Tony Ray Baker and Darren Jones on the Open House Show Tucson

Mercado District

We’re seeing because of all this fun stuff happening and all the new Resurgence, people want to live here and they’re coming into these old neighborhoods that have been sitting here actually just ignored for years. And they’re coming in now and they’re seeing that there’s value here.

Come on in see I’m going to show you a beautiful house that’s about a block from the Mercado. This house has been completely renovated from the ground up. I mean, everything is brand new.

This was an old hip roof Bungalow from the 1930s. It looked like what it does now, which is really cool. The builder wants to keep the Integrity of the neighborhood, so he’s staying with the design of the original home.

So the owner had the idea to get a metal artist to come in and she wanted a feng shui beautiful feeling to the property. So she had the idea with him to create what you see right now, which is the metal front.

So you’re going to see a very grand open great room when we walk in and then a split where you see bedroom to the right and the bedrooms to the left. Kitchen is open, I love that kitchen. It’s bright and open, its part of the room.

You’re going to see some very cool designer pops of orange that the owner has put in there and the dining room is part of the kitchen. There’s a place there for gathering guest.

Well, they actually got it out the master bath. They took that and made that a beautiful walk-in shower. So it’s very convenient for the the people living in that sweet. And the guest bathroom is also pretty as well. This is just one example here of something that’s just really extraordinary. And you can see that the owner just put so much love into this already and we’re seeing this happening one after another.

Lots of Fun in Downtown Tucson

Well, even though it seems like a lot of what we’ve seen happen in downtown Tucson happened kind of overnight, it’s really been like 30 years in the making. People have been working for a long time to work out a viable downtown for Tucson because it did get to a point where there really wasn’t a good reason to come downtown.

However, with some private funding and some positive individuals a lots happened over the last five to ten years and we’re seeing a lot of development in Tucson has now become a real center and a model for that Trend across the country.

This is a prime example of some of the development that’s happened in downtown Tucson. Maynard’s Market was certainly not here. The cafe was not here. It was a basic train station. The building was not great. None of the infrastructure, the parking, everything that you’d see out from the streetscape now, none of that existed and so they’ve created this beautiful park-like setting and in the evenings you come out here you can have a nice cocktail, you can have a snack dinner with friends. They put out the heaters if it’s cold and you have this great environment, you have the beautiful Amtrak train station and the market and it’s a great space for craft shows and other types of events.

The Hotel Congress has been there for many many years as probably one of the oldest. well it’s the oldest continuously running hotel in Tucson. It’s mostly famous for having captured the Dillinger gang and so, you know, it was a thriving Hotel back in the 20s. It’s still operational today and it’s a great central point. They have a great breakfast there. They have a nice Lounge area there.

So with the light rail which landed around four years ago, the city came back to life with new chefs and new excitement, with new retail and there’s restaurants that have all different flavors and craft Cocktails.

So if you’re visiting Tucson and you need to come downtown, you need to see the Congress Hotel. You need to visit some of the great restaurants. You need to visit our museums. And also we happen to be an award-winning Festival City. We tied this last year with Abu Dhabi. Okay. So, you know, there’s a lot going on. We have the International Gem Show. We have so many festivals throughout the year. Check your calendar!