By
Daniel Scarpinato
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Old tenants may be forced to move elsewhere due to new expensive leases
Main Gate Square, the retail district located in the vicinity of North Park Avenue and East University Boulevard, will continue to receive major changes, although current tenants and construction developers are unsure of what outcomes the redevelopment will produce.
The Marshall Foundation, a non-profit organization located at 925 E. University Blvd., owns the land and started to redevelop the area after plans were approved by Tucson City Council last June. The plans have since become a concern to area tenants.
Julie Lam, owner of 88 Express Indonesian Restaurant, 931 E. University Blvd., said the Marshall Foundation has not yet told her of their plans for the area.
Her business is in an area the foundation plans to demolish.
Lam, who has rented from the foundation for seven years, said when her lease expired a year ago, the foundation began renting to her month to month rather than continuing a permanent lease.
Tom Warne, consultant for the Marshall Foundation, said the foundation has done their best keep in constant contact with the tenants.
"We are going to be extremely selective about which tenants we want in the area," he said. "We want everything to be fitting to the area."
Warne said old tenants, such as University Drug, 943 E. University Blvd., and 88 Express, will be offered space in the new area once it is completed.
Those spaces will be approximately 2 1/2 times more expensive then the old spaces.
Lam said she can not afford to move her restaurant to the new area.
"I will lose everything I have," she said.
Warne said the original intention of the redevelopment project was to salvage the old Marshall Foundation building - built in the 1920's - and restore it.
"We've tried to save that building," he said. "But the brick is too soft. It was not fired correctly."
Joe Danduza, owner of Andalus Restaurant, 978 E. University Blvd., moved his restaurant, which was once next door to 88 Express, across the street to the south side of University Boulevard two years ago to escape the construction surrounding him.
Danduza said he is not renting month to month, and he recently signed a five-year lease with the Marshall Foundation.
"I love this area, and my costumers are very loyal," Danduza said, emphasizing that he would like to say in the district as long as possible.
Warne said the tenants on the south side of University Boulevard are not on the short-term leases that those on the opposite side of the street are.
The foundation plans to demolish the stretch on the north side of the street once the construction behind those pads in well underway.
That construction, phase three of the Main Gate Square project, will be situated on the southwest corner of North Park Avenue and East Second Street.
Warne said phase three will begin "soon," despite resistance from activists due to a postmodernist building that sits on the corner.
The Arizona Bookstore, 815 N. Park Ave., will be moving into that facility when it is completed in mid-December 2002, Warne said.
At that time, the retail stretch along the north side of University Boulevard will be demolished.
"We are working towards getting a movie theatre in conjunction with the fine arts college put in the area," Warne said.
Warne did not have exact dates on when the entire project, including the area north of University Boulevard, will be completed.
Louise Foucar Marshall, a former UA professor and one of Tucson's prominent landowners in the early 1900's, started the foundation in 1930.
Warne said even the old area would be nearly unrecognizable to Marshall if she were to see it today.
"The faŤade that was added to the exterior of the building was done poorly," he said referring to the retail shops on the north side of University Boulevard.
Lam remains optimistic about her future with the foundation, despite the planned changes.
"I believe that they will help us," she said. "It is a charity foundation."
