Artist Joe Pagac works on his flying whale mural at Campbell Avenue and Grant Road on June 17, 2019.

 Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

No need to dig out your old β€œSave the Whales” T-shirt just yet. A new Starbucks is going up right in front of one of Tucson’s most beloved murals, but the chain coffee shop at North Campbell Avenue and East Grant Road is not expected to blot out the view of artist Joe Pagac’s flying whales.

When construction fencing went up recently on the empty lot that once housed a Bookman’s used bookstore, it sparked chatter online among art lovers worried about the future of the mural.

But Pagac doesn’t think the Starbucks will obstruct his whales, which he said seem to be the favorite among his various street-art projects around Tucson.

When he painted the pod of humpbacks swimming among the orange clouds of a monsoon sunset in June of 2019, it was the largest mural in town, covering roughly 5,000 square feet on the north side of the old Catalina movie theater.

Plans for the Starbucks, approved by the city earlier this year, call for a 21-foot-tall, one-story building covering less than 2,200 square feet of ground space. However, the coffee shop and drive-through lane are being built at the southern edge of the lot, closest to the mural, to leave room for the eventual widening of Grant Road.

A construction fence surrounds the site of a new Starbucks being built in front of artist Joe Pagac’s flying whale mural at Grant Road and Campbell Avenue on Monday.

Broker Rob Tomlinson from CW PICOR, which handled the land deal, said the site could have accommodated something much larger β€” say, a multi-story apartment building. β€œOf all the things that could have been built there, I think a Starbucks might be the smallest,” he said.

The whale mural was originally commissioned by Banner-University Medicine, which owns the shuttered movie theater. It has already lasted longer than Pagac expected it to. He figured something would be built on the empty lot in front of the mural long ago.

β€œWhen I painted that, I was told it would probably only be visible for six months or so,” he said.

Something similar happened to the β€œTucson” mural β€” not one of Pagac’s creations β€” on North Stone Avenue just north of East Speedway: A few years ago, a Popeye’s restaurant was built on the vacant lot in front of the artwork, but the mural could still be seen and has since been refreshed.

Artist Joe Pagac poses in front of his flying whale mural at Grant Road and Campbell Avenue shortly after completing it in 2019.

For muralists, this sort of thing comes with the territory. When your canvas is the side of a building in a public space, there’s no guarantee that it will stay visible and protected forever.

β€œThey just planted a whole bunch of mesquite trees in front of my bike mural at Stone and Sixth,” Pagac said.

The trees are part of the landscaping for the ongoing road improvements on Sixth Street. And though they are small now, they aren’t likely to stay that way. Eventually, they could grow up to obscure Pagac’s bicycle-riding javelina, tortoise and jackalope.

As an artist, β€œyou just want to put something out there” for people to enjoy, he said. β€œIt’s a struggle.”

Joe Pagac works on a mural on the outside of the YMCA of Tucson building on August 28, 2023. Pagac says the 2,600 square-foot mural will be finished by this weekend. The mural highlights different aspects of what the YMCA offers such as basketball, swimming and horseback riding. The mural is funded by the Connie Hillman Family Foundation. Video by: Mamta Popat, Arizona Daily Star

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Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean@tucson.com or 573-4283. On Twitter: @RefriedBrean