Transcript
Tom Heath
Good morning! It’s a beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo and you’re listening to KTDT Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson Community sponsored rock and roll radio station.
Tom Heath
This week, we’re going to speak with Patricia Schwabe, a partner of Peach Properties which owns and manages many Urban buildings. Patricia is also an owner of several downtown area businesses herself. We’re going to get both the landlord and proprietor perspective on the Tucson Economic Renaissance.
Tom Heath
Today is May 16th, my name is Tom Heath and you’re listening to Life along the streetcar. Each and every Sunday or focuses on social cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s Urban core and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about. From A Mountain to UArizona and all stops in between, you get the inside track right here on Downtown Radio 98.1 FM and streaming on Downtown Radio.org. Can also head over to your App Store and download the downtown radio app and have us wherever you go.
Tom Heath
If you want to check out our past episodes, they are on Life along the streetcar.org. Our email address is contact at that same URL. We’re on Facebook and our podcast is anywhere podcast can be found, including by asking your smart speaker to play Life along the streetcar podcast.
Tom Heath
We’re going to start Today’s Show with a reason to go inside and out in our beautiful city. Spring is in the air and that traditionally means a booming time for our Urban core. Although muted, we are seeing Signs of Life from our local businesses. The SAHBA Home Show returns next weekend to the Tucson Convention Center, and with safety precautions in place, they’ll host over 300 vendors in the main hall.
Tom Heath
Now, for many, a visit to the Tucson Convention Center is going to be a new experience, even If they’ve been there before because the skyline of the TCC has changed now that the Double Tree Hotel has opened and a true Convention Center hotel, connected internally to the passageways exist and will provide an opportunity for lunch. There will be a bar, coffee for those attending the home show, as well as a place for our out-of-town vendors to stay. They can just will simply walk down stairs to their exhibits.
Tom Heath
Parking is going to be different to at the TCC. SAHBA has again offered free parking for those attending, and they can now use that new garage which just recently opened. And again, a new addition to the convention center. If you walk around the TCC, you’re going to find those Renovations under way to the Leo, Rich theater, the Tucson Music Hall, even the fountains that have laid, empty for ten plus years or starting to get a makeover.
Tom Heath
Continuing down that path, you might further explore the Flynn Apartments where the La Placita Village once stood, they are nearing completion. Going farther in a downtown you’re going to see lots of outdoor dining and drinking establishments and a shopping is more prevalent in downtown and it’s been in years past. Businesses have adapted and been working to responsibly and safely reopen in a long-term positive impact for visitors is taking shape. These outdoor cafes exist. These Boutique shops are popping up all along Congress.
Tom Heath
While you’re down there, why don’t you take the hike? The Haiku Hike. It’s presented by the Downtown Tucson Partnership and the University of Arizona Poetry Center. It’s the second annual Haiku Hike Literary Competition, showcasing the 20 winning haiku poems, and they’re printed on this acrylic signage and are located in the Planters along Congress Street and Stone Avenue,
Tom Heath
The science, provide a visual and cultural interest throughout the spring season started back in March and they’ll be available through June first, so you can hike through downtown following the trail and again, get reacquainted with that Tucson’s urban center. you can head over to the downtown Tucson. Partnerships website for information about visiting safely, how to follow along the Haiku hike and what businesses are open and what they’re Hours are.
Tom Heath
I think it’s fitting that the 2021 theme for the haikus, “Living in the present moment.” And our feature today is someone who is living in the present moment. We have the honor of speaking with a Patricia Schwabe. She is a iconic figure for some of us in downtown because she’s involved with so many things. She is a business owner. She is a landlord, and she is a board member of a couple of organizations like the symphony. And her family has had an impact on the development of downtown and we thought it was time to reach out to her and kind of get a sense of what the post-pandemic world might look like. So we talked to her by phone just a couple of days ago and got a sense of her perspective from the landlord side but also the proprietor and the business owner side and we’re going to wrap up the interview with a nice hopeful look at what’s coming with the Tucson Symphony.
Patricia Schwabe
My name is Patricia Schwabe. I’m a small business owner in downtown Tucson. I’m a partner with my husband in a real estate development company, Peach properties. And I also own a restaurant wine shop and a bar; Penca, Owl’s Club and Pearly Baker wine shop. So that’s pretty much what I do in the downtown area.
