A housing plan on Historic Fourth Avenue is looking to transform The Flycatcher and surrounding lots with a housing complex up to seven stories high.
The development will be along Sixth Street between Fifth and Fourth Ave.
Attorney Rory Juneman represents the Memphis development companyEducation Realty Trustwhich built The District on 5th.
He says there will be 250 units at market rate, a 2-level parking garage with 190 parking spots and the ground level will be retail.
The skyline could be changing downtown... Historic Fourth Avenue could soon have a new 7-story housing complex at The Flycatcher @kgun9 pic.twitter.com/Dc7MSEDDfs
— Priscilla KGUN9 (@PriscillaCasper) February 13, 2018
Juneman says they are working with the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association to bring in local businesses.
EdR states it's a leader in college housing, but Juneman says they want to attract graduate students and young professionals.
Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik isn't buying it.
"If they want to come in and build a local business, local retail with a market rate or workforce housing that will be great," Kozachik said. "This is a student housing complex built by an out-of-state developer who is going to take those dollars out of Tucson. It doesn't benefit us economically and the cohort of people who want to live in there don't want to benefit the surrounding area."
Kozachik says another concern is parking and some Fourth Avenue businesses agree.
"We like the idea of more people coming in and more potential revenue and so forth probably our biggest issue is parking," said Tim Cronin, owner of Lindy's on 4th. "That has always been an issue on the avenue."
"Parking is a huge problem because we get a lot of people that don't come down here and support these local businesses because they cant find a place to park," said DeeDee Koenen, owner of Pop Cycle.
Juneman says the company still has to get district approval for the design and hopes to have construction begin this summer.
