On Tuesday, Gem Show founder Alan Norville, of Nor-Generations, and the Rio Nuevo District Board finalized an agreement to acquire and develop the 8.5 acres adjacent to the freeway commonly referred to as the Arena Site.
Norville won the “right to negotiate” with the District in August of 2014, based upon a proposal in which it offered to buy the land for $5.6 million dollars and develop a multi-faceted project that included a hotel, parking facilities, a visual arts complex, residential and retail space on the Arena Site, which is adjacent to the parcel upon which Nor-Gen will construct as an exhibition hall as the permanent home for the gem show.
As indicated by post-August comments from the District Board, Board member Mark Irvin made every effort to block Norville. As a result of yesterday’s meeting, however, the parties finalized, executed and released the final Purchase and Sale Agreement.
By the terms of the agreement, Nor-Gen has a limited amount of time to assess the property and determine whether it wants to proceed with the purchase and development. If it does, the sale will close quickly and Nor-Gen will have six months to submit a development plan to the City of Tucson. Once the City approves the Nor-Gen’s plan, the Greyhound Terminal will have a year to be relocated and then the construction timeline calendar begins. Nor-Gen will have 42 months after the Greyhound Terminal is moved to invest a minimum of $10,000,000 in hard construction costs on the Arena Site or pay the agreed upon liquidated damages of $2.5 million.
After the execution of the agreement, Chairman McCusker said that “we are grateful to Allan and his team for working through all of the issues in the agreement.” McCusker went on to say that “given the legacy of failed Rio Nuevo projects, we succeeded in attaching meaningful conditions to assure the taxpaying community that this gateway parcel actually gets developed.”
In further action, after former Board member Alberto Moore raised concersn that the Board was neglecting thier responsibilities on the Fox Theater, the Board asked District attorneys to complete the Fox loan agreement by providing the District with additional governance oversight on major matters coming before the Fox board, such as additional debt, or changing the mission or hiring and firing of the CEO. “Now that the Board has facilitated the removal of the Historic Trust, we want to make sure the Fox Foundation thrives so that its financial obligation to the Rio Nuevo District can be satisfied,” commented Treasurer Chris Sheafe.
“Between the Fox and the Norville project, I am pleased that my time was spent wisely and I leave a legacy of transparency, public accountability, fiduciary responsibility, and progress,” said Alberto Moore, who resigned from the Board this past November. “I hope that the City of Tucson and Rio Nuevo can now begin to focus on the needs of the residents of the west side. They made a lot of promises to the people on the west side and a lot of people made a lot of money for years. It is time to keep the promises they made to the people when they voted to create Rio Nuevo all those years ago.”
The Board also unanimously approved retaining Swaim and Associates as architects for the TCC Phase II project. Swaim was the architect for the TCC Arena remodel and had offered to continue in that capacity. Once a scope of work has been agreed upon, the Board will consider soliciting bids for Phase II.