Tom Heath
That’s it’s quite a bit, every time there’s a shift in economics or something that’s happening with downtown, I know us and other people reach out to you because you’ve got that perspective of a building owner with tenants as well as a business operator. So it’s a unique perspective and we rely heavily on that for kind of how things are going. So with that in mind, you know, you and I spoke, I believe is in 2018, there are lots of really cool things happening and then somewhere along the line, we got hit with the pandemic and things shifted a little bit, but that didn’t stop you from expanding with some of your, with some of your tenants. You, it doesn’t stop you. I mean, you have businesses coming into existence in 2020,
Patricia Schwabe
Yes, there were a couple different things that happened. They were they were in the real estate side. They were some businesses as we all know that they decided to to allow their staff to work from home. So we saw office spaces not getting leased as much or people that were already renting from us, they just decided not to come back to the building’s for a while to office from, so we had no idea how that was going to continue to develop and it was really interesting to see that a lot many of skilled professions, like hairdressers, like a lot of the beauty related professions; skincare, massage therapist, people that maybe had worked in larger operations decided to go on their own. With their own license and their own spaces. So so we shifted from the heavy retail rentals to Services, personal services, Beauty services. So, that was really interesting.
Patricia Schwabe
I didn’t know much about that industry, so we have to learn pretty quickly about the need for those tenants, but there was a lot of people looking. There’s still a lot. People looking to rent in those Industries. There are other tenants that have to do with hospitality, restaurant, bars, that they have to reinvent themselves, coffee shops. Most of our tenants, and I’m going to say all of our tenants were able to survive, some grew, some changed a lot the way they did business but it’s being is being a I think it’s been a an eye-opening experience to see how individual businesses have reimagined themselves.
Tom Heath
I drove by the old. I think it’s the Firestone building there, on 6th and 7th. And then in the gym, that’s there, they had moved their cycling class outside. So, that’s something somewhat refreshing, right, you’re in a spin class. But your, you normally stuck in a gym and they have it outside and under their covered patio and it was I think one of those reinventions re-imaginings you were talking about.
Patricia Schwabe
Yes. Yes. And it was them doing things like that and and people started doing, you know, that to go more to go than ever before. And and then we were fortunate that the city and some of the other agencies were able to see how patios would help. So, there was a lot of interest in helping small businesses extend their premises So they could have patio. So that was helpful for restaurants that was helpful for coffee shops, bars, and so that was kind of nice to see all these different groups trying to figure out ways to help small businesses. So again we’ve been very busy trying to figure all these things out. Definitely, the side that has been affected the most because being the office side. But again, other other groups and other Industries have grown. So it’s all kind of balancing out.
Tom Heath
When I think self-care. You, you talked about the massage but you also have the CBD provider now in 44 Broadway. Right?
Patricia Schwabe
Yes. And that was a retail space that we’ve had for a long time and and we weren’t quite sure quite the space was going to look like but these guys just had a nice clean image of how they wanted to present as the the space and and that’s what they want to use the Building for. We have very high-end Condominiums and the top floor and the nice offices, So we wanted to make sure it was the right tenant. And that’s always part of the, I guess my job to try to curate. If I don’t know if that’s the right word, but try to imagine the best, use for the space and the people that are renting from us, make sure that they’re going to be able to work along with the other tenants or owners and and so, we’re trying this CBD store that the people that own it, a really nice people the product Seems to be really well accepted. And, and so that’s been interesting and and kind of fun at the same time.
Tom Heath
And then you go to the to the end of that block to the east side. And there’s a this is your operation but there’s a wine shop. So we’re seeing a lot of self-care and self-help opening up there.
Patricia Schwabe
Yeah, especially with a with a wine, right?
Tom Heath
You open that in the pandemic was that it was that the plan?
Patricia Schwabe
We just figure out where people are still drinking and still buying and we have the right license. Oh, so that was just just cut encouragement to get it open because people can order online, they come Pick up at the curb curb, they can go inside, but he’s not a place where there’s a lot of people at the same time. So everybody always feels safe going in and now with all the apartments and more people moving in downtown. I think it’s just a nice place for people to stroll down from their condos, or there, or they can walk from their neighborhood in the Armory Park, or the Barrio and, and just grab a nice bottle of little wine with a coming to get on a car. So I think that that was a I don’t know which was a good a good time and we cut the plans to do it and it just pushed us to do it right away.
Tom Heath
The news that I’m excited about is after some delay Penca is a back open. Correct? Or opening soon.
Patricia Schwabe
We’re not open yet! We’re not open yet but we’re trying to open in the next week or so we’re doing like a full tasting of the menu again and getting everything just to to the point like we wanted to be and the staff trained And so hopefully next week will be open and again we’re super excited because we this is our first year, first summer in Tucson with a patio. But we’re happy because I know people in Tucson as soon as soon as the sun sets stars or the sun comes down, we like to enjoy that that dry heat of the summer and and will be able to offer you know cold Margarita, sangria, all the different cocktails that we have. And I think I think it’s gonna be a wonderful place to sit down in the summer that patio.
