A new $4 million building could occupy the space where a cafe and a tattoo parlor stand in downtown Tempe.
By next summer, owners of a Las Vegas-based company, Tempe Mill LLC, plan to knock down the building to construct a new one more than triple the size of the existing structure.
"The building is obsolete," said Mario Sanchez, owner of the property on Seventh Street and Mill Avenue. "At this point you have to tear [it] down."
Caffe Boa and Mill Avenue Ink currently occupy the space.
Sanchez said those businesses and the recently defunct Long Wong's would have the first right or refusal to sign a lease in the new building, before other retail businesses.
The existing wood building occupies roughly 6,000 square feet. The new two-story structure would expand the space to more than 19,000 square feet.
"We are using weathered steel, stucco, and brick," said Stuart Siefer of Siefer Associates Architecture working on the project. "This is the opportunity for things that have made downtown unique."
Caffe Boa administrative staff said they haven't decided whether they want to move into the new building.
"We're not sure yet where we will be," said Caffe Boa general manger Casey Minard. "No one really knows. We will definitely be around though."
Over the years, the building has endured wood rot as well as termite damage, Siefer said. Originally the building consisted of two houses built in the 1940s, he added.
"Most people in the downtown area with older properties are deciding to meet the high density of downtown," Siefer said.
Siefer said he hopes to transfer the steel artwork currently displayed on the outside of the building to the new structure.
Blueprints for the building have not been created yet. The owner and leasing agent of the building are trying to secure leases with future tenants before beginning the project, Siefer said.
Danny Little, a real estate agent at DWL Real Estate Services applied for City of Tempe permits, which, if approved, would allow the building's owners to raze the existing structure and landscape. The permits also would allow developers to build a parking lot and general office, along with retail businesses and restaurants with outdoor dining.
The permits were introduced for a first public hearing to Tempe City Council Sept. 9. A second hearing will take place Sept. 30 at City Hall during a regularly scheduled council meeting.
"We hope to be done by summer," Sanchez said, "We won't know until the 30th."
Siefer Associates have worked on about 150 projects in downtown Tempe, "I, like a lot of people, am sorry to see the old individual business go," Siefer said. "I think, hopefully the new building will retain some of the character of downtown."
Reach the reporter at katherine.ruark@asu.edu.
