We Tucsonans spend so much time and energy envisioning the future, making earnest plans for local places.
The world outside our charettes and town halls often intervenes, though. The economy collapses, road projects languish, property owners balk or mega-corporations change course.
When those things happen, you can say goodbye to mixed-use, transit-oriented, environmentally friendly development. You can forget about greenways, solar panels and water harvesting.
And you can say hello to Starbucks.
That, it appears, is what has happened at a midtown corner with big potential for urban redevelopment: The southeast corner of North Campbell Avenue and East Grant Road.
This is the corner where Walgreens and Bookmans used to thrive, where the Catalina Theater showed edgy movies, where tamale vendors could count on making sales. It was a corner with life.
Then the city sliced off a portion of the corner for the widening of East Grant Road. This is part of the Regional Transportation Authorityโs Grant Road project, which was approved by voters in 2006. Construction still isnโt scheduled to reach this stretch until 2026.
So now it will be home to, by my count, the 12th new Starbucks building opened in the city of Tucson in the last five years, one of which is a half-mile up Campbell at East Glenn Street. Thatโs not counting all the in-store Starbucks and the ones outside city limits. They are the Mattress Firms of the 2020s.
To me, and to many observers and neighbors, itโs a disappointing outcome for a corner that used to host so much authentic, local living. But this outcome wasnโt due to a lack of vision for that corner.
โGreenโ dreams for corner
Almost 20 years ago, owners of the property on the southeast corner imagined buying adjacent properties there, including the defunct Catalina Theater, and building a mid-sized mixed-use development, heavy on environmentally conscious features.
โThere was a great deal of interest in doing a mixed-use, green-forward, fairly large project on that corner,โ said Barry Baker, a partner in Campbell/Grant Joint Venture LLC, which sold the property in August for $1.8 million. โWe were contemplating two buildings, six stories and four stories, over retail.โ
The development was to feature water harvesting and solar, and at the time there was talk the streetcar would be extended that far. So there would be little parking and an emphasis on transit and bicycling.
They didnโt control the surrounding property, though, and then the 2008 crash happened.
That didnโt stop the dreaming. In September 2015, the city published โGrant Road Community Character & Vitality Corridor Vision: Oracle Road to Swan Road.โ It was a long document establishing what the city and residents were hoping for along the widened Grant Road.
At Campbell and Grant, it envisioned โa larger mixed-use project that could include residences, retail, an educational and civic/entertainment facility, as well as structured parking in buildings as feasible.โ
The whole corner, it said, should be โa vibrant gathering, shopping, and dining destination for residents of surrounding neighborhoods, those affiliated with the University, and people from throughout the city.โ
Neighbors worked years
All this time, neighbors have been deeply involved in discussions about what should happen along Grant. They formed the Grant Road Coalition, which in 2019 published a paper specifically on that southeast corner of Grant and Campbell.
It envisioned โa walkable gathering place, with an eco-friendly village marketplace, a sustainable hub of active neighborhood retail and services, including comfortable indoor/outdoor food and beverage options, and an urban wellness partnership.โ
Janet Fisher represented the Catalina Vista neighborhood in the group that produced that paper. She told me neighborhood residents worked for years on visions for Campbell and Grant.
โThe whole neighborhood was really involved in what was going to happen on that corner,โ she said. โAn architect drew drawings of what theyโd like to see.โ
โI canโt tell you how much time has been put into it.โ
What escaped the visionaries were two key factors: The property ownersโ plans, and the corporate strategies that color so much of our lives.
University Medical Center bought the Catalina Theater in 2009, and when Banner took over UMC, the theater became property of Banner Health. They used it for parking and logistics during construction at the nearby hospital.
Since construction ended, they havenโt used it for much, even parking. Banner spokeswoman Rebecca Ruiz Hudman told me the company has no immediate plans for the property, and itโs not for sale.
โUnder-penetratedโ areas
This, in my opinion, is a problem: Banner ought to have recognized the importance of their property to redeveloping the corner before Starbucks showed up.
โThe challenge has always been that the theater and the little strip mall and the parking garage have never been marketed by the owners,โ said Ward 6 Council Member Steve Kozachik, who lives in the adjacent neighborhood. โThereโs never been an opportunity to assemble the bigger parcel for redevelopment.โ
That problem presented an opportunity for Starbucks, the multinational coffee colossus. In September 2022, Starbucks announced a new โunparalleled reinvention plan.โ Part of the plan: To invest $450 million more in U.S. stores this year alone and build a total of 2,000 more stores by 2025.
In an Aug. 1, 2023 earnings call, Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan said: โWe see significant headroom for new store growth in under-penetrated areas in the US, including smaller cities as well as new formats in larger metros.โ
Tucson must be approaching saturation. There are at least five Starbucks stores in some stage of construction within the city limits now. Among them is the new one penetrating this once-lively southeast corner of Campbell and Grant.
โI donโt know if itโs the highest and best use, but after years and years, it was the most reasonable offer,โ Baker said.
This may not be what Tucsonans envisioned, but as long as the owners stick within the current zoning, they donโt need our consent.
