We were promised a 20-story tower at this prime Tucson intersection.

So far, weโ€™re getting a new Taco Bell.

In that way, you could say East Speedway and North Campbell Avenue represents the reality of Tucson as opposed to its aspirations.

A harsh assessment, maybe, but this intersection has struck me as underused since I first laid eyes on Tucson in September 1996. The warm evening after my first job interview at the Star, I pulled out a map and noticed a big intersection near the university.

I drove there to see what was going on and found โ€ฆ nothing much โ€” a Boston Market, a run-down hotel, cheap apartments and a Taco Bell. Instead of hanging out that night, I drove back to the town where I lived, Flagstaff.

Thatโ€™s the same Taco Bell that was torn down last month. These days, a sign outside the surrounding fence announces:

COMING SOON

AUGUST 2022

A BRAND NEW TACO BELL

I might have been able to ignore it these last few weeks except for the phrase โ€œbrand new.โ€ Nothing against Taco Bell, the company whose slogan is โ€œLive Mรกs,โ€ but even a brand new one does not arouse lots of excitement, even if it has a drive-thru lane and a walk-up window for late night bingeing. Thatโ€™s especially true at a site that has potential for more.

One corner of the intersection has significantly improved since my first visit. The Sheraton hotel was renovated and became the Aloft Tucson University. But the other corners are still lagging behind the times.

Across East Speedway from the Taco Bell, the Palm Shadows apartment complex still stands. They are cheaply built, affordable and within walking distance of the university, lived in by generations of students. Years ago, someone nicknamed the place Palm Shady.

The apartments were supposed to be gone by now, but owner Richard Shenkarow has not yet been able to get his ambitious Speedway Campbell Gateway project built. The idea is to have a group of buildings, up to 20 stories tall, carefully attuned to the environment by providing sun protection, shaded pedestrian space and water harvesting among other features.

Thereโ€™s supposed to be retail on the bottom floor, medical or research offices and residential units above.

Shenkarow envisions it as a relatively car-free, transit-oriented, environmentally responsible project at the gateway to the university. Some neighborhood residents opposed the idea, especially due to the height, but it received City Council approval in 2018. Shenkarow got sick, though, and COVID-19 came along.

โ€œWe were under contract and ready to get going, and the pandemic hit,โ€ Shenkarow told me Friday. โ€œThe brakes got put on.โ€

Itโ€™s been disappointing to council member Steve Kozachik, who represents midtown and this intersection, and participated in the difficult conversations about the project. Heโ€™s seen fruitless development debates play out to a contested conclusion more than once.

โ€œOne of the frustrations I have, is that we go through a lot of work โ€” and so do the developers and neighbors โ€” to go through the zoning processes,โ€ Kozachik said. โ€œFor us to go through all the work and have it sit vacant or undone is a drag. Itโ€™s a waste of everybodyโ€™s time and money and effort.โ€

Above. Looking northwest from the intersection of North Campbell Avenue and East Speedway Boulevard in Tucson on June 12, 2018. Below, rendering of the proposed 22-story tower with retail, office and residential space at Speedway Blvd and Campbell Ave in Tucson. Rendering looking from SE corner of the intersection.

UAโ€™s backdoor

Shenkarow said the project is still moving forward, but no longer with the planned anchor tenant, Whole Foods.

โ€œWeโ€™re in strong negotiations with very experienced corporations,โ€ he said.

One of them is Medistar, a Houston-based developer of medical-oriented real estate projects. The Gateway project is just south of the Banner University Medical Center.

Kitty-corner from the Taco Bell, on the northeast corner of Speedway and Campbell, Boston Market no longer stands. It was a hit for a couple of decades, and even scored a March 1996 review in this paper, which concluded that โ€œthe food is both tasty and wholesome.โ€

Probably inspired by Shenkarowโ€™s imagination of the corner, I had celebrated Boston Marketโ€™s disappearance, assuming that it meant that corner of Speedway and Campbell, too, was poised for a major urban redevelopment.

Nope: The Boston Market became a Chipotle.

Chipotle and Taco Bell have their place in Tucson, of course, though neither one is going to land on future tours of this UNESCO City of Gastronomy. I could imagine either of them sitting on the ground floor of, say, a four-story apartment building. We need more housing after all, especially on these major transportation routes.

This is what happened on Speedway a few blocks west of Campbell, where a standalone Jack in the Box was torn down to make room for new apartments. Now the restaurant is on the first floor of that apartment building. That, I figure, is how Speedway and Campbell should be developing.

But maybe Iโ€™m unrealistic or out of the mainstream on this. I stopped by Dirtbagโ€™s, the longstanding student-oriented bar next door to the Taco Bell site. Owner Gary Welch pointed out the Taco Bell property is relatively small and couldnโ€™t easily fit a bigger development. A developer would probably need the Dirtbagโ€™s site and maybe the Wendyโ€™s around the corner, too.

Across the street, he noted, the Palm Shadows extends north a full block โ€” plenty of space for Shenkarowโ€™s big project, whenever it gets going.

And when I asked Alice Roe, president of the Blenman-Elm Neighborhood Association, why the development at this corner on the northeast gateway to the university is so stunted, she pointed to history and property. The entrance to the university was always to the west, by Main Gate, which is developing more densely every year. And this corner is private property.

โ€œSpeedway and Campbell is the back door,โ€ she said.

I probably should have figured that out when I visited in 1996. I wouldnโ€™t have been under delusions about that cornerโ€™s potential ever since.

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Contact columnist Tim Steller at tsteller@tucson.com or 520-807-7789. On Twitter: @senyorreporter