25th El Tour to Draw 10,000 Riders, 40,000 Visitors

by Downtown Tucsonan Staff

yclists from around town and across the country have plenty of reasons to flock to Tucson each fall for the University Medical Center El Tour de Tucson.

Some come to experience a wide-ranging route that circles the entire metropolitan area, including city streets, mountain trails and crossings of a dry river and a running creek. Others enjoy the friendly atmosphere, the choice of six courses extending up to 109 miles or the chance to bask outdoors during a typically perfect period of Old Pueblo weather.

Mia Roth, like many El Tour veterans, is motivated in part by the prospect of raising money for a worthy cause. In 2006, the event raised nearly $225,000 for Tu Nidito Children and Family Services – including more than $3,000 brought in by Mia, last year’s top fundraiser. She’s hoping to top that mark by bringing in nearly $10,000 in donations for this year’s event, which will be held Saturday, November 17.

Truth be told, Mia’s remarkable commitment to charity is not the only thing that will be driving her to finish this year’s El Tour. There’s also the matter of a small rodent.

“I hope I finish because if I don’t, Dad says I won’t get a guinea pig,” says Mia, who – you should probably know – is just 7 years old. And while other kids her age might well be participating in El Tour’s quarter-mile or 4-mile Family Fun rides, Mia will be taking on the 66-mile course – a grueling ride usually reserved for much more mature riders.

Her father, Marc Roth, says the prospect of a new pet helps Mia make it through the long training runs she’ll need to build up the strength to complete the lengthy course. But Mia herself was itching for a greater challenge after conquering the 36-mile course in last year’s El Tour.

“When she was four, we entered her in the quarter-mile ride and it was just a joke for her – she did the whole thing in a couple minutes and said ‘Is that it?’” Roth said. After Mia was similarly underwhelmed by the 4-mile course the following year, Roth entered her in the 36-mile ride as a six-year old.

“I was kind of tired,” Mia allowed, recalling last year’s ride. “I took, like, four drinks.”

Mia and her father have trained for this year’s El Tour by taking increasingly longer rides on the roads around their home in Laguna Hills, Calif. “We take some pretty epic rides for a girl her age,” Roth said. “She’s the skinniest little thing you’ll ever see in your whole life, but she’s got a ton of stamina. She just destroys adults going up hills.”

That same work ethic carries over to Mia’s fundraising efforts. “She takes it upon herself to get it done,” Roth said. “She’ll walk dogs for some of the neighbors in exchange for donations. She goes around our neighborhood and her school and just keeps asking people for money.”

Roth himself began riding in El Tour about five years ago during his family’s annual Thanksgiving visit to his parents’ Tucson home. “It’s a lot of fun – very high energy. There’s a lot of people involved, and the course is fantastic,” he said.

He said Mia enjoyed the royal treatment she got last year from the Perimeter Bicycling Association of America (PBAA), which organizes the event. The local residents who gather to watch the cyclists also offer plenty of support.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Mia said, “because when you ride, you get to see a lot of people and they wave and say ‘hi’ to you.”

Organizers encourage a friendly atmosphere in part by playing down the competitive nature of the event.

“It’s a ride, not a race,” said Barbara Franklin, registration director for El Tour. “We do keep times and post the results so people can set their own goals. But most people come to this event to see Tucson and to participate in a well-supported community event.”

This year marks El Tour de Tucson’s 25th anniversary, and the event is expected to attract a record crowd of more than 10,000 cyclists. Some will be here because this year’s ride was named by the Washington D.C.-based League of American Bicyclists as the 2007 National Bicycle Rally – a designation that draws cyclists from across the country to a different event each year.

But El Tour has always attracted regular riders from faraway places. Because the event fills an otherwise unoccupied spot on serious cyclists’ calendars, it often draws top-tier riders looking for a low-pressure, late-season run. Recreational riders, meanwhile, are attracted by the beautiful weather, the variety of scenic courses and the tireless efforts of the event’s organizers.

“I really think El Tour leads the pack among organized cycling events,” said Joe Lee, who travels to Tucson each year from his home near Gallup, N.M., to participate in the event. “It’s just so well organized, the weather is fantastic, and it comes at a great time.”

Community groups help make the event special by volunteering to man the aid stations set up every 7 to 10 miles along the event route. While organizers provide fruit and water at every station, volunteers supplement those items with cookies, energy bars and other offerings. “We’ve even got a crew from a fire station that makes pancakes,” Franklin said.

“The riders feel like royalty when they’re going through because when they stop at an aid station, there’s always someone there to hold their bike while they stretch, wash their hands or whatever,” Franklin said. “They’re very well cared for.”

Riders also find a warm welcome awaiting them at the finish line, where the PBAA and the Downtown Tucson Partnership stage the El Tour Downtown Fiesta. Cyclists and fans enjoy food, entertainment and a spectacular multi-media show from Flam Chen, a local performance artist troupe.

