Business

Lofty expectations

This historically horizontal city is going vertical - into loft living. Until April virtually no lofts were available in Tucson, but developers have discovered a demand. Now they are planning, building and selling a dozen different projects in central Tucson. As the area's broader housing market shows signs of leveling out, lofts, "loft-style apartments," "town lofts," and nearly everything else associated with the word "loft" are fetching premium prices - $200 to $300 a square foot. That compares to about $143 a square foot for the average Tucson-area home. "It's a product no one really provided here in any real sense until the Ice House Lofts," a project that opened in April, said Greg Shelko, director of the Rio Nuevo Downtown revitalization project. About 500 loft units have been built or are under construction or in planning, but no developer fears that the rush of loft-building will lead to an oversupply. To the contrary, developers are seeking more warehouses and other buildings to convert into the high-ceilinged, industrial-style, flexible living spaces, or just looking for the right space to build their "loft-style" projects from scratch. It's a national trend, said Cleveland economic development expert Ed Morrison "People are making the choice to move back into more diverse and unique living spaces, seeking out things like density that they used to try to escape," Morrison said. A pioneering project

To see what he's talking about, look no further than a pioneering project in what had been a bleak, industrial setting southeast of Downtown. The Ice House Lofts succeeded to a degree that opened a lot of eyes, said City Councilman José Ibarra. Deep Freeze Development LLC transformed the 1920s Arizona Ice and Storage Co. warehouse at 1001 E. 17th St. into 51 lofts. Nine more free-standing loft homes have been built across the street as the accompanying Barrio Metalico. "This is downtown redevelopment and infill and all these other things we're always talking about wanting to promote, and the people at Ice House did it without any help from the city whatsoever," Ibarra said. Ibarra added two more loft projects to the list of those proposed in or near Downtown - a loft and condo project at 1 W. Speedway and an even newer proposal by a New Jersey developer who is purchasing Medina's Service Garage at 1047 N. Main Ave. Started as artist space

So just what are these loft things that people are so excited about? "Historically, lofts started as artist space in industrial buildings," said Randi Dorman, a principal with Deep Freeze Development and an Ice House Loft resident. "What was appealing about those spaces was the size, the light from big windows and a kind of subversive appeal because they weren't allowed to live there." Loft has become a catch phrase, said developer Peggy Noonan, who is proposing Presidio Terrace, a project of 70 or so high-end lofts near the Tucson Museum of Art. "A lot of what lofts are really about is flexible space, a space you can define in a lot of different ways," she said. Most lofts have a "big-volume" of space with high ceilings, open floor plans and features such as exposed brick and trusses, said Steve Fenton, who is converting the former Immaculate Heart Academy and dormitory at 35 E. 15th St. into Academy Lofts. Lofts may be more important for what they're not than what they are, said economic development expert Morrison. "They're truly an antidote to sprawl on a lot of different levels," he said. Saving gas and time commuting from the suburbs is an obvious appeal of urban loft living, but a host of other reasons have led to the loft craze, Morrison said. "People are now realizing that they want density, because by achieving it, you're giving them a sense of security that comes from being near other people, not from wiring their suburban house with the latest electronic monitoring equipment," he said. Friendly neighbors

"Sense of community" is a catch phrase that took on real meaning when Bay Area transplants Karen and Mohammed Soriano-Bilal moved into their Ice House loft. "Just yesterday, three of our neighbors popped by for various reasons, to say hello or just check in because we'd been out of town," Karin Soriano-Bilal said. "No other place we've ever been has been like that." Ice House loft owners come from "every imaginable dem-ographic," an ideal setting for Billie Maas' three daughters, said Maas, a 39-year-old pharmaceutical saleswoman. Maas said she regrets not buying one or two more lofts at the Ice House just for investment reasons. "I paid about $140 a square foot and they're selling them now for like $250 a square foot right now," she said. A 2,290-square-foot developer unit at Ice House Lofts is on sale for $439,000 and a 1,650-square-foot Barrio Metalico loft home recently resold for $320,000, Dorman said. Fenton said he's already fielding calls for his Academy Lofts, a combination of rental and sales units scheduled for completion in January. "It's a wide range of people that are interested, including people calling from Green Valley," he said. "Empty-nesters" whose children have grown and left may become an important demographic driving demand for lofts, Shelko said. "They don't need a big yard that needs maintaining or a big house," he said. In addition to empty-nesters and young professionals, a surprising number of families are moving to lofts, said Ann Vargas, the city's Downtown housing planner. "I take calls almost daily from people asking about lofts," Vargas said. "It's housing we haven't typically had in our market, and people really want the kind of urban cultural experience that lofts are about." MAP INSIDE ● See where developers are putting up loft projects - and how much people are paying for them. Lofty