Despite protest from local community members, the redevelopment of Tempe’s Gracie’s Thrift Store into a five-story building with low-income housing continues to move forward.
The new building, which will be called Gracie’s Village, will have a retail space on the first floor and 75 units of low-income housing on the top four floors.
According to the City of Tempe’s General Plan 2030, a plan that provides the framework for development in Tempe, the lot near McClintock Drive where Gracie’s is located is to be one of low density, or 25 units per acre. Also, the building would only be allowed to be four stories, or 40 feet, under the plan. The preliminary plans are for a 58-foot building.
The lot will have to be rezoned for mixed use, both commercial and residential, to accommodate for the housing units. To allow for the 75 units and the five stories, Gracie’s is looking to have the lot rezoned to Mixed Use-4, a zoning with no density or height requirements.
“We don’t think it’s unreasonable,” director of Gracie’s ministry and thrift store Jeff Brosman said.
Brosman said there are examples of housing with a higher density of units already on Apache Boulevard such as the Regents Park Apartments, located south of the store in the Hudson Manor neighborhood, which has 60 units on one acre. Another example is the Grigio, a block away from Gracie’s with has 87 units per acre, Brosman said.
Residents of Tomlinson Estates, a neighborhood just north of the thrift store, are worried about is the privacy for the homeowners who have only an alley in between their house and the five-story redeveloped store, Tomlinson Estates resident Gail Martelli said.
This will not be a problem though, Brosman said, because the back of the building will be a couple hundred feet from the edge of the property.
“We plan to do all kinds of architectural techniques to ensure that there is no line of sight from our apartments into anyone’s backyard,” Brosman said.
Martelli said there should only be 20 units on the two-acre property to allow residents a high quality of life.
Though, with less than 75 units, the project would not be economically viable enough to provide full-time management for the property, said Brian Swanton, Arizona market president for Gorman and Company, the developer for the project.
Brosman said everything is on the table to discuss with the local community except for the lowering of the number of units and the height of the building.
The group will leave it up to the City Council for approval, he said.
Reach the reporter at ryan.mccullough@asu.edu
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