A corner of the city that was once bustling with department store shoppers is being reactivated with new destinations for Tucsonans.
The vacant Sears property, adjacent to Park Place on Broadway, is undergoing redevelopment, with several spaces being carved out for future retail and restaurant tenants. Announcement of tenants is expected by the end of the year.
Just to the east, on the southwest corner of Broadway and Wilmot Road, Wilmot Place is also coming together with new retail and eateries.
The projects are on the eastern end of the Rio Nuevo district boundaries.
In recent years, the board focused on downtown development, projects on the west side of Interstate 10 and the Sunshine Mile, along Broadway from Country Club Road to Euclid Avenue.
With many projects underway in those pockets, attention turned to the district’s eastern border with the purchase of the Sears building by developers Evergreen Devco Inc.
“We never really saw ourselves widening out there,” said Fletcher McCusker, chairman of the Rio Nuevo board. “Then these guys from Evergreen acquired the east side of the mall and all the parking lots and we’re eager to engage with them.”
Rio Nuevo’s mandate is creating sales tax, and when it helps get something off the ground, the district gets 50% of the sales tax to help more businesses open.
“We’ve been successful, and people have approached us about expanding to the south or farther east,” McCusker said. “We want to engage in the malls where there’s opportunity for additional retail and even residential development.”
Creating an experience
Developers are planning a flagship restaurant with a large patio on the east side of the former Sears store near Park Place, as seen in this rendering.
Sears opened on Broadway in 1965 – 10 years before Park Place opened.
In 2018, the company announced plans to close that store and in 2020 also closed its location at Tucson Mall.
In 2018, Japanese entertainment venue, Round 1 Bowling & Amusement leased about 44,000 square feet on the ground floor and basement of the Broadway Sears store.
The rest of the former department store and detached auto pad remained vacant.
Evergreen Devco bought the buildings in 2022 with plans to bring in new stores, restaurants, climate-controlled self-storage units and possibly multifamily housing on the property’s 1,000-space parking lot.
Plans filed with the city of Tucson, show future suites ranging in size from 1,580 square feet to 6,000 square feet for different retail on the east side of Round 1 on the ground floor. The back half of the building would be self-storage units.
Parts of the basement would remain Round 1 and the rest also self-storage units.
Construction continues at the former Sears location, 5950 E. Broadway, next to Park Place.
Evergreen’s site plan shows a lease pending for a flagship restaurant with a large patio.
“We hope to create that alfresco dining experience with an open-flow patio,” said Bryan Lamond, the company’s senior vice president of Arizona acquisitions.
He said work on separating the self-storage portion from future retail is underway and construction on the retail/restaurant renovations is expected to begin by the end of the year and take about two years.
“This stretch of Broadway Boulevard has always been sought out by some of the best retailers and restaurants because of the track-record of sales performance,” said Nancy McClure, first vice president with broker CBRE. “Developers’ time and financial commitment to buy, build and redevelop along this corridor has proven to be worthwhile.”
She said this part of the city is an employment hub with a lot of daytime traffic.
“Its proximity to the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is important as it has a significant number of military and civilians on the base who look for nearby food, retail, hotels and services,” McClure said. “This augments the dense residential surrounding the area and the commuting patterns with the roadways serving the trade area.”
Nostalgic corner
Investments and development at Wilmot Place on Broadway has been drawing shoppers.
Reviving the intersection of Broadway and Wilmot Road was personal for developer Michael Sarabia, CEO of DSW Commercial Real Estate, and a native Tucsonan.
The company also owns Wilmot Plaza, on the northeast corner of the intersection.
“As a young kid, like 50 years ago, I used to go shopping there,” he said of the former Myerson’s Department Store that operated there for 20 years until competition from the new Park Mall knocked it out in 1978.
Myerson’s Department Store was in Wilmot Plaza for 20 years until competition from the new Park Mall knocked it out in 1978.
Sarabia remembers the busy Sears store and the several department stores at the mall.
When DSW acquired the property, Sweet Tomatoes was closed, and there wasn’t much activity around.
Now the company, along with its partner Iridius Capital have brought in a Bevmo, Dollar Tree with some groceries, and upgraded Famous Footwear; Starbucks and Angie’s Lobster are both under construction, and a lease is in the works for a national soft goods store.
The developers ceded some parking spots to support the reopened Sweet Tomatoes restaurant.
The traffic that the new shops have already drawn has been a big payoff, Sarabia said.
Wilmot Place, on the southwest corner of Broadway and Wilmot Road, includes a Bevmo, Dollar Tree and Famous Footwear. Angie's Lobster and Starbucks are under construction.
“We want to turn that intersection into what it was before.”
