Liquor License Caps Remain

Missed teh city council meeting last night so did not get to see the reaction when no one seconded Frontabarger's motion to raise the city liquor license cap. I think that is the first time, at least that I recall, that a motion has died in council for lack of a second.

From the article, I can't tell if Mayor Fritzler was truyly suprised on just disengenious with his comment regarding council members commenting on the issue during council comments:

"If you didn't want to discuss it when it was an agenda item, why discuss it now?" Fritzler said.

Givne the described reaction of the crowd attending, of course the council members are going to want to explain their reasoning for the lack of a second of the measure.  Unless there has been a lot of behind the scenes negotiting regarding this, which from the way things turned out I doubt, there needs to be a lot more more put into crafting this ordinance, as putting it into place will affect the financal well being of a number ol long time Carbondale businesses.

Well, That Was Fast...

Looks like LilyWhite Designs, the Christian themed fashion store, that opened last fall in the space previously occupied by Two Doves Photography at 211 W. Main, has moved out. The retail space is bare and a sign in the window reads: Gallery HQ For Rent. From the tone of the owner's latest blog post, the retail storefront may just have been a three month pop up store to test the waters.

Wal-mart Remodeling

Here's Wal-mart's take on the remodeling of their Carbondale store. I'll leave it to others for the non-biased take on the new look

Spotlight Grill/ Coal City Diner

Looks like the Spotlight Grille/Coal City Diner has give up the ghost. The restaurant tried going the latenight breakfast route for a few weeks, opening about 11 p.m. and closing about 10 the next morning. The plan was to attract late night workers and those students (and others) closing up assorted bars. The Grille had a menu out with the breakfast offerings on it but never made much of a push to promote the new hours or menu. Now all signage is gone from the windows and I've not seen any sign of life there for the past month.

Chili's

I see there's a big pile of asphalt where the new Chili's is going to sit. Still have to wonder if Carbondale really needs another chain restaurant serving relatively bland ethnic food. After all, we've alredy places serving much more authentic Mexican food such as Tequila's and El Bajio and even decent Tex-Mex at Tres Hombres.

Will it do well? Of course. It's a nationally known chain restaurant. Look at how well Golden Corral, ShoMe's and Buffalo Wild Wings have done since they came in to Carbondale. I expect to see four times as many cars parked in front of Chili's as there are in front of the recently opened Stadium Grille. I expected to see a few dozen minimum wage jobs added to Carbondale's economic base. I expect to see a lot of people eating there. I expect to see a very slight bump in Carbondale's sales tax revenues and not much else.

Gold's Gym Not an Anchor

This paragraph from the press release sent out by the city announcing the sale of West Park Plaza and the relocation of Gold's Gym to the old Kroger location:

“This acquisition has been in the making for more than a year and could not have been possible without local financing from The Bank of Carbondale and the Small Business Growth Corp and legal assistance from the law firm of Barrett, Twomey, Broom, Hughes and Hoke,” according to John Etherton and Shane Smith, co-owners of Gold’s Gym in Carbondale. “We are proud to play a part in spurring new growth on the west side of Carbondale. The new Gold’s Gym facility will be open around Thanksgiving of this year and will be the anchor of the shopping center.”

Specifically, the last sentence was what caught my eye. While I'm glad to see something finally moving into the old Kroger location, Gold's Gym will not be an anchor store, at least not in the traditional sense. Traditionally, an anchor store is a large store at a mall with a wide selection of merchandise. This selection draws people to the shopping center, who then patronize other stores in the center. Macy's at University Mall is an anchor store as is, to a lesser extent, True Value Hardware at Murdale Shopping Center. Both draw in people from the area, who then hopefuly will go to other stores in the center to spend money.

People who go to Gold's Gym go there for the purpose of working out. The arrive, work out and leave. They are not in the mindset to go shopping at the other stores, with the possible exception of CVS Pharmacy for health items. Gold's Gym, destination location yes, anchor store and driver of traffic to other stores, no.