Joe Conti feels like he and his downtown Tempe tattoo parlor are being forced out.
They don't fit the upscale image of a development that would mean the demolition of buildings that house more than a dozen businesses across from campus between Forest and Myrtle avenues, he said.
The new property owner of the shopping plaza where Conti's Liquid Carma is located didn't renew the lease, he said.
"They waited until our lease was up," he said. "Then they said to get out."
The proposed development, University Square, would include high-rise offices, hotel and condominium towers and ground-floor retail, according to Tempe city documents.
Other businesses there include Grooming Humans Hair Salon, Restaurant Mexico and Pita Pit.
Several business owners whose firms will be displaced have said they are already searching for new locations.
The Tempe City Council voted Thursday to require the University Square developers to give Restaurant Mexico a spot in the finished development or relocate it nearby after the Council received several phone calls and e-mails about the issue.
The Council also scaled back the project's initial proposal, saying the buildings could not reach above 300 feet.
Chris Anaradian, Tempe's development services manager, said the City Council's mandates would slow down the project. He said construction would begin in about a year and a half, but demolition of the current buildings could begin immediately.
All the buildings could be demolished in early 2007, property owner Tony Wall said Wednesday. Hogi Yogi and a home were torn down in June after the tenants left.
Wall said he and partners Shea Commercial, 3W Companies and Triyar Companies, LLC have tried to help out the businesses that would be displaced.
"Some of those businesses have the desire to return and we certainly will give them that option," Wall added.
Lorenzo's Pizza, Pasta & Cafe hopes to become one of the returning tenants, said owner Lorenzo Panepinto.
"We want to stay here and sell pizza to the students," Panepinto added.
He said he's excited about University Square because the addition of residents and hotel guests could bring him more customers.
No specific tenants have been lined up for the retail space yet, Wall said.
But other businesses decided to opt out of University Square.
Bud Morrison, who owns two Tempe Bicycle stores, said he would relocate one store from the University Square site, which opened last year.
The rent for a University Square store would have been too expensive and a bike shop wouldn't fit with an upscale project, he said.
"[Developers] want a bike shop that doesn't have any grease or cleaning or repairs, which doesn't work," added Morrison, who has owned Tempe Bicycle for 30 years.
He said the developers paid a fair price to buy out his lease, but didn't specify what it was.
Conti said that it would be difficult to find a good location close to ASU because Tempe is more interested in attracting franchises and corporate chain stores downtown.
A location farther away from campus would be less lucrative, he added.
"The farther you get [from ASU] the less business you get," Conti said.
Wall said he and his partners are helping to find new locations for the displaced businesses.
Fine arts graduate student Brent Adrian said he's watched the decline of other independent bars and restaurants, such as Bandersnatch and the original Long Wong's since fall 2003.
"Everything is increasingly becoming corporate and sterilized [downtown]," Adrian said. "If you're not really into the corporate chain places, there are fewer and fewer places to hang out."
Reach the reporters at grayson.steinberg@asu.edu and jonathan.cooper@asu.edu.
