By Paulina Pineda | Arizona Republic
Tempe plans to approve a tax break for two proposed projects in the city’s increasingly urban downtown.
The deal, with Charles Huellmantel, a development attorney turned developer, and partner Todd Marshall, dates back more than a dozen years when the city sought to develop a long, narrow stretch of property it owned near the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the west side of downtown.
Farmer Arts LLC, the limited liability company created by the developers, offered up plans for apartments, offices, retail space and public amenities.
Tempe leaders struck the deal, breaking up the 7.7 acres near Fifth Street and Farmer Avenue into two parcels and effectively agreeing to sell the land to the developers for $25,000 per parcel. In exchange, the developer agreed to build the public amenities at a cost of no more than $6.15 million.
