Hotel update

The Eddy Hotel construction project recently started the trenching work across Campbell Avenue. This will connect a hotel sewer line with the main sewer line that runs along the western shoulder of Campbell Avenue.

After that work is completed, construction will begin on creating a new entrance to the church’s north parking lot. This effort will also add a second driveway from the church’s northwest parking lot to the northeast parking lot. This driveway will be located just north of the solar panel lot. 

The new entrance to the church parking lot will be located slightly north of the current entrance. It will align with the driveway directly across Campbell Avenue; this is a Pima County traffic safety requirement.

The new entrance will look very similar to the current one: two large monument signs with landscape style lighting. Irrigation lines will also be run to the new area in case some watering is desired in the future.

Initially, the monument signs will not have lettering. Saint Philip’s has not yet decided what final form the new signage will take. Concepts have included several versions of raised metal designs with current church logos and fonts—similar to the design concept employed by Saint Philip’s Plaza signage. 

Once the new entrance monument signs are constructed and the new driveway is paved, the current entrance will be enclosed with curbing and the old monument signs will be demolished. At that point, the hotel contractor will remediate the disturbed land. As many of the existing desert plants as possible—plus additional ones—will be used to restore bare ground to a more desert-like appearance. 

In related work, the hotel contractor has paved the new driveway across the church’s northern property (in accordance with long-standing easement agreements). Work to add rip-rap to the road edges and nearby embankments will be done toward the conclusion of the hotel building construction.

There are several large containers for various interior and exterior hotel components currently situated on church property. In exchange for this accommodation, the hotel contractor will remediate the unpaved portions of church property that have been significantly disturbed by heavy equipment during the construction process. That will happen towards the end of the hotel construction project.

The original hotel construction project schedule called for a Beneficial Occupancy Date estimate of Fall 2022. Supply chain issues for materials and labor have affected the project but the hotel contractor is still working towards that target date—subject, of course, to the availability of people, materials, and equipment.

—Bob Couch, Saint Philip’s liaison to the Eddy Hotel project