The eatery on the corner of 7th & Artswalk Alley is closing, I believe it may have been called Shula's #5. When Shula's #1 opened back in 2011, the city police arrested some poor soul singing on the walkway for disturbing the ambience. They should pay to bring him back!
The Morning Call cannot get past its DNA to promote all things NIZ and Reilly. Obviously the restaurant wasn't popular, or it wouldn't be closing. No food vendors survive because the Strata apartments, #1through #13, aren't really full. The NIZ is so lucrative for Reilly that he keeps building them anyway...It's our money, not his.
While the Morning Call has been his press agent, only this blog asked the questions until recently. State Senator Jarrett Coleman has began fighting for NIZ audits...Taxpayers across Pennsylvania owe him a debt of gratitude.
There used to be fast food downtown. McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Arbys, even Popey's All would do better than some obscure bistro from a culunary school grad that charges $5.00 for a glass of spring water.
ReplyDeleteHowever, that isn't what Mr Reilly wants downtown. He owns the buildings, so we get what buisnesses he deems fit to lease his storefronts, yes?
One has to ask, at this point who in their right mind would open a restaurant in the NIZ?
ReplyDeleteIndeed, as the workers in the Hamilton Street office buildings begin arriving at 8am or so on weekdays, have their hour for lunch, then depart beginning about 5pm
DeleteThe rest of the time, you can find parking on Hamilton street pretty easily.
Continue allowing the developer, unchecked, to rake his 15% "developer's fee" right off the top of every deal and he'll continue plopping whatever building he decides onto every NIZ property he owns. "Expert knowledge is limited knowledge and the unlimited ignorance of the plain man who knows where it hurts is a safer guide than any rigorous direction of a specialized character" W.S. Churchill.
ReplyDeleteAnon 6:59 makes a good point - the free market has been removed from the NIZ. But it’s not just in terms of restaurant type.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, the way the restaurant business seems to work in the NIZ is that potential restaurants are lured in with deeply discounted rents. Then, after a relatively short period of time, the leases call for the rents to escalate to include the landlord getting a percentage of sales. This is an often fatal combination of built-in increases to both the fixed and variable costs of the restaurant.
I think we all know how difficult the restaurant business is, and it’s even more difficult at the beginning for a new restaurant (or even an established restaurant opening a new location). When the initial costs of opening finally look like they might be able to be overcome, the vampire-like landlord is there to take another bite out of them.
This almost guarantees failure for most restaurants in the NIZ, particularly those without liquor licenses (since drinks typically have higher profit margins).
Also, unlike many startup restaurants, these are relegated to being renters for life and never owning the property where their business operates. So once again the field is tilted in favor of only one person profiting from the venture, and it’s not the restauranteur.
The restaurants come in with great fanfare and go with a quiet thud. The next in line tries to use the old interior design to fit their new “concept” and it always looks like a thrift store retrofit. The quality of the food doesn’t seem to be enough to get people to make the trip and endure the parking logistics of downtown. Evidently the Strada folks don’t patronize the restaurants enough to sustain their existence. Evidently no restaurant outside of the hotel restaurant can survive. This was all predictable 15 years ago when the NIZ was being planned. Homogenous design, no services, no shops, no foot traffic, ghost tenants (Air Products, LVHN), and single ownership (NIZ) makes for a dull downtown. A few condo buildings, a chain supermarket, and some specialty retailers might have helped. I see the combination of Dave Sunday as new PA AG and Jarrett Coleman might shed some light on the back room deals made by childhood buddies, Browne and Reilly.
ReplyDeleteExhibit A - the replacement restaurant at Bell Hall referred to as the "restaurant at the old Bell Hall". I was downtown with some friends on a Monday night for Duran Duran and the service at the downtown restaurants was deplorable. It must be so hard for them to prepare for a concert night versus the usual dead scene down there. The bars/restaurants are either dead or overwhelmed if there's an event. Which tells me that the locals living downtown do not patronize the businesses.
DeleteThe Shulas arts walk crooner was a good candidate for commitment at the State hospital and subsequent electro shock therapy,the only paid singing gigs he could secure would be to torture detainees at GitMo.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see a real restaurant of the Hoi polloi there going forward maybe a golden coral or Cracker Barrel when the patrons waddle in and pack their arteries full of lard.
Everyone needs to be honest here. Allentown’s NIZ has been a near total failure. Of course, if anyone was tracking using simple math, they would have seen the NIZ was a money pit for Pennsylvania taxpayers. Within 5 years of its existence, the hole dug from the state budget was big enough never to be refilled. I’m not sure, any additional revenue was created beyond what taxpayers were already providing in this state WITHOUT the NIZ ever being created.
ReplyDelete. . . and the Morning Call kept its mouth shut the entire way.
Mr. Molovinsky points to one of my great annoyances by today's lazy journalism. Whether the MC, or other sites/ publications the default line is "popular" eatery shutters or something similar. If it was popular it would not be closing in most instances, as is the case with Blended.
ReplyDeleteThe NIZ has no shortage of casual restaurants, what it lacks is foot traffic and people who spend their money in the NIZ. I know, I am one of them. I brown bag my lunch and have for decades, whether in the NIZ or the suburbs. I won't change now, but if the residents aren't spending where they live, there is seriously something amiss.