Behind the Walgreens on North Thornydale and West Overton roads sits an unfinished shopping center that some neighbors say is becoming an eyesore.
"The place is littered with open bags of cement and insulation, but nobody is working on the site," said Jon Fishman, who lives in the area.
In early 2007, Houston-based developer Option 1 Realty Group said it was building the $9.5-million, roughly 43,500-square-foot Tuscan Village.
At the time, company officials said the retail center would open by last summer.
Instead, the property faces foreclosure and a Pima County zoning violation case.
"They left us with no option but to foreclose," said David Lyons, regional president for National Bank of Arizona. "We're trying to get it in the hands of someone who can finish it."
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The property is scheduled to go to auction in June, Lyons said.
No one at Option 1 Realty returned repeated calls seeking comment for this article.
Acting on a neighbor's complaint about flying debris, a Pima County zoning inspector visited the site recently and found violations related to storage of construction materials, said Carla Blackwell, the county's deputy development services director.
"It looks like they are gone," she said of the developer, adding that contractors have filed several liens against the property.
Tuscan Village is one of the developer's two planned commercial centers on the Northwest Side. The other is Riverside Plaza, a 115,000-square-foot development of about 10 office and retail buildings in Marana at North Silverbell and North Cortaro roads.
Construction on the Marana center was scheduled to end after Tuscan Village was finished, company officials announced last year. But the developer has had no recent contact with Marana officials, said town planner Steven Vasquez.
The town approved the development in late 2006, but no building permits have been issued, he said.
Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona is one of 15 to 20 businesses that were supposed to be part of Tuscan Village.
"We should've been in there months ago," said Connie Curnett, director of development and marketing for Goodwill.
The nonprofit group signed a five-year lease for a 3,300-square-foot donation center after the developer bought the property. Goodwill has a trailer where people can drop off donations on the edge of the site.
"We wanted to remain in the community," Curnett said.
Company representatives have returned none of her phone calls asking about the development's lack of progress, she said.
Curnett still hopes the development will be completed so Goodwill can move in.
"If it doesn't work out, we're going to start looking for a replacement site by the end of the year," she said.
