The Marshall Foundation, a charitable organization, will break ground in October on a 115,000-sf, five-story building at the southwest corner of N. Park Avenue and East Second Street, says Thomas Warne, project manager. The building is expected to be completed by December 2002.

The building's ground floor will be divided into as many as five retail spaces and will be marketed to everything from a hair salon to sit-down restaurant. The foundation will use the four-upper floors for office space.

The five-story building will have a brick façade, with large-pane, recessed windows and awnings. The design has details similar buildings such as the university's old Arizona State Museum and the downtown Bank One building.

The site currently is home to a near-empty retail strip mall along the 800 block of N. Park Avenue. Remaining tenants Mama's Pizza & Heros and Taco Bron are operating on a month-to-month leases and plan to move in the next few weeks. The mall razing is set to start in July.

The foundation, which owns the land, is considering leasing or selling it to J.L. Investments Inc., which is planning to build a $9-million, 62,000-sf, eight-screen movie complex just to the west of the five-story retail-office project. The foundation is in discussions with a theater operator and the university's fine arts department about the project. The foundation wants the theater to be used for student, art and foreign films and a smaller selection of first-run, big studio films.

Also planned is a two-story building that would face a courtyard and would include space for retail shops and meeting rooms. The foundation, which owns a number of buildings in the University of Arizona, is in the midst of a 10-year, $33.2-million redevelopment project of its properties near East University Boulevard between N. Euclid and N. Park avenues.