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The proposed 250-foot structure on the northwest corner of the intersection would have dwarfed most of the nearby buildings in this low and spread-out city, rivaled only by the 190-foot Banner UMC hospital to the north and the 100-foot Aloft Hotel across the intersection. 

But in the mid-2010s, the developers, led by property owner Richard Shenkarow, held a series of neighborhood meetings, tweaked the design and succesfully sold the concept of transit-oriented development. It helped that the ground floor was to have retail stores, notably a Whole Foods Market, and that the environmentally friendly design was attractive and innovative, featuring public access, deep shade and water harvesting. 

So, while some neighbors still objected, there wasn't a broad NIMBY uprising, and the Tucson City Council approved the rezoning on Feb. 1, 2018. The $300 million project, where many residents would live without cars, was supposed to be done in 2022.

But Shenkarow got sick and has since died, and the COVID-19 pandemic threw everything off. Now the transit-oriented development idea is kaput, and the Speedway Campbell Gateway project, as it was called, can be dumped onto the pile of creative Tucson development ideas that never got built. 

Instead, the University of Arizona plans to build a mega-dorm there for 1,200 or more students, similar in scale to the Shenkarow proposal, but different in design and purpose. Instead of the ground-floor retail, four-story office building, shady breezeway and a 20-story building with market-rate apartments, the structure will be up to 19 stories with modern dorm amenities like a dining hall and, presumably, a large gym. 

The university plans to close some other dorms and encourage more first-year and second-year students to live in campus housing. The idea is that students who live in campus housing in their first year or two tend to graduate at higher rates, as President Suresh Garimella explained to the regents. 

“What happens off campus is that even if there might be some good options, the lack of programming and oversight renders that option somewhat less beneficial for our first- and second-year students, especially dealing with landlords, dealing with some other things,� he said.

In that sense, it sounds good for the university and students, though I do worry about first-year students crossing Speedway to get to campus, even with the Warren Avenue underpass just one block west. Let's not forget: Three UA students were killled while crossing North Euclid Avenue last year. 

No student housing

But solving the university's housing problems is not what this project was supposed to be about. In fact, it was explicitly not to be a student housing project when it went to the City Council for approval, said Steve Kozachik, who represented Ward 6, where the project is taking place, at the time. 

"Some of the assurances included that it was not going to be student housing," Kozachik said. "It was going to be high-end stuff."

But that wasn't a formal condition of the rezoning approved by the council, just a commitment by the original developers, later loosened by the new developers, Mortenson. 

Some neighbors, like Blenman-Elm Neighborhood Association president Alan Myklebust, are viewing the news with resignation.

"I think many neighbors within the neighborhoods did come to accept a mixed-use project, expecting that they might benefit from retail businesses on the lower levels," Myklebust told me by email, speaking for himself, not the neighborhood association.

"The parking issues were addressed, and it was sold as residential units for urban professionals. Student housing exclusively changes the equation to just another tower like those that already exist, just a lot taller."

The current design is a version of the Shenkarow plan redesigned by Mortenson Development, which still hoped to do a mixed-use development but had brought student housing into the mix.

Now, the plan is for Mortenson to close on the property and sell it to a nonprofit called the . Then the Arizona Board of Regents will purchase the property from the foundation and lease it back to them for 50 years.  

'Not a great look'

The university's plan fits within the Planned Area Development approved by the Tucson City Council, city spokesman Andrew Squire told me, so it would not need a new rezoning. But also, if the state takes ownership through the Board of Regents, that would excuse it from such city regulations anyway.

It's something the U of A took advantage of just a few years ago in establishing the W.A. Franke Honors College at 1101 East Mabel Street, despite some local opposition. 

"I’m not sure it’s a great look for the U of A to double down and do it a half-mile to the east," Kozachik said, noting that it is a way to avoid neighborhood scrutiny. 

In the early versions of the Speedway Campbell project, Kozachik recalled, the university was expected to participate by leasing out several stories of office, classroom and laboratory space. But the UA never committed to that. 

The UA also declined to sell to developers a half-acre sliver of property along North Campbell Avenue, which would have allowed the original project to be shorter and more spread out. Now the UA is including that property in the dorm plan.

In a way, it isn't fair to criticize the UA over this: It was a different administration that decided not to join the Speedway-Campbell project when it could have made a difference in getting the project done. Also, the university's involvement is the only thing rescuing any version of it now. 

But it sticks in the craw that the one thing this innovative project was not supposed to be when neighbors agreed to it — student housing — is what it will exclusively be now. And it's disappointing to see a creative idea for city living thrown on Tucson's ash heap.