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Downtown Tucson could soon see new condominiums in one of its oldest buildings.

Developer Ross Rulney is planning to convert apartments in the Julian Drew building to create 53 new condominiums in the structure built in 1917.

The City Council is set to approve a development agreement for the project today.

The condos are the first of three phases to rehabilitate the World War I-era building at the southwest corner of East Broadway and South Fifth Avenue, cater-corner from Rialto Theatre block.

Rulney said the $10 million project is being designed by Tucson Architect Rob Paulus, who designed two other Downtown-area projects, the Ice House Lofts and One North Fifth.

Under the development agreement, the city will put in utility upgrades and a streetcar line and upgrade the streetscape along Broadway and Fifth, but only after Rulney starts construction to convert the existing apartments to condominiums.

Rulney said the tenants will have the opportunity to buy the condos or receive help moving out of the building.

Fran LaSala, an assistant to City Manager Mike Hein, said the city was planning to build infrastructure and streetscape in the area anyway, and just added streetscape to South Fifth as part of the development agreement.

But La Sala said the city's work depends on Rulney's getting development under way before Dec. 31, 2009.

"If they don't start, we don't start," La Sala said of the streetscape. He added the agreement is a good public-private partnership.

The sales office for the project is already open at 188. E. Broadway, Rulney said, making it one of the only sales offices open for Downtown condo projects.

The second and third phases of the redevelopment are slated to have ground-level retail space along Fifth and Broadway, Rulney said. The condos will be mainly one-bedrooms, with a few studios, he said.

Prices will range from the low to mid-$100,000s, a price Rulney said "Downtown Tucson has never had and will never have again." He said prices will be that low because he is rehabbing an existing structure rather than building new. Plus, Rulney said he bought the building eight years ago when prices were lower.

Revitalizing existing buildings is a key to jump-starting Downtown redevelopment, Rulney said. For more information on the project, visit www.the flatsdowntown.com

"It's an example of a project that can work and work now," Rulney said. "It's adaptive reuse of what we have today. Redevelopment of our existing Downtown is where this has to begin."