On a Roll Sushi on East Congress Street is closing at the end of business Friday, ending a seven-year run as the lone sushi restaurant downtown.
The restaurant, in the historic McLellan Building at 63 E. Congress St., will be open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday. Owner Dominic Moreno said he will consider options to sell the equipment or the business as a whole and focus on pursuing a catering business.
“It’s been a great time frame to learn and understand and experience something like this,” said Moreno, the father of two young children who plans to spend some “pool time” with the kids before making his next career move.
Moreno opened On a Roll in 2008. He said he started toying with the idea of closing earlier this year when John Wesley Miller, who owns the building, put it on the market.
“It’s just timing. Our lease is coming up. ... If we get a new owner, we are definitely going up in our rent because we are definitely not paying Congress rates,” Moreno said.
Miller, 81, a longtime Tucson homebuilder, said he wants to sell the building to “simplify my life a little bit.”
“We wanted to be a part of downtown. I had my office down there for quite a while and I loved it. But the motivation for me is that in all of our business affairs, I’m really busy,” Miller said, adding that selling the property would allow him more time to spend with his grandkids and focus on his other construction and consulting projects.
Miller originally listed the 24,000-square-foot building, home to McLellan’s five-and-dime store in the 1950s, at $3.9 million. Recently he dropped the price to $2.7 million and said he has a verbal offer from a potential buyer, whom he declined to name.
He said he also has a tenant who could sign a lease for the On a Roll space in a week or so. Although he wouldn’t name the perspective tenant, Miller said it is a Tucson restaurateur who is not affiliated with sushi.
