Sunday, January 10, 2010
Bowers is busy pandering to market vendors
Dan Radmacher
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From the RoundTable blog
I'm a big fan of Roanoke's City Market Building and most of the vendors who do business there. I love the variety of food available -- pizza, burgers, Asian, Greek -- and appreciate the chance to support local entrepreneurs as opposed to chain restaurants. I will definitely miss the food court while the building is being renovated and will eagerly await its reopening.
That said, Roanoke City Council needs to get real about how far it can go in trying to accommodate the vendors and blunt the impact of the lengthy downtime. More specifically, Mayor David Bowers and Vice Mayor Sherman Lea need to let go of the notion that the city is obligated to spend millions more on the renovation to come up with a timetable that will please all the vendors.
Anita Wilson, owner of Burger in the Square (best burgers I've ever eaten, by the way), told council recently that the vendors could survive only four to six months with the building closed.
A complete renovation of the historic structure, which needs an entirely new plumbing system among other major upgrades, simply cannot be completed in that amount of time.
The original estimate was for a year-long closure. Pressed by council, Cunningham Quill Architects, the consultant working on the renovation, came up with options for compressing the schedule, but the quickest would still take more than seven months -- and add $1.5 million to the cost.
The recommended option -- pre-ordering materials and storing them off-site -- would cut two months off the original plan with minimal additional cost. The building would close around Labor Day. That is the option council should approve. Any option that adds significantly to the cost should be taken off the table. In case Bowers and Lea haven't noticed, the city has taken on too much debt lately and is in danger of having its AA bond rating downgraded.
Spending an extra $1.5 million to $2.1 million to speed up the renovation is simply not feasible, especially since even the speediest renovation apparently wouldn't be speedy enough.
Vendors who want to survive the closure will have to relocate, either temporarily or permanently. Wilson warns that vendors who relocate will be unlikely to come back when the building reopens.
To that I have one question: So?
The renovated Market Building will be a prime location. It will attract tenants -- whether old or new. If some, or even all, are new, that will not be the end of the world. Maybe one of them will serve the best wings I've ever had.
Bowers, especially, has been bending over backward to try to please the vendors. "When Chico's happy, I'll be happy," Bowers said in 2008, referring to David "Chico" Estrada, owner of Chico's Big Lick Pizza.
Chico is gone now. He sold the business to Tavern on the Market, which has been operating it as Big Lick Pizza Co. since last March. But Bowers remains convinced that pleasing every single remaining vendor is the only way to move forward -- no matter, apparently, what the cost.
From the options presented, it should be clear that compressing the time frame of the renovation to a point acceptable to the vendors is impossible, and that even coming close would be prohibitively expensive.
That makes the best option the one recommended: Close around Labor Day for 10 months. That would give vendors the entire summer to remain open and find new locations.
When the building reopens, the vendors can decide if they want to return. I could even see the logic in giving them some preferential treatment if they do -- first dibs on prime locations within the renovated building, slightly reduced rent for a short time, etc.
After all, some of these vendors have a loyal fan base that might be patiently waiting for their return. But beyond such reasonable and modest concessions, the city owes nothing more to the vendors than it has been providing: solid communication and assistance finding new locations.
Council's obligation is to the public at large, which is best served by completing this renovation at a reasonable cost in a reasonable time period.
The best option to accomplish that has already been presented. It's time for council to make that decision and let the work begin in earnest.
Radmacher is the editorial page editor of The Roanoke Times.
