Story by Steve Kozachik Director of PACC
At the November 4th Board of Supervisors meeting a new lease was approved that will expand the reach of the Pima Animal Care Center. The lease would not have been possible without the financial support of Friends of PACC. And the success of the new adoptions center will be seen by the reaction coming from the community.
Roughly 60% of all adoptions at PACC are made to families living in the western portion of Tucson. Being located at 4000 N. Silverbell makes it a long haul for people living on the east side to come and add a new family member. We at PACC understand that. We’re offering a product – the intent of the new Eastside PACC Adoptions Center (EPAC) is to take that product to where the customers are.
The new eastside site was not the only location we considered. With the help of the Pima County real estate division, Friends of PACC executive director Torre Chisholm, and I toured several other facilities before landing on what will be our eventual new home. From the standpoint of size, floor plan, location and cost, the new EPAC checks all the right boxes.
The new site is a former mortgage brokerage. On the interior there are rows of individual offices that once housed individual mortgage brokers. Each of those 10’x12’ offices will soon house one or two new pups from PACC. In addition, there are 3 larger rooms that were once used as meeting or conference room spaces. Those will soon house 5-7 kennels for PACC dogs. And there are meet and greet areas located down the center of the space.
The location (7225 E. Broadway, suite 140) is immediately adjacent to a karate school. One concern voiced early-on by the landlord was whether our dogs would impose a noise burden on the karate tenants. In order to accommodate that concern, we have dedicated the office spaces that lay along the common wall to storage, an employee/volunteer break room, an office for the store manager, and two rooms for cats. Time will tell if the karate yelling imposes a noise burden on the cats.
In December, the county selected a general contractor through a competitive bidding process. Per the terms of the lease, we don’t begin paying monthly rent until the middle of February, 2026. My goal is to get the tenant improvements completed as close to the date when we begin paying rent as possible. I know enough about the construction process to realize that we’ve given the GC an extremely short window. But everyone involved is aware of the aspirational goal and I have total confidence that everyone involved is working hard to get EPAC up and running as quickly as possible.
When the adoptions center is opened it will house between 35-50 dogs. All of them will be selected from pups that are currently at the Silverbell shelter. Each will arrive at EPAC already altered and vaccinated so they’ll be ready to be taken home the day a new family falls in love with them. The same will be true of the cats. We anticipate roughly a dozen cats being at the eastside adoptions center at a given time. The cats will also have their own meet/greet room.
It’s important to note that the eastside center will be solely for adoptions/fosters. We will not have a clinic at EPAC to perform medical procedures. We will not have intake staff to facilitate people dropping off strays. And we will not have an Animal Protection Service unit located at EPAC for enforcement activities. The eastside location will be solely to help PACC west on Silverbell find homes for dogs and cats, and through that to help alleviate the overcrowding we routinely experience.
Interviews for the EPAC full time staff began in December. Once we have that staff in place, we will begin to recruit volunteers. Neither the main PACC shelter nor EPAC can operate successfully without a strong volunteer involvement. We’re anticipating a favorable level of interest coming from eastside residents once we begin that recruitment process.
The conditions at our main PACC shelter are noisy, crowded and not at all similar to what our animals will experience in your home. If you’ve ever visited our partner Tucson Rescue Now (Grant and Swan), you’ve seen how a more mellow environment allows the pups to show their true personalities. That’s what we also anticipate will be the case at the eastside. Consequently, we expect the length of stay for the dogs will be much less than what we see at PACC west. And that will mean we’ll be able to continually decrease crowding at PACC. Everyone will benefit. That’s the goal.
Stay tuned for our grand opening. We hope to see a full house and to see our pups and cats end up in brand new homes. With much gratitude to Friends of PACC, I join the current PACC staff in looking forward to the opening of this new PACC chapter. Who knows?
If EPAC works, we may continue looking for other shelter opportunities.
For more information go to www.pima.gov2562Browse-Shelter-Dogs
