McLellan's building sold

The 24,000-square-foot building currently has a ground floor with a mezzanine in the back and a basement. Miller said he will expand it to about 33,000 square feet by stretching the mezzanine and by building an atrium and a floor above the current building, which he envisions as a rooftop restaurant.

Miller, who has won national accolades, awards and grants from the Energy Department and other organizations for his energy-efficient construction, said the building is destined to become the "greenest building in Tucson, the state and probably the country."

"The U.S. Green Builders Council has a ratings system for energy efficiency and the highest level is platinum and that's what this building is going to be," Miller said.

Miller's dogged persistence to buy, rather than lease the building at the northwest corner of North Scott Avenue and East Congress from the Siebenberg family finally paid off after two years of negotiations, said Greg Vinikoor, the real-estate agent who brokered the $1.3 million purchase.

"There had been a lot of short-time uses of the building, and I want people who are going to be around for the long haul, and for that reason, I wanted to own this dirt and not lease it," said Miller, whose most recent project is the Armory Park Del Sol housing development near South Third Avenue and East 16th Street.

McLellan's originally appeared in Tucson in 1933 at 103 E. Congress St., but moved to the larger location at Congress and Scott Avenue in 1950. The store featured a 53-stool diner that served food hoisted up two dumbwaiters from the kitchen in the lower level. As a child, Miller often ate a cheeseburger and drank a milkshake at the counter while his mother shopped for sheet music, he said.

For the last five years or so, the building had largely been used as rental space for raves, quinceañeras and gem shows as the Downtown Event Center. It had also done short stints as La Pachanga and Evolution Nightclubs.

Miller will move his own company's office from its current location at 635 N. Craycroft Road into the building, and has spoken with 15 to 20 interested parties about leasing space, he said. The office tenants in the building will occupy the mezzanine and north portion of the building, while retailers and galleries will line its Congress-facing South Side.

"We've got to have people here on Congress that will bring people down here at night, so the idea is to be part of the renaissance of Downtown, to see what we can do to help that," he said.

Miller said he wants to retain and expand what is probably the building's most identifiable feature — a map of Arizona that towered above its entrance.

"I want to do a map in stained glass that has each county in a different color and find a way to backlight it up there," he said.

Many people have probably driven by the building over the years and wondered why it remained vacant for so long, said Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup.

Miller's ability to acquire the space and his track record at developing successful projects bode well for his contribution to Downtown revitalization, Walkup said.

The building's transformation should be completed by mid-2007 at a cost of about $6 million, Miller said.