The city lifted a stop-work order on Broadway Village Friday, allowing renovations to the historic shopping center to resume.
The 1939 buildings at the southwest corner of Broadway and South Country Club Road were recently designated a City Historic Landmark.
The construction project includes demolishing the Americana Apartments to make way for a new parking lot and renovating parts of the shopping center to make way for new tenants Natural Grocers and Bisbee Breakfast Club.
Demolition work alarmed some neighbors and historic preservation activists.
Demion Clinco, executive director of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, told the Tucson City Council last week that “irreversible damage” was being done.
However, members of the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission’s plan-review subcommittee had previously approved most of the work that’s being done.
None of the work puts the center’s historic status at risk, said City Councilman Steve Kozachik.
Members of the subcommittee, city staff and the property owners met Friday to try to resolve any issues.
There was poor communication on both sides, but there wasn’t bad faith, Kozachik said. The subcommittee should have done a more thorough job of asking questions before approving the plans and the developer should have brought a more detailed construction plan to the group, he said.
Roof tiles that were torn out will be replaced with similar tiles, Kozachik said.
Pavers were torn out, too, but new contemporary ones will stay, said Craig Finfrock, leasing agent and owner-partner.
“We’re really just trying to work this out” he said. “We’ve done what we said we would do.”
The developers weren’t required to have the plans reviewed by the subcommittee because the center wasn’t designated as historic at the time, but they did so as a courtesy, Finfrock said.
The owners are “doing everything that they can, going beyond what’s ordinary, in trying to keep Broadway Village as true to the original design and so forth,” he said.
If all goes smoothly, Natural Grocers could open in the spring and Bisbee Breakfast Club could open in the fall.
The City Council approved a planned-area development agreement for the property in 2011.
The council then amended that agreement when it rezoned the apartment property as a parking area. One condition was the historic landmark designation for the buildings designed by famed architect Josias Joesler.
Last month, the City Council approved new zoning, which included an additional condition for the owners to contribute $10,000 toward the Broadmoor-Broadway Village neighborhood’s application for historic status.
