Proposed UA building may oust area shops on Sixth Street

The University of Arizona has plans to put a second Environmental and Natural Resources building just east of the first building, 520 N. Park Ave.

The complex would replace businesses that occupy the block between North Fremont Avenue and North Park Avenue.

The Sixth Street Pub and Grill, 1029 E. Sixth St., which was renting the property from the UA, recently closed its doors.

Zachary's Pizza, in a UA-owned building at 1019 E. Sixth St., will also be displaced by the new building, said Bruce Wright, senior officer for community affairs and economic development.

The three businesses on the northwest corner of North Fremont and Sixth Street-Swim Southwest, Wear It Out, and Miami Tropical Cafeteria, at 1043 E. Sixth St.- are all owned by a private group that is negotiating with the UA's space management office, Wright said.

The property, which is home to Twelve Tribes Records and Sound, 1133 E. Sixth St.; Salam International Market, 1137 E. Sixth St.; the former Pizza City; and the property behind it on the corner of North Fremont and East Sixth St. are all owned by Hamilton Aviation.

Clayton Hamilton, son of the recently deceased Gordon Hamilton Sr. and executive vice president of Hamilton Aviation, said it is inevitable that properties on Sixth Street will be sold to the university.

Hamilton said attorneys for his father's estate are in negotiations with the university. He said the UA has to make up its mind on when it wants to buy the property.

"We have heard a couple of different things, 'We have to have it no later than summer or the end of the year.' Then we have heard it may not happen for another two years," Hamilton said.

As for the claims that the UA is dragging its feet on developing the Sixth Street area, Wright said the merchants requested the university delay the process as long as possible to allow businesses to remain open.

Hamilton said because the UA has eminent domain and can take the area whenever it wants, it has discouraged businesses from moving into the area and property owners from investing money into it.

"In the final analysis, the UA is going to wind up with it; it doesn't make sense for people to pour money on it," Hamilton said. "The UA's actions have had the result of constraining business in the area. Nobody would argue that it is a reasonable assertion."

Hamilton, like other merchants, has asserted the threat of a UA takeover has kept business down in the area.

"It does seem that they are not encouraging business," said Marcia Hutchison, owner of Two Doors, 1028 E. Sixth St. She said the UA boards up its buildings and does little to improve the area's image.

"It looks like a derelict, wrong-side-of-the-tracks area," Hutchison said.

Hutchison said the people who will be able to afford higher rent on a UA-improved Sixth Street will be larger corporations like the Taco Bell Express that moved into the newly remodeled Jett's Wildcat Texaco, 501 N. Park Ave.

Wright said that if the area became stable, the rent would likely go up over time.

"We've been trying to work with the city of Tucson to help them (merchants) move into a higher rent rate. Most of them are paying below market rent rates right now," he said.

Wright said he suggested that if business in the area improved, the merchants could afford to pay more.

He also said demolition of UA-owned properties along Sixth Street would start this summer, and it will take 12 to 18 months to plan and develop the second Environmental and Natural Resources building.

The earliest the university would need the additional properties is January, and businesses were notified a number of months ago, Wright said.