A property that was once typical of modern late 1950s motel construction in southern Arizona but was later transformed into an apartment complex is on the market for $24 million.
The Sahara Apartments are located at 919 N. Stone Avenue and include 173 units within a three-story building.
Originally constructed in 1959, the structure, designated as a Class B Building, thrived for some three decades before falling into decline in the 1990s and subsequently being described by the Tucson Citizen as a “ramshackle hotel, vacant and deteriorating.”
Originally called the Sahara Motel Inn, the property was extensively renovated in both 2005 and 2020 and now caters to students from the nearby University of Arizona.
Listed for sale by the Mesa-based realtor World Class Properties, the building houses a combination of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, as well as ground level retail space.
It is visually prominent to area residents owing to its modernist vertical front neon sign which originally advertised the building as a motel and now does the same for it as an apartment complex.
The property sits on a 3.1-acre site on a main thoroughfare populated with other apartment complexes and hotels.
By Garry Boulard
