate investment firm that plans to redevelop the property.

Semro Family Investments LLC purchased the restaurant, a 15,556-square-foot building at 2744 E. Broadway, from BLC Real Estate LLC for $410,381, according to Ron Zimmerman and Greg Furrier of Cushman & Wakefield/Picor, who handled the transaction.

Semro Family Investments is headed by local developer Don Semro, who has been involved in various projects near the University of Arizona and around town.

El Parador was founded in 1975 by John Jacob. The Jacob family fed and hosted generations of Tucsonans and visitors at the plant-lined restaurant and event site, which was also known as John Jacob’s El Parador and El Parador Tropical Garden Restaurant.

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But the eatery fell on hard times during the recession and went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2012. El Parador closed in July 2013. An auction of the property in March failed to attract adequate bids.

Picor’s Furrier said the new owners plan to redevelop the property, noting that the building is large for a restaurant and its footprint is too big for adequate onsite parking under today’s parking requirements.

Also, the building was constructed in a series of phases over the years, and was “decimated” and stripped of its copper while vacant. It would need prohibitively expensive asbestos removal, said Semro partner Tom Warne.

The partners don’t know yet what they will develop in its place, but they plan to make it modern and urban “with a nice street presence,” Warne said.