Restaurant out of business at Cathedral Commons
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Anonymous
| No brainer |
Anonymous
THIS. Nimbies make is hard for small businesses to survive |
Anonymous
THIS is s joke, right? Because replacement of smaller, older retail buildings with more of the same mixed-use ”commons-at-town-center” generica squeezes out indopemdently owned small businesses in favor of chains. Longtime neighborhood-serving retail gets evicted or pushed out through much higher rents. |
Anonymous
The developer’s renderings envisioned the streetscape around Grilled Oyster to be livlier, with several smaller shops and restaurants facing the street. The pharmacy was supposed to share part of the supermarket space. But instead they ended up leasing to the World’s Longest CVS, which created a solid 150’ of covered display windows and deadened streetscape. The bank at the Wisconsin corner, with blank frontage on the side street doesn’t help either. The result is that many potential customers don’t venture beyond the Giant and CVS entrances near the corner. Compare with the eclectic, inviting restaurants and shops on Macomb (not part of Cathedral Commons) and the difference is clear. |
Anonymous
| Giant was the prime developer and anchor, but ironically that anchor may act as a drag on other businesses. Two cases in point: Strangely, the Cathedral Commons Starbucks is a smaller, more crowded space with fewer seats than the Starbucks that previously operated at the same site. The reason is that Giant successfully limited the size of the “real” Starbucks because Giant has its own Starbucks franchise stand (windowless and soulless) inside the supermarket. The owner of Grilled Oyster wanted to expand his business by having a fresh seafood counter like at Black Salt. But Bozzuto, the landlord operator, vetoed it citing a lease restriction that the restaurant not engage in any business that directly competed with Giant. Of course only in Giant’s imagination could a fresh seafood counter actually be “competitive” with Giant’s offering. |
Anonymous
This is 100% bass-ackward. If a developer gets his (it's always "his") way and gets to build a 13-story mixed use piece of shit construction over the objection of the people most directly affected, then that developer will want a ROI. Charging high commercial rent for the 1st floor space is one way to ensure ROI. Who can pay for expensive commercial leases? Answer: corporate chains, national banks, mortgage companies. See, e.g. Panera Chipotle CitiBank Silver Diner CAVA WellsFargo OrangeTheory CVS Petco Unleashed Chik-Fil-A MattressFirm Starbucks BlueMercury TrueFood FiveGuys . . . . . occasionally, and typically as an explicit contract agreement as a condition to override local zoning codes, a developer will set aside a small % of the commercial space in the new project that is offered at a below-market rent to a lower-revenue business. That's how you see the one, tiny mom-and-pop nail salon or dry cleaner squeezed in between the CVS and WellsFargo in these millennial dormitories. |
Anonymous
| An article in the Washington Post today reports that a “federal program created to boost small businesses in disadvantaged areas has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into some of Washington’s most affluent areas, where a handful of businesses have grown while reaping most of the program’s benefits.” The accompanying map shows that the sole census tract receiving such benefits in Ward 3 is that for Cathedral Commons. How sleazy. |
Anonymous
This is spot on. (Plus nail salons get no tenant improvement dollars, require little in the way of build out, and are willing to sign very short term leases, so they provide the landlords with a lot of flexibility to make space available to more attractive retail prospects, while providing additional lease revenue.) |
Anonymous
| What's the first place that closed? |
Anonymous
An olive oil and Italian products store. Grilled Oyster is the first major restaurant to close. |
Anonymous
I live in AU Park, and same. I was at cactus yesterday and giant this morning, in fact. |
Anonymous
I love The Cathedral and eat with friends at their Cafe. It solves the problem and is good enough. Very thankful 
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Anonymous
Of course there’s a difference between the Cathedral, which is lovely, and Cathedral Commons, which is rather common(s). |
Anonymous
| Rent is too high to turn a profit |
Anonymous
We looked forward to the new Giant and expected the quality and skection to improve a lot. But after a year we realized that it was just a “giant” version of the old Giant, with the same lower quality, but just more of the stuff. It also doesn’t seem that well-managed. The fact that they let the staff take their smoking breaks by the store’s only entrance is particularly welcoming. To tell the truth, now I kind of miss the old Giant. It wasn’t modern, but at least you could find what you were looking for quickly. And the store had windows! |