Last-ditch lease effort fails to keep old Bookmans location standing

The former home of a Bookmans and a Walgreens is coming down, and it’s not clear what — if anything — will fill in the sizable gap along the Grant Road corridor over the better part of the next decade. The building has been empty since Bookmans left last year.

There was a recent effort by city officials to renegotiate a lease with the development’s owner — Campbell/Grant Joint Ventue LLC — for the parking lot adjacent to Grant, which is set to expire in 2021, according to information provided to the City Council by City Manager Michael Ortega in late January. The effort was not successful. Demolition started a few weeks back, according to Rick Kauffman, a principal with Holualoa Cos., one of the building’s owners.

The city acquired the property in 2014 in anticipation of Grant Road Improvement Project work, and leased the lot back to Holualoa to allow “for the continued productive use of the property until the right of way is needed.” Banner Health owns much of the rest of the block, including a parking garage and an abandoned movie theater.

Up until fairly recently, dirt-turning on phases five and six of the Grant project, which includes the Campbell Avenue/Grant Road intersection, was expected sometime between 2021 and 2023, at least according to the project’s website. As this column has explored twice now, that range was bumped last year to 2026 to 2028 — again, just on the website — to the surprise of many business owners and residents along the corridor. It was then changed to 2026 and now simply refers to the fourth five-year RTA funding period: 2021 to 2026.

At a recent City Council study session, Ortega had some clearer numbers, saying that “at a minimum” construction would not start until 2024 and possibly not until 2026.

Councilman Steve Kozachik, whose ward includes the building, had hoped that with another three years on the lease, the owners might have had better luck finding new tenants. However, he felt the city’s effort to renegotiate was “not substantial” and came at the “bottom of the ninth.”

“We should have been proactive about this,” he said.

Kozachik said he doesn’t fault Campbell/Grant Joint Venture for moving ahead with demolition, but wished the city would have reviewed the lease as soon as it became clear that a 2021 construction start date was not in the cards. The Road Runner reached out to Ortega for comments on the negotiation and why it didn’t pan out, but didn’t hear back .

But Kauffman wasn’t so sure the extra years would have made that much of a difference.

“Based on our experience of failure to lease, of not being able to attract a tenant so far, it would seem to be short,” he told the Road Runner when asked about a hypothetical extension.

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He added later that the “uncertainty” surrounding the construction timeline contributed “to the difficulty of leasing the existing building.”

Similarly, Bookmans President Sean Feeney said knowledge of the later timeline likely wouldn’t have changed the former tenant’s decision to move to the Bookmans Sports Exchange location on Speedway.

“We have been contemplating the necessity to relocate for many, many, many years,” he said.

So, with the building coming down, what next?

Kauffman said his company doesn’t have any plans in the works yet, but “is exploring alternatives for it.”

“When the buildings are (demolished), there will be an increase in interest in the site, so that will help us figure out what comes next,” he said.

Kozachik is hoping to do anything that avoids a large, undeveloped lot. He pointed favorably to a project at Broadway at Tucson Boulevard, where the city put in a small park with benches and palo verde trees on the site of a demolished Panda Express.

“Let’s all come together and find a way to make this anything other than a vacant lot,” he said.

DOWN THE ROAD

Utility work is starting Monday, Feb. 12, at the intersection of North Wilmot Road and East Fairmount Street in preparation for a paving project. Work will take place from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and is expected to be completed by early March.

Milling and repaving along Wilmot between East Pima Street and East Golf Links Road is expected to start in April. Delays are expected in the work area.