This year’s Flam Chen performance, entitled “Amelia Airborn’s Aeronautic Adventure” features guest artists Wise Fool New Mexico, an all-women circus troupe using a full-size aerial truss. Local musical group The Molehill Orkestrah will accompany the fiery acrobatics. The event, funded in part by the City of Tucson, provides a grand finale for riders and non-riders alike.

The fiesta caps off the El Tour Expo, a festival that begins three days before the race. The Downtown Tucson Partnership’s purple-clad representatives will man a Downtown information booth at the Expo and provide maintenance, security, and logistical support services throughout race day and the grand finale.

Event organizer Noé Gamez said the Fiesta is expected to attract 40,000 people to Downtown Tucson. “It’s a world-class event,” he said. “It’s an amazing show, and the whole thing has a real comprehensive community feel to it.”

The scale of this year’s event shows just how far El Tour has come since 1983, when fewer than 200 cyclists gathered near the intersection of Sabino Canyon and Sunrise Roads to kick off the first ever El Tour de Tucson.

For Edward “Nippy” Feldhake III, that race marked his first attempt at competitive bike riding after a foot injury sidelined his promising amateur running career. “I didn’t know anything about shifting gears,” he said. “I rode one gear the whole way. It took me eight hours to finish, and I just about died,”

Nevertheless, he was invited by El Tour founder Richard DeBernardis to join a small group planning the following year’s ride. He helped introduce some of the trappings of competitive running to El Tour, including the use of pull tag numbers and formal timing of riders.

“It’s billed as a ride. But it has a start and a finish, you get an official time and the results are posted. It’s not meant to be a race, and yet it has that in it,” Feldhake said.

Feldhake – who did eventually learn to shift gears – has ridden in every El Tour since then. He’s seen the start/finish line of the full 109-mile course move from its original starting point to the Hilton El Conquistador Hotel (then associated with Sheraton) to its current home Downtown. He’s also watched as the event grew more popular every year and assumed its current prominence in the community’s fall calendar.

And while he’s since competed in cycling tours around the world, there’s no question about the event he considers the best of them all.

“I’ve always called this the championship of the world,” Feldhake said. “There’s no prize money, but there’s a special feeling associated with winning El Tour. It might not be as competitive as some events, but there’s a certain mystique about it that makes it very special.”

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M.O.U. to Ensue

Decision on Convention Hotel Expected in November

by Lee Allen

he dream of one of four development teams vying to build a 700+ room Tucson Convention Center headquarters hotel is about to become a contract reality, perhaps as early as the City Council meeting on November 13th.

The City issued a Request For Proposals in July seeking “development of a full-service, chain-affiliated convention center hotel with 700 or more rooms and related function space…in the Rio Nuevo Revitalization District.” All bids were received by early September and a city-appointed five-member selection committee met with each development team while public comment was solicited.

In late September, a public forum was held and members of the community were given an opportunity to view all the proposals and talk with the developer teams. A larger-than-expected crowd turned up on 9/27 indicating “many individuals recognize the importance of the project and are excited to see the hotel portion of the redevelopment planning move forward,” according to Jaret Barr, project manager and assistant to the City Manager.

Citizen attendees filled out nearly 100 comment cards that will accompany staff recommendations when the whole package is presented to the City Council for final decision. “The majority of the comments revolved around the conceptual designs and what people thought of those concepts,” said Barr. “While the vast majority of those present were extremely positive about the process and seeing forward movement, there were differing opinions on which site plan or which concept people favored, although there was an understanding that these were preliminary concepts. The community will continue to have a chance to participate with the team selected to work through those issues.”

Among the nearly 100 written comments that were received at the public forum was one that urged: “At this point, a sand castle will do. Just push the start button.”

That happened, and from slow and steady to warp speed didn’t take long. Following committee, city staff, and citizen input received in September, the four finalist groups were given a last opportunity to amend proposals in mid-October with decisive council action anticipated just days from now.

No matter which proposal is chosen, it will involve a lot of details and some pretty big bucks. “The best proposal is not necessarily the largest nor the one with the least amount of public investment,” according to Barr in quotes from the actual RFP verbiage. “The best proposal will leverage public and private resources to maximize the opportunity of the site and build upon other existing and future developments in the Downtown area.”

A tall order --- but one that each of the responding teams feel they can best fulfill whether they use city-owned land or private property, with or without tax-exempt revenue bond financing.

If there is any consistency in the quartet of planning printouts, it’s in the fact that while each is similar enough to qualify relative to basic terms and conditions outlined in the RFP, the differences exceed the similarities. Some took the high road, some took the low road, and some wanted to build their own road. Two of the proposals are scoped out within city-owned land. Two others site generally on private property neighboring city land. All submittors indicate they will negotiate for at least a portion of tax-exempt revenue bond financing.

Tallest of the tall orders in terms of height (as well as cost) comes in a 30-story, 707-room, $203 million plan by Garfield Traub Development of Dallas and includes hotel facilities flanking the TCC’s main western entryway and nearly attached to the existing Convention Center, with an elevated walkway from the Leo Rich Theatre to the area proposed for a new arena. Garfield Traub was selected over two years ago to build that arena, which is now under design.

