Student housing developer, neighbors collaborate to preserve historic Tucson homes

In a unique deal between developers and neighbors, historic Tucson homes will be relocated, neighbors will get upgraded infrastructure and workforce housing will be built at the site of a proposed student housing complex near the University of Arizona.

Negotiations for the project, on the southeast corner of Speedway and Euclid Ave., lasted five years with much back-and-forth and compromise from neighbors, developers and the city.

In response to concerns, Alabama-based Capstone Communities made concessions such as no balconies or rooftop swimming pool at the student complex.

Five historic homes located on the site will be moved by developers into empty lots in the West University Neighborhood and sidewalks with ADA ramps will be constructed that lead to Catalina Park, located in the neighborhood between Speedway and Sixth Street and Stone and Park avenues.

The building of student housing towers in that area has exploded in the past few years with much contention, so news of developers and neighbors working together was met with pleasant surprise.

“We’re still kind of absorbing it,” said Betsy Larson, president of the West University Neighborhood Association, known as WUNA. “We hope this will be an example of how developers should be part of the community.”

When massive student towers began going up along Park Avenue and Speedway, she said area residents were shocked.

“Neighborhoods weren’t brought into the fold,” Larson said. “The developers didn’t communicate with us and we felt ignored.”

When Capstone representatives approached the neighborhood about their project, they received a cool reception.

“We felt a lot of mistrust because we’d been burned before,” Larson said. “But, they came to the table with open ears and they’ve done a good job on compromising on design and heard our concerns and minimized sensory impacts on neighbors.”

A blueprint for collaboration

The proposed project will made up of a 150-unit student complex with 450 bedrooms for rent. Heights will be up to six stories tall, and all units will be furnished and include a washer and dryer.

The grounds will have grilling stations, lounging areas and a fitness center.

“Tucson continues to be a strong market and this corner, that is walkable and cycle-able to campus, was very attractive,” said Davis Maxwell, vice president of development for Capstone Communities.

In the neighborhood, the company will install 2,500 feet of sidewalks that lead to the park and 17 ADA ramps.

A separate and distinct complex will have 30 workforce housing units in a two-story building along Euclid Avenue.

Capstone has housing projects across the country and has done mixed-use developments before, Maxwell said.

When Ward 6 councilman Steve Kozachik proposed the workforce housing component as a buffer between the student complex and the longtime residents west of Euclid Avenue, Capstone was open to the idea.

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“WUNA was a vital, vital part of all of this because they live there and raised their families there,” Maxwell said. “It was a collaborative effort that wasn’t easy, but a roadmap of how to do a project in a community.”

Rents for the student housing units will be determined when they come to market for the 2026-2027 school year.

Rents for the workforce housing units will be 80% of the area median income, which in today’s dollars would be around $1,200 a month.

Capstone has two other developments in Arizona, The Cottages of Tempe near Arizona State University and Fremont Station near Northern Arizona University.

Regarding the homes that will be relocated, Capstone worked with historic preservation groups to get the approval to move them.

Joel Ireland, a longtime resident of WUNA, connected with Capstone when he was trying to buy the historic homes to prevent a mini-dorm developer from buying them.

Because Ireland had empty lots within the WUNA neighborhood, the decision was made to move the homes to those lots.

“I’ve lived in WUNA for 40 years and there was always a big fight about these things,” Ireland said. “I’ve got to commend WUNA and Capstone … all of my neighbors supported the project.”

He and his son, Sam, will fix up the homes and manage them as rentals.

Capstone will pay for the relocation and to reconnect the utilities.

“From the standpoint of what’s right, everybody gave something,” Councilman Kozachik said. “They’re making some significant investments to the sidewalks and neighborhoods.”

He said the demand for student housing continues to surprise him.

“For a while, right around when COVID started, there was growing speculation that online learning was going to grow,” Kozachik said. “But, UA continues to grow and student housing developments are doing well and are not going away.”

The Capstone plan will go before the city zoning examiner Oct. 12 and then to the city council before the end of the year.

On Thursday night, the WUNA board voted to approve the proposal, and representatives plan to attend the upcoming hearings, Larson said, “and we will speak to the productive relationship we have formed.”