Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers will soon be serving at a second Tucson location.
The Scottsdale-based restaurant will occupy about 6,000 square feet of restaurant space plus a 2,600-square-foot patio that will be carved out of the eastern end of the former Sears store, at Park Place.
Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers, which has a location in Oro Valley, is set to open a new location in Tucson, inside the former Sears store at Park Place mall.
Owners of the property have presented their plans to the Rio Nuevo board and secured $2.3 million in support to bring the project to the district’s east edge.
The Rio Nuevo district’s boundaries run from just west of downtown, then east on Broadway to Park Place.
Developers Evergreen Devco Inc. bought the former Sears property in 2022 and added climate-controlled self-storage in the basement and the back part of the ground floor.
The operator, Public Storage, should be opening in the next few weeks.
Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers' second Tucson location at Park Place will have a 2,600-square-foot patio that will be carved out of the former Sears store.
Now that Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers have signed on, the other retail suites on the west end of the former Sears spot will be marketed, said Bryan Lamond, senior vice president of Arizona acquisition for Evergreen.
Round 1 Bowling & Amusement currently occupies part of the basement and ground floor of the building and will continue to be a tenant.
Lamond said Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers first Tucson location, at 7315 N. Oracle Road, has been one of the company’s most successful locations.
“The food is great, the ambiance is great,” he said.
Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers at 7315 North Oracle Road, in Oro Valley, has been one of the company’s most successful locations.
The demolition of the 60-year-old former Sears building to build the patio added to the redevelopment costs.
“There were easier paths to occupying the space, but it would have been less dynamic and leave a lot of meat on the bones,” Lamond told the Star.
Design and construction of the restaurant is expected to last into late 2025 and tenant improvements for Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers could take an additional six months with an expected opening in 2026.
