Tucson House $50M renovation project marks milestone

Residents of the 15th floor of the Tucson House started to move into fully renovated units Friday, marking one of the first milestones in a massive $50 million renovation project.

The iconic 17-story high-rise on North Oracle Road is now about 15% complete with its floor-by-floor renovation, said Sally Schwenn, Arizona market president for Gorman & Company, the city’s contracted developer.

Developers integrated residents’ amenity requests into the final designs, said Tucson’s Housing and Community Development Director Ann Chanecka. Most requested expanded storage, countertop space and their own temperature control. Each unit has its own AC unit, to replace the building's long-outdated chiller system.

The building will also have expanded security and will implement an electronic fob system that residents scan to access their floor and amenities.

The building was the city’s largest public housing complex, but had reached concerning levels of disrepair, according to Chanecka.

“Systems were starting to fail,” she said.

The Tucson House renovation is the biggest project funded by a total $50 million Choice Neighborhoods Implementation grant Tucson received under the Biden administration in 2023 to invest in the 85705 ZIP code, dubbed “Thrive in the 05” by city leaders.

In 2025, the city announced Tucson House would be switching from public housing to the voucher system, which means residents pay 30% of their income in rent.

“In terms of resident experience, it will be really similar. But in terms of long-term revenue to be able to sustain the operations and maintenance, there's more security with the voucher program,” Chanecka said.

Earlier this year, the city of Tucson closed its public housing waitlist, citing overwhelming demand of over 40,000 people.

Chanecka said the city needs both new housing and improvement of its existing structures.

“Preserving what we have for the long term is a really important component as well,” she said.

Tucson House originally had 408 units, but that number will decrease to 358 to make the spaces more livable, said Schwenn.

“We combined a lot of the studios to make more one-bedrooms . . . to accommodate more livable space,” she said.

Twenty-five residents will begin moving their belongings into the 15th floor on Oct. 16, city officials said. The first phase of construction of the 16th, 14th and 13th floors will continue with an estimated completion date of 2029 for the full project, Chanecka said.