A locally-owned Vietnamese restaurant will be relocating its downtown Tucson eatery.
Miss Saigon, currently at 47 N. Sixth Ave., will move into the former MiAn Sushi & Modern Asian Cuisine spot at 88 E. Broadway, on the ground floor of the nine-story Tucson Electric Power building.
MiAn Sushi closed in 2019.
The Rio Nuevo board voted to provide Miss Saigon with up to $354,000 to remodel the former restaurant and add new seating, a new bar, flooring, wall coverings, chandeliers and cherry blossom trees inside.
“The cherry tree is a sign of rebirth,” said Bao Ma, who owns Miss Saigon along with his brothers.
He told the board that the menu will remain the same, but some special dinner dishes will be added at the new location.
Miss Saigon plans to relocate its downtown restaurant to 88 E. Broadway, on the ground floor of the Tucson Electric Power building.
Along with contributing toward renovations, the Rio Nuevo board agreed to take over the current lease on Sixth Avenue for the 22 months that will remain when it’s vacated, up to $200,000, or help find a new tenant for the location.
Miss Saigon hopes to vacate the current spot at the end of February and be open in the new Broadway location by March.
The restaurant has two other Tucson locations, at 1072 N. Campbell Ave. and 250 S. Craycroft Road.
Increased police patrols
At its November meeting, the Rio Nuevo board also voted to increase what it pays for off-duty police to patrol the downtown area, citing positive feedback from downtown business owners since the program began last year.
Rio Nuevo pays $500,000 a year for officers to monitor patrons downtown and agreed to increase that by $12,500 a month to extend the hours beyond the current 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. timeframe to as late as 3 a.m. at some locations.
The board also authorized an additional $90,000 for the police department to buy two ATV side-by-side vehicles for officers to patrol in a more efficient manner than solely on foot.
The police department will be responsible for the maintenance of the vehicles.
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