Tom Heath
Yeah, I’m gonna say sangria makes the dry heat, much more enjoyable in my experience.
Patricia Schwabe
I think so too.
Tom Heath
I am looking forward to some Sangria and I’m looking forward to the second half of our interview with a Patricia schwabe talking about some of the development from the global landlord perspective and a little information about the symphony. And I want to remind you that you’re listening to lifelong the streetcar downtown radio 99.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtown. Radio dot-org.
Tom Heath
Hi, welcome back. We’re going to finish up our interview about the Tucson Economic Renaissance, featuring Patricio Suave, and we’re this segment is more about her perspective as a landlord and property owner.
Tom Heath
So you have a different kind of pulse on development because you do have people that are looking for business but you also have a lot of are looking for places open their business but you also have a lot of vacancy you know. There’s there’s there are larger spaces like the Chicago store and you know and some of that block and I know you’re looking at some bigger names. Hopefully to come in there and I know you can’t for confidentiality reasons talk about some of them specifically but can you give us a sense as to what types of Businesses you’re looking to attract into that block.
Patricia Schwabe
Well that Chicago Stpre is not empty empty. I mean that all the second floor is probably 14,000 square feet. I rented for the L, the new co-working space so the ground floor. Yes. Wherever we are not least on the ground floor but the second floor is fully in operation and it’s a beautiful space that that is now housing people coming to Work downtown for the ground floor there different plans. The only thing I can say is that the plans are getting combined with the development of the block 75.
Tom Heath
Okay. So the big, the big project just…
Patricia Schwabe
The big project just to that, yes, self-righting, right next to the alley, to the South. So that is being part of the main, the bigger projects. So, So so why is going to go with the other one? Now the other end we still have a restaurant. Operator, we still have, we have wooden. Tooth is who is opening a small record store this fall? We have couple other retail operators at the other end of Congress, Congress, and Scott. So there we have about 6,000, square feet, pre-leased, and then you have bad shape And then you have you have 1055, you have badge and then and then the rest of the building is going east, that’s what is kind of the development of that is kind of combined with the development of 75 Broadway.
Tom Heath
So we’ll see some more of that and hopefully some some retail but and then on you’re saying so you already have on the end there on Scott. You already have that pre-leased for retail?
Patricia Schwabe
Yes, we have commitments already.
Tom Heath
Good. Good. So excited to see as those as those populate. What is your Answers, we come out of this pandemic, we get into the summer and that’s always a tough time. I’m hearing fall and Springer are supposed to be, you know, exciting times in Tucson. Are you…
Patricia Schwabe
Our Tucson Renaissance, right? I mean, everybody’s going to be so happy. I think this summer is going to be. I’m just waiting to see what happens is summer. I don’t know, I think some days. I feel like everybody is just going to it’s going to enjoy being in Tucson and it’s going to enjoy it without me. In outside in Tucson but there’s always a people that have the ability to leave the city and go visit other areas of the country or I don’t know how much international travel will happen but so I don’t know what’s gonna happen this summer. I think there’s as, you know, a lot of other restaurants that were opened last year are not open this year in downtown Tucson.
Patricia Schwabe
So marrying in development like the old downtown kitchen has new owners and that’s getting Then book A Closer is not open and and Riley’s is getting ready to open but it’s not open yet so there’s still a lot of variants but I think this home is going to be interesting. I think whoever is open is going to do well because people are just happy to be out that people are in Tucson and they’re just going to be happy to be able to enjoy a nice meal. So I feel like whoever is open this summer is going to do well, maybe better than other Summers. And then we’re going to see that that biggest pop is definitely going to be like, November, December and then through the spring of next year.
Tom Heath
You know, that that’s what I’m hearing from others. And hopefully, that is the case because when you start looking around downtown, and you see some of the projects planned, you mentioned 75 Broadway, which, you know, we don’t have really time to get into today but that is a, you know, 20 some story building with retail on the bottom and made a mixed use throughout. But bringing that much retail along with a lot of the housing that will be completed by the end of the Are 2022. It does seem like we’re going to a lot more people living and having more of a reason to come downtown besides just the, you know, the Arts and the food and drink that’s been driving.
