Sunday, November 15, 2009
Metro columnist Dan Casey: Don't cave for a fast buck
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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@roanoke.com
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Dan Casey
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Let's take a little restaurant survey today.
What kind of fast food would you like to see sold in a gleaming, refurbished Roanoke City Market Building?
Domino's Pizza? Hardees' Thickburgers? McDonald's McNuggets? Wendy's fries? Long John Silver's hush puppies?
The gut-busting, diabetes-inducing possibilities seem endless.
Do you believe that's ridiculous? That it could never happen? Let's hope you're correct.
But a recent interview with Assistant City Manager Brian Townsend left the door open for such a scenario. Just barely open, mind you. But open nonetheless.
The city intends to close the market building on June 30 and embark on at least a year's worth of major renovations, much of which will be financed by historic-renovation tax credits.
Burger in the Square, Zorba's, New York Subs, Big Lick Pizza and the other food-stall vendors will be forced out. Some will move elsewhere. Others may close for good. (We may hear more from them Monday -- they're listed on the city council's meeting agenda.)
Because of the way the law works, the city government cannot be the beneficiary of those tax credits.
Townsend said Roanoke City Council will have to turn the building over, through a lease, to "a private entity" -- perhaps a not-for-profit foundation. Or maybe something else.
That entity will run the market building for five to seven years until the benefit from those tax credits expires.
During that time, the city has to be careful to not exercise "control" of the building. Otherwise, those tax credits may be denied. Nobody wants that to happen because the credits are the key to making the renovation project work.
And that means council members won't be calling the shots when new tenants move into the building, perhaps as early as autumn 2011. The "private entity" will be calling those shots.
That is the cracked door through which national chains could slip in.
Townsend pooh-poohed that notion when I raised the possibility. He called it "Chicken Little, the-sky's-gonna-fall stuff."
"Are there any national chains in the building today?" he asked. "No. That's not by happenstance.... We've never brought them [the council] a lease from a national chain because we understand council's philosophy of what the intent is and the role it plays.
"Come on. I don't think that's going to be a problem," he added. "I think this entity will get it in terms of what the market building is going to be in the future."
Let us hope so.
The question has arisen before, of course, and not too long ago.
Remember 2005, when a local Subway outlet wanted to move into the market building? That didn't happen, but the reason Townsend cited at the time was different.
What thwarted Subway, he told the council back then, was an exclusivity clause in a pending lease held by another vendor, New York Subs. That clause barred another sub sandwich shop from moving into the building.
Perhaps Townsend is correct and I'm playing Chicken Little.
But when the market building is ready to reopen, all the current vendors will have closed or moved elsewhere.
There will be no existing leases with exclusivity clauses to keep Subway or McDonald's out.
There will not be any guarantees the current vendors will have first dibs on moving back in.
And they might not even want to invest the time, money or effort in such an endeavor.
Truth is, their perspective on the building is pretty sour right now, after battles with the city over mice, lackluster maintenance and a lack of long-term leases.
But somebody's going to fill those renovated food stalls. That is a sure bet.
The private entity is going to have to make its rent. Those fast-food chains are money machines. And unlike independent vendors, chain managers wouldn't make ornery criticisms of city officials. Those corporate folks are as bland as their food.
Although the city council will have no veto power over leases to vendors in a refurbished market, it may have some appointment authority over who sits on the board of the market-overseeing private entity.
And the council should be able to influence any lease the city devises for the transfer of market operations to that entity.
Would it be possible for that lease to written in a way to bar national chains?
Townsend seemed unsure about that.
"To be honest with you, I don't think so," Mayor David Bowers told me Friday. He said the council has recently had closed-door talks about the market building project in executive session.
That's sounds bad to Roanoker Leon Jester, who contacted me after last Sunday's column.
"I would be appalled to see chain fast food vendors in the market building. I feel we'd lose a lot of (pardon me) the flavor of the place," he wrote in an e-mail.
I'm with Jester. There must be some way to keep the chains out.
This town is full of sharp lawyers who could split every hair on Lady Godiva's head.
I'm sure there's a public-spirited one out there who can devise a way for city hall to keep McDonald's and Taco Bell out of that treasured building.
Let's nail that one down before renovations begin.
Dan Casey's column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