Garfield Traub officials are pleased their plans have hotel facilities (and parking for 700 vehicles) in very close proximity to TCC with a proposed elevated walkway that will cross Granada Avenue to reach the intended site of the new arena adjacent to the Interstate 10 frontage road. This site plan sitting on the convention center western parking area leaves little space for expanded retail with approximately 40,000 square feet of retail possible along Granada.

In their RFP Executive Summary, presentors noted: “Team members have vested interests in the successful outcome of this development and Tucson’s future. The interdependency among this development’s components and the arena and other area development make the concept of a ‘master development team’ a logical choice to maximize planning efficiencies and synergies.” Other members of this team include the Tucson office of Sundt Construction, Inc. (Arizona’s largest general contractor) in partnership with Turner Construction Company (the nation’s leading general builder) and Rick Engineering Company of Tucson for civil and traffic engineering services.

Should Garfield Traub be selected number one, expect the hotel neon to glow Sheraton and the facility to start marketing the corporate theme: “You don’t just stay here, you belong.” Two other proposal options take up almost as much skyline, coming in at 28-stories tall with between 700 and 709 hotel rooms.

At $188 million, Arizona-based Southwest Value Partners (and FaulknerUSA of Texas) would like to construct their Hyatt Hotel [“Experience the Destination”] on the site of the current arena. This team has a strong retail partner in General Growth Properties, owners of Park Place and Tucson Mall. Their originally submitted renderings included several different approaches and architectural styles in an effort to achieve iconic status.

As initially conceptualized, this team would build on an extended McCormick Street between the TCC exhibition halls and today’s arena, linking Granada and Church Avenues. Calling early mock-ups “open-ended,” company representatives say they’re trying for “a parklike-citylike environment” with sufficient open space. Retail possibilities remain under discussion.

Another home team is Tucson-based Centro Nuevo Partners (with Phelps Development of Colorado), who propose a $165 million hotel at the site of the existing Hotel Arizona, 181 W. Broadway, adding their planned 28-story tower to the existing 14-story hotel, which would undergo renovation.

In a recent interview with the Tucson Citizen newspaper, Roger Karber, Centro Nuevo’s managing partner, indicated a desire to go beyond this particular RFP. “We want to be the catalyst for a complete revitalization of downtown,” he said, indicating a desire to play a prominent part in TCC expansion, development of a new arena, redevelopment of existing lodging facilities, and construction of nearby multi-use leaseable square footage. Centro Nuevo’s proposal also includes a revitalization of the old Santa Rita Hotel property, a few blocks to the east, along Broadway between Scott and 6th Avenues.

Hotel partner in this endeavor is the Hilton chain where “Travel is more than just A to B…travel should take you places.” The CNP/Phelps proposal response points out their team could provide the earliest completion to the hotel project because renovation of the existing Hotel Arizona would bring 248 rooms into the market within 18 months. “A Hilton Convention Center Hotel would create an iconic Gateway to Downtown Tucson with a feel of a boutique property rather than typical 50-rooms-per-floor convention center hotels,” according to their RFP response.

Tucson-based Nor-Generations is teaming with the folks at Marriott to build on Nor-Generations’ own property, located on the west side of Granada. They were the only respondent proposing to pay construction costs upfront and seeking reimbursement at a later date. Their plan calls for a phased development, initially a $76 million, 10-story, 300-room hotel with 150 condos and another potential 250 hotel rooms to be considered at a later date.

Developer Allan Norville has written a creative interpretation of RFP details into his plan, including unique items such as an exhibition center as a permanent home to his gem and jewelry operation, a traditionally large part of the annual Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase. His plan offers retail and entertainment options, restaurants, residential housing facilities, and a grocery store.

He is partnered with a hotel chain that promises that “You earn more than points, Marriott gives you rewards.”

October 19th was the deadline for all four teams to take staff, committee, and public input and suggestions under advisement and amend their proposals if they chose to do so. The selection committee met again after that for a final review of the initial submissions and a look at any changes that might have been made before making their recommendations. Committee members are: Kendall Bert, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, Inc., Chris Sheafe, Rio Nuevo Citizens Advisory Committee; Karen Valdez, Business Development Finance Corporation; Jonathan Walker, Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau, and downtown developer Randi Dorman.

With all parties having made their respective contributions, from criticism to constructive critique, all input is now on its way to Mayor and Council for a final ballot. “We’ve scheduled the recommendation of the top-ranked team to go to council on November 13th,” says Barr. According to RFP wording: “The winning team will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and begin negotiation of related agreements for the services selected and agreed upon.”

“Our goal,” says Barr, “is to complete the MOU agreement details by the end of this calendar year. A subsequent timeline relating to actual construction groundbreaking will differ depending on which team and what proposal is ultimately selected.”

Among many who are waiting and watching the outcome of all of this preparation is Rich Singer, Director of the Tucson Convention Center, who says simply: “We lack enough higher quality hotel rooms downtown, so this hotel project --- regardless of which team is selected --- is everything.”