A $120,000 price drop let Kevin and Michele Sarullo move their pet-grooming business into a quiet commercial strip center on busy East Broadway, surrounded by well-to-do neighborhoods.
But the dream location bargain isn't perfect. And improving it will be an uphill battle, mostly because of the quirky ownership of the center just east of Tucson Boulevard.
The storefronts in the 1950s-era strip —called Solot Plaza, at least on property records — are individually owned, making it tough to create an identity — or even stripe the parking lot.
It was just 18 months ago, Kevin Sarullo said, that they didn't even make an offer after hearing the $260,000 price.
Everything, except the price, was right. After 10 years, their Pet Designs shop had outgrown a 700-square-foot rented-house-turned-retail-space on North Columbus Boulevard near East Grant Road.
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They didn't want to move too far and lose those customers. And the new location was less than 5 miles away, and better yet, on a busy east-west corridor close to downtown — perfect routing for people to drop off their pets on the way to work.
After the economy tanked, the Sarullos got a second chance. They closed the deal in July, getting 1,400 square feet near the west end of the strip for $140,000 — just over half what it would have cost them 18 months earlier. They did some quick, stylish remodeling and opened.
"So far, it's been pretty good, I'd say 95 percent (of our customers) have carried over," Sarullo said.
But it's not all gravy.
Individual ownership of the dozen or so storefronts makes it tough to get anything done to the center overall, said Sarullo and business neighbor Todd Martin, owner of Tucson Tamale Company, two doors to the west.
Martin, a renter, said he put around $40,000 into his business, mostly for new fixtures.
A lawyer moving in one storefront east of Pet Designs is doing a major remodeling, further brightening the strip.
The center was built in the 1950s by Benjamin Solot, who had his realty business there. It was also home to son Mort Solot's insurance business.
The two westernmost spaces — occupied by Tucson Tamale Company and a now-vacant Mexican restaurant — are still in the family, owned by Mort's adult children.
Alan Solot, a Tucson attorney, said he, his sister and two brothers, are probably not going to sell, although their end of the center is still on the market at $400,000 for the combined 2600 square feet.
"I think the price has gone down enough that it's not worth it for us to sell," Solot said.
He believes the center can still prosper, that there is potential for the businesses to tap into the surrounding neighborhoods.
As for why it hasn't done that recently, Solot said the answer may be "because there are no businesses that they need."
Before Tucson Tamale Company, which Martin said is thriving as it approaches its first anniversary, there'd been a string of failed restaurants at that end of the strip.
To the east of the Martin and Sarullo businesses there's the busy Benarda Veterinary Hospital — and an eclectic selection retail businesses and office space — a hair and nails shop, a Chinese herb shop, a metaphysical supplies store, a couple of quiet antique stores, a glass art studio and gallery, and the offices of El Tour de Tucson and an income tax preparer and notary.
On the far east end, separated by a narrow walkway, is Bruce's Lock Shop & Safes Unlimited.
Owner Bruce Fairchild says he's seen big changes in the center in the years he's been in Tucson, but not so much in the 12 years he's been in business here.
Fairchild said the strip used to be known as "Stereo Row," named for the home and car stereo stores that were there in the 1970s and '80s.
Now it doesn't have much identity, not even a sign.
But doing anything about the center's overall appearance will be difficult, say Martin, Sarullo and ReMax All Executives real estate agent Tim Murray, who handled the sale to Sarullo.
"It is unusual," Murray said. "There are retail condominium kind of spaces, individually owned, but this one was set up in the '50s. What they didn't do was set up a property-owner association. So there is no shared agreement about things like the parking lot, about shared (costs) or the facade.
"I think it's being held it back. I think over time if the owners work collectively they can make it a much better center, enhance the retail value and enhance the value of the center.
"These are actually great little properties. It has great upside potential."
Tucson Tamale's Martin said they're not getting much help from the city.
Half a block away, the city took a former corner service station, put up a chain link fence topped with security wire, let the weeds grow and turned it into a storage lot for an anti-graffiti program's trucks and equipment.
"Broadway could be a showpiece for this city," says Martin. "Why are they putting a barbed-wire facility at Broadway and Tucson? It ought to be under a bridge somewhere."