Richard Oseran and his wife, Shana, are sitting in a hotel room in Viña del Mar, a coastal city in Valparaíso Province, Chile. They're visiting their daughter Sarah, who is studying Spanish there this semester.
Their hotel room faces the water. It's a gorgeous view, but Oseran is getting restless.
"It's a great spot to come out and spend two or three days," he said in a telephone interview. "But I much prefer to be in the urban core."
For anyone who knows Oseran, this comes as no surprise. In Tucson, Oseran is Mr. Downtown. He and his family have transformed Hotel Congress into a Downtown landmark since purchasing it in 1985. The building has morphed from a rundown hotel into a popular spot to see a concert, go dancing, get a meal, hold a party, get married — you name it.
Oseran's newest project is a neighborhood-style eatery, market and convenience store he hopes to open in April in the Downtown Historic Train Depot, across from Hotel Congress.
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To open it, Oseran won city approval in October for more than $200,000 in free rent through Feb. 28, 2011. Oseran, who has partnered with another Downtown property owner in the project, has said the business will more than match the city money with improvements to the property, and help with the momentum of Downtown revitalization.
Letters of support for the project praised Oseran's track record for building a business, Hotel Congress, that's not only thrived Downtown but has gained national recognition.
It didn't happen overnight.
Oseran moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona and stuck around to attend law school. After he graduated, he went to work for Pima County, as a defense attorney. He became the Pima County Public Defender. He even got to argue before the United States Supreme Court.
And then, he quit.
In 1979, he decided he needed a change of course. So he packed up and took his pregnant wife and daughter to New Zealand for a year. Oseran calls it his first midlife crisis.
"They occur almost annually," he says.
When he returned he went to work doing civil litigation. But it wasn't long before a new opportunity arose.
In 1985, Richard and Shana teamed with a few partners to purchase Hotel Congress, which was built in 1919 as a railroad hotel. Eventually, they bought out their partners.
"Friends of mine were starting to move Downtown," he says. "People who were into art and things of that nature. I don't think I fully anticipated the blood, sweat and tears that would be involved."
Hotel Congress was a labor of love. "We spent the next 25 years improving it," he says. "Larry Boyce, who painted the lobby, was a famous kind of a guy, and he just showed up on a bicycle one day."
The hotel quickly became a trendy destination.
"It was a place where actors and actresses came to write," Oseran says. "Poets and artists came. And it attracted people who were attracted to those things."
Oseran's next project aims to mimic that success.
Maynard's Market and Eatery — named after Maynard Dixon, an artist who painted lunettes inside of the depot, and Maynard Flood, who worked on the railroad — will include a bakery, outdoor pizza oven, wine-and-cheese bar and a service counter where people can sit and eat. There will be a market selling organic foods and a convenience store, which is sorely needed Downtown.
Oseran hopes to favor local growers, selling olive oil from Queen Creek and produce from Willcox. Oseran wants to give urban explorers something to discover.
"You don't discover a Borders bookstore or Chili's restaurant," he says. "You discover a small restaurant where you meet the owner at the door. You discover something where you feel like you've found something."
What he likes most about Tucson is "its potential."
