At a Tucson Metro Chamber event this morning with the Rio Nuevo District, Chair Fletcher McCusker shared the latest on downtown developments.
At the event, he said downtown Tucson’s newest construction and renovations to historic buildings have created spaces for new businesses to move in through commercial investments — like Cal's Bakeshop opening at the former Rocco's location on Sunshine Mile or Batch's expansion in downtown Tucson.
McCusker says the focus is on creating more spaces that draw people in, like gathering spots, art galleries and local businesses designed to make downtown Tucson and the Sunshine Mile, which stretches from Euclid Ave. to County Club Rd., a destination.
McCusker shared how using a piece of sales tax to reinvest in Tucson is helping reshape our city.
“We invest in anything that can enlighten that process culturally, economically, art, restaurants, hotels, residential," he said.
He said turning empty or underused spaces into community hubs is important to their mission.
“From an abandoned bank that now hosts Danny Scordato's beautiful event center to the buildings along Broadway that would have been torn down. Every one of them creates a destination for all of us to go to locally," he said.
Over the weekend, Tucson hosted its first Indoor Football League Championship at the Tucson Arena. McCusker tells me part of attracting more people downtown is making sure the Championship stays here for another two years.
“They moved that from Vegas and we’re starting to see our ability to compete with much bigger cities for events," McCusker said.
During the presentation, he added that we will see a name change at Tucson Convention Center come November, as the Request for Proposal (RFP) is expected to be completed by that time.
"You will see the name of that center changed as it's now being privately sponsored by a brand sponsor," said McCusker.
McCusker says he likes the idea of Tucson as an “urban desert”, combining downtown living with easy access to Saguaro National Park.
“There's no place in the world that you can go and have that kind of combination of experience," he said.
A new restaurant is coming to downtown Tucson, run by a world-renowned chef. McCusker says that the announcement will come by October.
