Work Begins On Downtown Tucson's Convention Center Hotel

TUCSON, AZ - Work has begun on a new Tucson Convention Center-adjacent DoubleTree branded hotel downtown. Investors, developers and city leaders were out at the site Monday with ceremonial shovels to celebrate the first day of offical building. The project will transform the TCC's eastern parking lot that borders Cushing Street by 2021 into a 170-bed hotel that connects with the convention center and features a rooftop bar with Mesquite themes.

The principals developers, Caliber Hospitality and Ryan Companies, signed a deal with the Rio Nuevo Board in 2017 that allowed Caliber to keep at least $2.5 million in sales tax revenue, an incentive known as the Rio Nuevo’s Government Purchase Lease Excise Tax.

Those tax savings are only good if the value of the property is increased at least 100 percent, Mayor Jonathan Rothschild reminded the Arizona Daily Star.

“To be eligible for the GPLET, independent economic analysis must show that taxpayers benefit more than the developer,” Rothschild said.

The DoubleTree by Hilton will be the second hotel to open in Downtown Tucson in the past 42 years. The Scottsdale-based Caliber Group says the design will complement the nearby barrios. An "about the company" section on the firm's website is touting the project as a major part of their portfolio:

The Company is currently offering four distinct private real estate funds, two focused on income and two focused on growth, with the most notable being a $500m equity offering in the Southwest as a qualified opportunity zone investment fund.

According to the Arizona Office of Tourism, 6.5 million people visited Tucson and the greater Southern Arizona region in 2017.