“We felt that even though Covid is occurring and there are some areas with vacant office space, Kierland doesn’t have much, especially modern office space there is none in that area.“
– Larry Lazarus, Partner
With 2020 behind us, we want to wish everyone a VERY healthy and happy new year. We are looking forward to 2021 !
We wish to thank you, our friends and colleagues, for being a part of our story in 2020 and for allowing us to be part of yours. In that spirit, we have made a donation to the Phoenix and Tucson Community Food Banks in your honor.
Keri’s interview highlights her thoughts on the industry and her road to success.
We are proud to have been involved in the original zoning case that secured the height and density that will allow this project to be built for the benefit of the Club and the community.
Everyone here at Lazarus & Silvyn, P.C. are very proud of you!
By Jamie Donnelly
SPECIAL FOR THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Two hotels, two apartment complexes and an entertainment district are slated for the new Oro Valley Village Center in what officials said is an effort to create a mixed-used development on the northwest side with entertainment, dining, hospitality and residential options. The center, which was previously known as the Oro Valley Marketplace, was sold last year to Town West Realty after the retail center faced troubles due to the Amazon effect, or the negative impacts of online shopping on brick-andmortar retail stores, said Mary Jacobs, town manager. Jacobs said the new owners are planning to reimagine the center rather than redevelop it.
‘They’ve developed a plan that they believe will support the retail on the facility and that is by incorporating both residential and hotel on the site to facilitate a continuous customer base for the restaurants and for the retail,’ Jacobs said.
Keri Silvyn, a partner at Lazarus & Silvyn, the firm behind the redevelopment, said they are trying to create a place where people can live, work, play, shop and be entertained in a singular spot.
The most excitement, she said, has been about the entertainment district. The project’s website states the project will include features such as a beer garden, miniature golf course, splash pads, sand beach, playground and bike and pedestrian paths.
‘People can live there and interact and not have to get in their cars to interact with it,’ Silvyn said.
Jacobs said that will help ‘generate the foot traffic that they need to sustain’ the project.
‘They hope that people will say, ‘Oh, while I’m here, I’ll go shop with the kids,’ or mom says, ‘Hey, you watch the kids in the splash pad, I’m going to Ulta,” Jacobs said.
Even though COVID-19 has shut down many projects and businesses in Tucson, Silvyn said they are still able to continue work on the project since they are still in the paperwork stage.
Oro Valley was able to hold a neighborhood meeting before the social distancing requirements that discussed the plans for the center and addressed questions and concerns the community had. Silvyn said for the most part people were supportive.
‘I think the concerns that we heard are concerns we hear with every project, which is always about traffic,’ Silvyn said. ‘There seems to be a concern in Oro Valley from some people now, not everybody, about apartments and being concerned that brings crime into the area. The statistics don’t show that, in fact, a really well-run apartment complex is actually good for the community because it provides diversity of income levels and opportunities.’
Silvyn said it will probably take three to five years to complete the Oro Valley Village Center.
Hotels, apartment complexes and an entertainment district are slated for Oro Valley Village Center. The project’s website say features will include a beer garden and splash pads.
COURTESY KERI SILVYN / LAZARUS & SILVYN
Many of our clients, consultants and friends are asking how the Arizona cities/towns/counties are conducting themselves during this critical time.
While each city/town/county has slightly different protocols in place, the common theme is to continue processing land use and construction permits and approvals while limiting in-person interactions to ensure the health and safety of their employees and the public.
Instead of consolidating the jurisdictional protocols in this alert, we are providing you the links to the key jurisdictions in which Lazarus & Silvyn works on behalf of our clients.
The protocols can change quickly and we want to ensure you have access directly to the jurisdictions for those notices.
We know this is a difficult time for many businesses and families.
Lazarus & Silvyn is open for business, ready to serve and advise.
We are taking this issue seriously and are taking precautions to protect our staff and employees. These precautions include:
We know these are uncertain times, and we want to offer encouragement and stability as we can. We are also working with other business leaders in the Phoenix and Tucson markets to understand resources that will be available to businesses as this unfolds and as this very critical time resolves.
Please feel free to call us with any questions or concerns.
Just as in years past, the combination of legal expertise, political acumen and strategic insight will be essential in guiding successful projects from start to finish.
Land use regulations, zoning restrictions, entitlements and permitting in Arizona are going to remain complex, especially as it relates to achieving sustainable, environmentally responsible developments.
Some of the significant areas of new development to take note of in 2020 will be healthcare and hospitals; assisted-living and sober-living homes; infill multi-family (especially apartments); education/student housing; golf course preservation and redevelopment; and medical marijuana and possible recreational marijuana.
2020 will continue to see substantial new employment opportunities. Consequently, there will be a need for new single-family residential and associated commercial development in areas where major employers will locate. Adequate water supply and new infrastructure improvements will be issues affecting the success of zoning in these areas. Simultaneously, the demand for these uses will affect infill developments because of the limitation of land and the effects of new developments on surrounding neighborhoods in the inner city. Expect a continuation of entitlement issues related to growth such as traffic, height, and view corridors, density and noise, and air quality.
Infill development requires extensive work with surrounding neighborhoods and determining the win-win path forward for adjacent neighbors and the new project. Constructing new multi-family housing within existing communities will be critical to maintaining housing affordability. Educating the public on the importance of multi-family housing and the desire of newer generations to rent and live in multi-family communities will be key to successful zoning entitlements.
There will be a heightening of community input on many entitlements as it affects development in surrounding communities.
While cities and towns will want to take advantage of the economic opportunities in 2020, there will be more pressure from the public not to affect what they perceive to be their current lifestyle. Therefore, anticipate continued struggles within the legislative bodies that, on the one hand, promote jobs, increase tax dollars, pay for new much-needed infrastructure and, on the other hand, succumb to pressures of existing and future anti-development factions.
As various list-serves and other modes of communications for neighborhoods have increased, one of the biggest challenges will be educating the public on new projects with facts before inaccurate hyperbole frames the discussion. Elected officials, design review boards and government staff will rely on the development community to ensure effective communication and appropriate framing of issues.
Because NextDoor and similar apps do not lend themselves to people trying to understand all sides of an issue, the development community will need to anticipate inaccurate information and work to get the facts of a case into the public as part of the decision-making process.
Developers will be asked to bear the costs related to traffic accommodations and assuring enough water, sewer and energy to their properties. On the other hand, cities will need to address mass transit, including light rail and buses; parks and recreational opportunities; alternative people movers such as scooters and bicycles; additional heights to accommodate appropriate densities; and pedestrian-friendly environments.
Most of the infrastructure like streets, water, sewers have been constructed based on growth models that did not contemplate the level of densification now being proposed to ensure we create sustainable communities. Generally, jurisdictions permit “hooking up” to the current system as long as there is capacity. We need to develop a new approach so that the first project to be proposed once capacity is utilized is not saddled with the costs of upgrades. If this problem is not addressed soon, then infill will come to a halt after the last project is completed using the existing capacity.
