Remind our viewers, how exactly does Rio never work
because it's been in place for since 1999, right?
You're right, it was 400 1999 I was created.
City of Tucson filed it with the state of Arizona
at TIFF District, which is tax increment financing.
Basically, as you look at our district, which is downtown.
Are you going to go down Broadway, pick up
Alkon, pick up Park Place Mall?
That's our district, for the most part.
And we basically keep in simple math about half the state sales
tax generated in that area. That's our income.
That's why we've had to figure out public private partnerships
where you'll have a
private entity, private developer putting up
the risk, putting up the majority of the money.
And we usually come in last with our dollars
or we figure out how to do a sales tax rebate
that might help them or we do what's called a flat,
which where we forgive the property tax
on the properties we've had to make our way.
And the good news, I guess
when something bad happens,
you usually have to figure your way out of it when
your backs against the wall.
We figured out how to
how to effectively make deals happen downtown and really
help downtown and our and our Broadway corridor
progress forward
and for economic development to happen with the
with the little cash flow that we have
and the tools at our disposal.
There are some very
visible properties like Caterpillar or the Annex.
And of course, the TCC
is something that you are particularly proud of.
Why were those point or targeted points that you
said they need attention?
Yeah. The TCC is
actually the main reason renewable it was even created.
It's our primary component.
So the TCC, we are proudly in the midst
of a 65 million dollar upgrade to the TCC campus.
If you visit there today, you'll see
a brand new DoubleTree hotel right off of Cushing.
You'll see a brand new parking structure.
We've remodeled the arena.
We're in the midst of just finishing up the music hall,
which is two songs We deserve a nice musical.
It was just really rundown
and dated from new bathrooms, new seats, new sound system
and the little rich theaters under construction.
Right now we're doing some upgrades there.
The campus you'll see flowing grass now
flowing, the water
flowing in the fountains that have been dry for years.
The annex, which is the West Side, believe it or not,
if you really analyze the deals and the and the dollars
that we've invested in our district, most of them have bee
, believe it or not, on the west side of the freeway
And you've got the Gladstone Group there
that it really on a lot of land
and they've brought numerous deals to us.
And it's all been great.
So and if you look at
caterpillar caterpillars right next door to them,
and that's one thing I wish our community did more of,
which is to simply say yes to opportunities
because I think some people,
as you're living in Tucson,
you don't realize
that we as a collective community are actually competin
against other communities, whether it's San Diego,
whether it's Austin,
whether it's Albuquerque
next door, we're competing against them.
If we continue to say no
to opportunities for companies, et cetera, to move here,
they just simply move somewhere else.
You and I both know the key to a strong
economy is better paying jobs,
and so we want to continue to attract them here.
And I think we're doing a great job doing that
with reasonable.
Over the years, there have been some businesses
in the downtown area that don't quite fall into the district
and they have felt left out of the process.
I know this is not news to you.
How have you reconcile those conversations to ensure
that everyone feels like they're getting a fair shake?
It's a tough conversation.
I received a phone call a couple of years ago
from a community leader
saying, you know, great job on an downtown bill.
Why the heck aren't you helping us on the east side
Like, what's happening on the south side?
What's happening in the northwest side?
Why aren't you helping us?
And I said, sure, and I didn't know him very well
I I thank you so much for the
for the phone call, and I appreciate that.
But we can only invest these dollars within
our district period.
So luckily, if I think of
a business is down fourth or down six,
there are either
side north or south and they're near our district.
I think they're going to see they're going to see an uptick
and they're going to they're going to feel the
the the peripheral economic development
still playing into their area.
Where do you think Tucson would be without Ryan Weber?
We've had this discussion one after another.
I think if you had to rely on the simply organic.
Economy of the city of Tucson, the downtown would look like
what it looks like today,
you wouldn't see the development
you see today, and there's no dig on the city of Tucson.
And just simply,
we are actively looking for deals and we say yes,
and then we try to get out of the way so they can build it
And I think the more that we dream and the more
that we think big about what we can do in the desert
and the downtown area or down Broadway, it's amazing .
When you bring the right people to the table,
they want to invest in Tucson.
Tucson's an amazing,
beautiful community with the weather,
and if you see the different rankings that we have,
you know the Congress is listed as one of the hippest, hippest
streets in the United States.
We're listed as one of the best music cities.
We're obviously the city of gastronomy and
people want to invest in that.
But if people here aren't saying yes and
and again, helping people,
the deals are incentivizing deals or are just simply
being positive about a deal.
And they just don't happen here. They'll go somewhere else
All right. Marcus from the Rio Nuevo District. Thank you.
Thank you very much.