Downtown Congress Streets is mostly deserted just before 8 p.m. as the city begins its second week under COVID19 restrictions, March 26, 2020, Tucson, Ariz.

Downtown Tucson businesses have received a $70,000 boost thanks to a gift card incentive program launched by the Downtown Tucson Partnership. 

On April 3, community members were given the opportunity to purchase $25 gift cards for local downtown businesses. Downtown Tucson Partnership then added an additional $10 to each card, free of charge. 

Within little more than 24 hours of launching the effort, the lot of 1,000 gift cards were sold out, resulting in $35,000 being invested directly into downtown businesses including restaurants, museums, breweries, boutiques, hotels, grocers, spas and gyms.

A second round of gift cards were made available after Rio Nuevo stepped up with a $10,000 donation to fund another 1,000 gift cards. That sale went live Friday, April 10, and was sold out in less than two hours, resulting in another $35,000 investment. 

Downtown Tucson Partnership is seeking funding for future rounds. Another round could be announced as soon as Wednesday, April 15.

For more information, go to downtowntucson.org.


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Contact reporter Stephanie Casanova at scasanova@tucson.com. On Twitter: @CasanovaReports