LRretail

They've been negotiating with land owners to make an acquisition for about a year. They have not come to terms yet. Having gone on this long without a deal I'm not sure a deal is ever going to get done.

I believe they are either going in the building already there or in the parking lot. I hear there is talk of a Torchy's Tacos going in this location as well.

So is this new Staybridge Suites located on the old Brandon House location going to succeed?

I think in some cases it is a draw. But I'm not sure if it's in the best interest of the tenant. Then again, if they didn't feel like they'd make it, they wouldn't have taken the spots. Sometimes though it might encourage a tenant to make a pour decision on their investment. Our office lovingly refers to Park Avenue as "Sandwich Central".

Strode originally signed leases with no exclusivity clauses in their contracts but told potential tenants "Of course we wouldn't sign someone in direct competition to you. It's not in your best interest. We want to see you succeed." Then the list of suitors for this spaces dwindled cause of the lease rates and they let Newks and Potbelly in even though all three serve mostly the same thing. Panera and Potbelly aren't doing the numbers they need. Newks is doing the best. Kind of setting up your tenants for failure. Good landlords don't do that IMO.

I think hotel developers are scared of this part of town all together. If the Hilton couldn't have made it, then maybe it's not meant to be. Hilton is an awfully good brand not to have made money. But then again, maybe it was the ownership there. I know that hotel developers have looked at Midtown and didn't pull the trigger. Strode (Park Avenue Developer) sold the land where the apartments went in to a third party with the agreement that the first floor would be condo back to them. The land was too expensive for several of the hotel developers who came to Park Avenue looking for a site. The spot in NW corner where they built a third set of apartments was originally scheduled to be a hotel but they sold it to the apartment developers when they couldn't find anyone to take the lot. It's been hard to lease out everything because of the price. Why the allowed a Newks and Potbelly to go in the same building (much less the same center) as Panera, I will never understand or agree with.

La Madeleine is going in close to Zoe's Kitchen somewhere.

They've talked about this hotel for a long time. I hope they make this happen. It would improve this area quite a bit.

I would be interested to see what the numbers look like for Adams Field FBO. Perhaps there's an increase in private plane service versus conventional air travel at LIT that would make up a good portion of the decline. I travel out of LIT more now than ever. The decline is definitely confusing.

I would say that Downtown LR is the best location for them. But they want $900k to subsidize part of their build out from the City of LR or whoever ends up being their landlord. I don't know of anyone that is going to do that for a restaurant they don't own.

The pizza oven is set to 800 degrees in those QSR pizza concepts. So the pizzas come out quicker. Blaze Pizza is similar. It's opening in Pleasant Ridge from what the plumbing permit says. It'll be interesting to see how these do in competition with places that already have similar pizza offerings like Newks. But they are cheaper than US Pizza, Pizza Cafe, and ZaZa's. I wonder if the quality will be good enough to have an advantage over the local places.