It’s 7:30 a.m. on a clear, sunny and, so far, not overly hot morning at Casino del Sol, and the sign says “You’ll be amazed.”

It’s hard to measure their ability to be amazed but about 200 people have turned out with interest on this morning, May 3. Mostly those involved in the residential construction and real estate industry, but also a selection of government officials and people from nonprofit organizations, they’ve come together to climb aboard five tour busses and set off on the Metropolitan Pima Alliance’s “Wild Ride” across Tucson’s southwest side.

Last week was the third annual installment for the event. It was the first time the focus was on the city’s west side development. Included was downtown’s Río Nuevo but the route also covered construction on Valencia Road to Ryan Airfield and along Ajo Way to Starr Pass, and down Interstate 19, along the banks of the Santa Cruz River.

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Co-sponsored by the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Casino del Sol, Pima County, the City of Tucson, Stantec, National Bank of Arizona, Westland Resources, KB Home, Terramar Properties, The Harpel Company, The Planning Center, Pomegranate Development and Diamond Ventures, Ramon Gaanderse, executive director of the alliance, said the ride was offered, “so those interested in what’s happening in Tucson can see, first hand, development in one of Pima County’s hotspots.”

Speaking to the participants, he said, “Our goal at the Metro Pima Alliance is to affect public policy in a manner that provides for thoughtful growth, to enhance our shared quality of life. The ride allows us a chance to give the background on community land use plans and the vision that exists in implementing them.”

Filing a flight plan

The tour busses pulled out of the parking lot at Anselmo Valencia Tori Amphitheatre at 8:30 a.m. Making their way west, they stopped at one subdivision after another, extending outward into what, only a few years ago, was desert.

Starting with the ill-fated Diablo Estate, which constructed and sold a few houses in the early 1970s, the tour went on to Star Valley, also master-planned in the early 1970s, but now being intensively developed by Lennar/US Home, Standard Pacific, Richmond American, and a new participant in the Tucson housing market, national builder K. Hovnanian.

“You look at where Tucson was developing and you realize how much things have changed,” said tour guide Terry Klipp, president of Terramar Properties and Treasurer of the alliance.

“In the 1960s and 1970s, all the development was on the east side. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was going northwest and south. Now, builders and buyers are taking off on the west side,” he said.

Beyond Star Valley, there is Big Sky, being developed by Premier and Insight Homes, T.J. Bednar’s Eagle Point subdivision, and beyond that, Sonoran Ranch Estates, at the edge of the formerly isolated Ryan Airfield, which is now undergoing a building boom of its own, even as its operators, the Tucson Airport Authority, work to preserve the airfield’s ability to serve the city’s growing general aviation business by incorporating an avigation easement disclosure policy for property in the vicinity, especially along the runway flight paths.

Speaking to the Wild Ride participants at Ryan, senior airport planner Mike Carlson said the 60-year-old facility continues to experience growth as 30 companies now serve over 200 private and 60 training aircraft that fly from the airfield’s three runways.

Operations Vice President Thomas Andrews said, “Exciting things are happening. This is now the sixth busiest general aviation airport in Arizona, with 125 employees working here and $10 million in direct impact.”

Export more in future, he said. The air- field dedicated a new terminal in July 2005, “and jet fuel sales are rising at a rate of 40 percent a year, as we’re seeing more helicopters and more business jets choosing to come here.”

Heading off to the pass

Traveling northeast from Ryan Airfield to the J.W. Marriott Hotel and Resort at Starr Pass, the wild ride traveled through older developments at Tucson Estates and new construction at Shadow Mountain Ranch and other subdivisions near the intersection of Kinney Road and Ajo Way, passing by the Central Arizona Project canal and treatment facility as well as the 1.2 million gallon a day sewage treatment facility, which will soon be upgraded to 5 million gallons a day.

“Between what’s already built and what’s planned, this area will be a major population center for the city, if the infrastructure can keep up,” Klipp said.

While Tucson Mountain Park has been expanded to both sides of Ajo Way and peaks have been side aside, “to preserve the natural environment of the area,” he said growth is coming, and 100,000 people could be living in the area in the next few years.

A river runs through it

Heading into downtown, Río Nuevo Project Manager Karen Leone pointed to vacant lots matching them up to some of the proposals that have been in the news lately: the Flandrau Science Center, Mercado District at Menlo Park, Nimbus Brewery, The Post, Presidio Terrace and Depot Plaza.

Also passing the completed historic railroad depot and Armory Park del Sol, Leone said much of the work still depends on the Arizona Legislature’s approval of a 30-year extension of the city’s tax increment funding plan, which could give Río Nuevo an extra $200 million in bond money to spend on improvements.

As the tour busses traveled down Meyer Avenue, she said people underestimate what’s already being accomplished, “but if you come down here, take a picture of a crumbling adobe building, because in six months, it will be transformed. Houses down here are already going for upwards of $300 per square foot.”

Beginnings and endings

The route back to Casino del Sol traveled through the planned Tucson Spectrum retail “power center,” south of Irvington Road, which Klipp said was a good example of what can go wrong. The developer can’t proceed until the bank of the Santa Cruz is stabilized and that can’t be done until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agrees. Meanwhile, the discovery of a single Hohokam pit house can set back production schedules and cost $50,000 to excavate.

“Any time you build out here, there are drainage problems, archaeology problems and infrastructure problems,” he said. “It’s always going to be a matter of overcoming the problems to build, but as long as the demand is there, the problems will be overcome and something will be built.”

If the ride demonstrated that past development projects had an on-again, off-again track record of success, he said the current history shows the chances of a slowdown, such as those that halted development at Diablo Estates, Tucson Estates and Star Valley, have now become remote.

“Historically, we didn’t have the employers, so we would flourish then drop. We’ve been on an up cycle for over a decade, and there are too many good employers for us to every see that kind of downturn again,” he said. “Now it’s a matter of how you manage growth. That’s why we sponsor the rides. Tucson has gotten to the size where people don’t get around to everywhere in the city anymore. If we can show them and educate people about what’s going on, they can make informed choices about what needs to be done.”

E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Contact Philip S. Moore by e-mail at pmoore@azbiz.com or call (520) 295-4238.