The Rio Nuevo board is likely to defer from taking on big new projects in Tucson while it awaits state election results, the replacement of two board members and a return of downtown visitors following a recent mass shooting.
The board, which oversees investment in downtown Tucson, to just west of Interstate 10 and along Broadway to Park Place, has experienced the same decline in revenue as the rest of the city as residents pull back on outings.
The district was created by voter approval in 1999 and receives an incremental portion of state-shared funds from sales taxes collected within its boundary.
The board recently lost two members, positions that are not expected to be filled until after state elections. The two vacancies are to be appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Senate president.
Chris Sheaf, a longtime member and treasurer of the board, was killed in a Marana plane crash in April.
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The board’s vice chairman, Edmund Marquez, resigned in July to focus his attention on the Tucson Sugar Skulls, the indoor football team of which he recently became a majority owner.
Also in July, there was a mass shooting downtown that left nine people injured. The highly-publicized incident created concern across the community about the safety of going downtown.
The Rio Nuevo board, which has made million-dollar deals in the past, does not want to stop its activity. However, it would rather focus on smaller projects until the path forward is clear.
“Clearly we’re out of the big-deal business for a while,” board chairman Fletcher McCusker told the board at its recent meeting. “I’d rather march to a smaller drum.”
Board member Corky Poster, who asked for the discussion to be placed on the agenda, proposed a pause on new deals while the makeup of the new state government is determined in November.
Earlier this year, the Rio Nuevo board was targeted for elimination by a Republican budget proposal. It was later salvaged in a budget agreement with Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Poster said perhaps it was time to “put our thinking caps on (and) not consider new deals for three months.”
A new governor could potentially take over, he pointed out.
Tucson's Rio Nuevo board is likely to take a cautious approach towards major new projects as it awaits state election results, deals with the loss of key members and navigates through the aftermath of a recent shooting downtown in which nine people were wounded.
Other board members didn’t want to take a formal pause but rather scale back on commitments to big projects such as new hotels.
“We have to be very considerate on what commitments we make in the immediate future,” board member Richard Oseran said.
Other members expressed hesitance to make an official stop.
“If we were to close up shop for three months (it) could send a bad message,” said board member Mike Levin. “We would lose momentum.”
The board’s secretary Taunya Villicana agreed.
“I don’t think we need to do a hard stop,” she said. “Just stay engaged and cautious.”
The Rio Nuevo board has invested millions of dollars in renovations to the Tucson Convention Center and several hotels in the downtown area, as mandated by the state.
A major project supported by Rio Nuevo was the $52 million investment to bring Caterpillar’s regional headquarters into the district.
McCusker said he doesn’t anticipate an official pause to the board’s work.
“Clearly, we can’t do any $5 million deals for a while,” he said, adding that the district’s reserves are about $3 million.
“We can do several smaller deals.”
The matter was discussed during an August meeting, but no formal action was taken at the time.
Visit rionuevo.org for more information about the board and future board meetings.
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