Patricia Schwabe
Yeah, we haven’t even said a word about the hotels. I mean, there’s three hotels for hotels. There’s a hotel in the citizens building. That is like a wine-driven hotel with Sand Reckoner going in there and then you have the Doubletree that open already and you have the heel toe. Um brand cocktail across from the cathedral and then you can have just by the Tsetse. But on the other end by the Placida
Tom Heath
They’re converting part of the one. South Church is being converted into…
Patricia Schwabe
That’s right. That’s right. That’s going to be more hotels. So I think everybody is hoping and believing that people that come and visit Tucson have other interests, besides golfing, or together restored. Style experiences. So we need to be open in downtown Tucson to be able to offer those people. Something there are galleries, the Museum’s, the concert Halls, the sports arena, and the restaurants. We all need to be ready. Next fall to welcome. All these all these guess that will be staying in those hotels.
Tom Heath
On a somewhat different note and if you didn’t really think about this until you just brought that up somewhere. You’re discussing your, are you still on the board for the symphony?
Patricia Schwabe
I’m still in the board and I don’t know if I’m allowed to give any announcements for their some good and some some new announcements coming up soon and cliche exciting. And, and yes, the Symphonies is coming back soon this fall, we hope. And, and I’m just excited for people to Learn more about the symphony, get more involved, put it in your calendars. Go to a concert is an experience that is like no other in Tucson and we should learn to appreciate it and not take it for granted. It’s just a wonderful wonderful experience to be able to go to a concert with without with that direct music director, that is just a gift to our city. And people just need to know more about the symphony for sure.
Tom Heath
We should we should Circle back and do a show specifically on that. Because if you, you know, if you’ve been to the symphony with what re-enable is invested in the convention center with the, you know, the upgrades to the music hall with, you know, eventually you know, they’re underway to get the the plaza intense and then the Flynn building which will be completed here with some, you know, there may be a little cafes and Retail, it’s going to be a different experience. Going to a hockey. Game are going to the symphony than what you might have experienced even, you know, a couple of years ago. So well maybe I will Circle back and do a more thorough show on on the symphony itself once you’re able to.
Patricia Schwabe
We should we should and you should be able to interview our executive director, and our music director and and maybe even some of them is seasons and and he’s there is commitment to Excellence. There’s a passion there is just, I mean, I don’t even know how to say how fortunate. We are in Tucson for having the quality of the symphony that we have. And I know not everybody thinks it’s approachable, but once you go and see one of the concerts, even if you don’t know anything about classical music, it touches, you it touches your soul. And and he just have a beautiful experience. And, and then you walk out and you have a bunch of restaurants and bars that Eddie’s just makes our city. Just even more rich because we have that part also to share and to enjoy over three.
Tom Heath
So I really appreciate your time. This is and I think what we’re hearing in general, from those of you that are in the know, it’s been tough. We’re going to make it through. 2022 is going to be great, we just have to make sure we get there.
Patricia Schwabe
Yeah and I’m so proud of all that varies resilient people of Tucson that have just kept a good positive, spirit through it all through it all and we’re just here for the summer and hopefully we get someone soon sand and will be will be happy people.
Tom Heath
Well, Monsoon sangria and summer nights in Tucson sounds like a great time downtown.
Patricia Schwabe
I think so too!
Tom Heath
Patricia, thanks for your time and I will talk with you very soon.
Patricia Schwabe
Take care, Tom.
Tom Heath
I love how these shows work out to finish up an interview and we’ve already got the next one lined up. Well, I don’t think I’ll have the symphony next week, but we’ll definitely reach out. And I have a conversation. Short them and I’m kind of curious now to find out what information she was unable to share. Kind of little Cliffhanger, my name is Tom. Hey if you’re listening to lifelong the streetcar in Downtown Radio 99.1 FM and available for streaming on Downtown Radio dot org.
Tom Heath
Well you know I don’t want you to head over to Downtown Radio.org and and check out the website. It’s been redone recently, lots of information about how to support the station, including how to get that merch, that mr. Ivan Smith was just telling you about, There, but also list of all the shows that we’ve got, the DJ’s really good schedule, information about the board. And remember this is all volunteer run. So while you’re there, click on that donate button and see if you can’t help us out.
Tom Heath
Well, thank you again to Patricia Schwabe talking about Economic Development here in the urban core and look forward to more stories from her and the Tucson Symphony. And if you have anything we should be covering, don’t hesitate to reach out to us a contact@life along the streetcar dot-org is our email address. You can hit us up on Facebook and while you’re over there like our page and maybe share it around so we can spread more information about the hidden gems in our Urban core. This is episode number 151. So lots of topics that have been covered and so many more. Well, we’re gonna leave you the music today from a Peter Ronstadt. I thought this song was pretty Appropriate it is for 2016. The song is called “Falling into Place.” I think things are falling into place. My name is Tom Heath. I hope you have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more Life along the Streetcar.
