Midtown's Rancho Center getting new look, new businesses

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Rancho Center on Speedway in Midtown Tucson is getting a major facelift.

Larsen Baker Real Estate, which bought the 80,000-square-foot shopping center in 2022, is leading the project.

The company also helped develop the new Sol Blockon Broadway in Midtown.

“My dad said he used to come here to the train store to look at the trains going by in, I think, 1956,” said Larsen Baker CEO Melissa Lal.

“It was originally built in the 1950s with this beautiful metal frame,” Larsen Baker Vice President Isaac Figueroa added. “And we’re gonna be bringing it back to that aesthetic, with a modern twist, and it’s gonna look really, really sharp.”

Larsen Baker

The CEO said construction has already started.

Lal did not provide an official cost estimate but said this is a multi-million dollar renovation.

It will replace textured walls with smooth stucco and add new railings and landscaping.

Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt will open in the coming months, as will a new, large restaurant next to Whole Foods.

The restaurant will be the next project from the partners who started Locale and Contigo in the Tucson area.

According to Figueroa, the empty lot to the west of the existing shopping center will become an HTeaO drive-thru offering iced tea drinks.

Behind the drive-thru, Figueroa says there is open land zoned for another drive-thru business and residential use.

The businesses already at Rancho Center will remain open during construction.

Lal hopes the renovation will make the shopping center even more of a hub for shoppers and neighbors.

“There’s such a fond memory of Rancho Center and it really serves the neighborhoods that surround it,” she said. “So to be able to kind of bring it back up to its former glory… That’s what we’re really excited about and that’s why we’re doing it.”

Construction is expected to take four to five months.