The Rio Nuevo District Board has made a settlement offer to the City of Tucson in matter of lawsuits filed on behalf of the taxpayers of Arizona. The newly reconstituted Rio Nuevo District Board is confident that the settlement is in the best interest of the taxpayers, and the residents of the greater metropolitan Tucson area.
Rio Nuevo Settlement items of interest:
* In exchange for dismissing three lawsuits against the City of Tucson, Rio Nuevo will be reimbursed over $16,000, 000 for the Depot Garage, whose ownership has been disputed.
* The City of Tucson will also deed to Rio Nuevo the “Arena lot,” which is 8.5 acres at Congress and the Freeway. Rio Nuevo filed a lawsuit to gain ownership of that property and the City has now agreed to deed it to the District.
* The City of Tucson will also deed to Rio Nuevo about half of the Westside acreage, where title was disputed in a lawsuit.
* The settlement has resurrected $ 6.5M of bond funds and Rio Nuevo will invest most of that into the Tucson Convention Center, as was required by the original bond memorandum.
* The City of Tucson will forgive about $1.2M of debt from Rio Nuevo.
* Each party releases each other from current or future claims; however the City of Tucson is not released from third party intervention or investigation as it relates to the Arizona Attorney General, the Internal Revenue Service, bondholders, and taxpayer organizations.
The FBI and Arizona Attorney General’s investigations remain outstanding but are out of the control of Rio Nuevo.
The newly reconstituted Rio Nuevo Board intends to immediately upgrade the Tucson Convention Center and will immediately invest in two downtown hotel projects. Plans will be made for the commercial development of property immediately west of the Santa Cruz Wash.
The settlement will save the newly reconstituted Rio Nuevo District over $1 million a year in legal fees, which will now serve the District’s mission; to participate and facilitate the development of a vibrant downtown Tucson.
Well written and all true. But what are we getting or $230,000,000? These figures are chump change. Leftovers. Debris of a failed vision. A good friend of mine told me that when all of the Rio Nuevo was started …nothing would get done …that it would all go down a rat hole. He was right. Tucson is going down a rat hole.
I am so excited about these projects…espicially when I am avoiding the potholes and damaged roads here in Tucson.
Our vets deserve much more than this. Thas why my son when he came back from Iraq and decided to go to school, he went to Phoenix. They have really nice roads there!
Fraser, this work has been under way in one form or another since the El Centro Redevelopment Plan was adopted in 1983! 30 years ago! Check out the tiles along walk way between La Placita and Hotel Arizona… I wrote out a work order for the City to fix those in May of 1983. Would those tiles be called iconic? Or might they be the object of some abstract art titled “Economic Development?”