Final demolition of the Santa Rita Hotel downtown started this week.
Humberto Lopez, who owned the hotel since 1979, sold it this summer.
The hotel had been closed since late 2005 for a planned $40 million renovation into condos, retail, restaurant space and parking. Those plans fell through in 2007, and Lopez said then that he hoped to turn it back into a boutique hotel.
UniSource Energy Corp purchased the hotel this summer for $6.55 million.
Unisource, the parent company of Tucson Electric Power, said it plans to turn the site at 88 E. Broadway into TEP's headquarters. A new one should be finished by the summer of 2012.
Did You Know
The 100-room Santa Rita Hotel was built in 1904 on land donated by the city. Fifty rooms were added in 1917.
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In 1903, the year before the Santa Rita even officially opened, the Arizona Daily Star called it "the most beautiful hotel in the Arizona Territory." The hotel was demolished and rebuilt in 1972.
The Santa Rita was host to several well-known community organizations. The Mountain Oyster Club was founded at the hotel in 1948. The hotel was also the headquarters of the Tucson Press Club from 1956 to 1962.
