Sun Link Streetcar Turns 10

Transit Project Spurs $4.9 Billion in Investment

By Jay Gonzales

The list of gamechangers is long and distinguished in the revitalization of Downtown Tucson. There have been many – hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and a rail line.

“People use that word lightly,” said Shellie Ginn, the city of Tucson’s deputy transportation director. 

But when it comes to the 10-year-old modern streetcar that shuttles people downtown, that word has meaning to the tune of $4 billion invested along a 3.9-mile line that starts at Banner − University Medical Center Tucson and runs to the Mercado District, west of Interstate 10, Ginn said.

“Mayor (Bob) Walkup, who was the mayor at the time we were putting this whole thing together, called it a ‘gamechanger’ and it was a gamechanger,” said Ginn, part of the team that developed and executed the building of the streetcar. “It’s truthful when it comes to this system.”

The streetcar had a hefty price tag of more than $200 million in federal, state, local and private funding. But considering the return on investment − not only the $4 billion in development along the line, but also its image by the community, the jobs created, and the boon in business downtown − it was a small price to pay.

“If you look at property values along the streetcar, within a block or so, they all rose at a higher rate than other properties in the same vicinity but not near the streetcar route,” said Ted Maxwell, current chair of the Regional Transportation Authority. The RTA contributed $87 million to the project. “You look at the number of restaurants that have been thriving downtown, the streetcar is an option for people to get there. It just leads them to it.”

The $4 billion Ginn refers to is a collection of projects that includes the roadwork to accommodate the streetcar, the hotels and other businesses that have opened along the line, and the new housing bult within striking distance and, in some cases, because of the streetcar.

The streetcar was already operating when developer Scott Stiteler built AC Hotel Tucson Downtown, which is right on the line on Broadway at Fifth Street. But for him, it was a big piece of the downtown momentum and helped convince him to expand from apartments and restaurants to building the hotel.

“At every university, the beating heart is the downtown and we were going to be connected with the modern streetcar,” Stiteler said. “All those parts just started to click together, crystallize, and that’s when this downtown really began to happen.”

While there is often angst for a project that commands $200 million in mostly public funding, Ginn recalled that the streetcar had widespread support. 

“I think we just got to the right time to be able to do it,” Ginn said. “When we put our advisory committee together, they were hugely supportive. Tucson was ready for it right at time that we got going.”

“The other piece that I think people have missed is that the streetcar really is a way of connecting the university with downtown” Maxell said. “It led to the ability for people to also thrive, and it reinvigorated the desire to live downtown.”

To a fresh set of eyes like those of newcomer Mikel Oglesby, hired in July as general manager of Suntran, Sun Van and Sun Link, which operates the streetcar, it’s “impressive,” he said.

Oglesby has worked for transportation departments in Detroit and Boston that have expansive rail systems – well beyond the 3.9 miles in Tucson. But even in his short time here, he has recognized the streetcar’s importance to the community.

“I think the need for the streetcar was greater here,” Oglesby said. “I think that what it did for, not only the restaurants and everything else that it’s attached to, is a lot greater here than in a lot of other locations, simply by bringing Tucson to a level that people take a look at and say, ‘Wow, I want to travel there. I want to see what this is about.’ ”