Structure was once TEP substation
Some buildings just seem to stand out. Especially those that long ago stopped being used.
Such is the case with a brick-and-mortar shell of a building on the northwest corner of North Stone Avenue and West Prince Road. That building has been the subject of many e-mails and calls from readers wondering just what the heck it is — or was.
The structure, which at first glance looks like it could have been a jai alai court, is what is left of a Tucson Electric Power substation that used to help serve that part of TEP's coverage area, company spokesman Joe Salkowski said.
But TEP stopped using the substation more than 15 years ago, Salkowski said, when other substations were built as TEP's coverage expanded elsewhere.
"We no longer needed it," Salkowski said of the property, which was stripped of all essential transformer equipment prior to being sold.
TEP sold the land, and what's left of the building, to Arizona Plumbing Supply, which also owns the parcels to the north of it and on the northeast corner of Prince and Stone, according to Pima County Assessor's Office records.
"I've been looking after it for a number of years," said David Campbell, owner of Arizona Plumbing Supply.
Campbell didn't say what he uses the property for, though one of the company's service trucks sits inside the fenced-in corner.