Revitalization and Restaurants

Blogreader,

Last time, I spoke with Philip Lookadoo regarding the basics of the downtown revitalization. The revitalization will require cooperation between the City of Florence, Downtown Development and the Chamber of Commerce. To create an inviting environment downtown, everyone must be on the same page and that means getting businesses in that match the aesthetic of the desired downtown look. Curently, Florence is abuzz with restaurants, but the independent-to-chain ratio is mighty slim as more and more chains slide into the fabric of Florence. I spoke to Florence Chamber of Commerce president Tom Marschel about restaurants and revitalization in Florence. (Note: a majority of this interview was done at the beginning of June.)

The in-and-out nature of many restaurants in Florence have made me wonder about the stability of the restaurant market. What is your opinion concerning the viability of restaurants within this area?
Actually, I think we've seen somewhat robust growth in restaurants in Florence. When you look at what has opened here and you look at the consistent performance of Townhouse or Jumpin' J's, The Drive-In, the Greek community has always been a real backbone of the restaurant business here and I don't think we've lost any of them. From the Chamber perspective, we're seeing robust traffic and a pretty good list of members here. To me, geographically, we've got a pretty good distribution of restauarants. You have the (Old Europe) Mediterranean Grill, you have Miyabi's, you have the Japanese steakhouse, which has done quite well. The major growth has been at that I-20, I-95 (area) on McLeod Boulevard. That's where the hotel and motels are growing as well.

One of the consistent presences I've seen as I travel to Greenville, Asheville and many other thriving downtowns is the presence of fine dining restaurants. In Florence, fine dining has also seen its share of restaurants come and go. The Grotto is a good example. Victor's is now the lone wolf. What is your opinion on fine dining in Florence?
We've seen some change in the mix of restaurants. We have 53 restaurants that are members of the chamber, which doesn't represent all restaurants and what I did look up was our website since January. Our restaurants have had over 1000 unique views. In other words, people went to the particular restaurants and looked up their information and I think what we have seen is sometimes the higher price point restaurants are...a little higher (and) that may (make that particular market) a little more competitive.
I will say that one thing that makes it a little more complicated...in operating a restaurant here is the lack of Sunday liquor sales. Most municipalities in South Carolina - Aiken, Greenville, Charleston, Columbia - have the Sunday liquor sales. I have heard the feedback from the hotel/motel owners that frequently travelers will, on Sunday, either go past Florence to Lumberton or go past Florence to Santee in order to have an alcoholic beverage with their dinner and when you look at margins on particular products - and I'm not a restaurant expert - but alcoholic sales do help the margin on the bottom line for the restaurant community. I had talked to a developer not too long ago, who had a restaurant that had found out that we didn't have Sunday liquor sales and said, "We'll pass on Florence."

One of the reasons I wanted to conduct this interview with you was as part of series related to the Downtown Revitalization for Florence. As someone who has been associated with the business element of Florence for a considerable amount of time, would you mind informing me about the process Downtown Revitalization past and current?
The revitalization is an (ongoing) comprehensive plan for Florence. The first step was to have a fully-functioning downtown corporation. They have then done an overlay district which allows for enabling legislation. The 20-10 committee which hired the contractors (who) did these broad-based plans for Downtown Revitalization. First, you have public investment, which you have seen with the Mental Health Facility, state run. You've seen the Allied Facility for Florence Darlington Tech. You then have, what I call, semi-public investment. Bruce & Lee putting a library in, followed by a financially viable enterprise, the Florence Little Theatre is a not-for-profit, but they are self-sustaining. They have the ability to generate sufficient revenue to help pay for themselves and then right down the street from there you have more public investment in terms of a state university putting in a performing arts center so the plan that prophesized this happening was right on target cause this has happened in other communities. Once you have public and private section development, then you have what's called "in-fill", where you have the jobs downtown, the people are downtown, followed by the restaurant communities and the dry cleaners and retail and I would say the 2010 committee and the 2010 plan in 2008 is right on target. A big piece of that is the North gateway entrance to do the community, which was the Bush Recycling Center. House of Louie, which was pretty spectacular in its appearance, that's private money that took that down. That's right along what they call million dollar intersections at Palmetto and Irby (Street).

Would mind explaining what the 2010 Committee is?
The initial vision committee formed by Mayor Willis in the late 90s. We conducted public meetings at Poynor school. The name comes from the charge to ask residents what they wanted Downtown Florence to look like by 2010. A company out of Charlotte, HDR Consulting, was funded by city council to do an initial assessment of downtown. HDR Consulting found Florence was blessed by a number of major assets. For example, the broad avenues coming into downtown. They saw Dargan Street as a cultural arts opportunity for the whole town.

You also mentioned an "overlay district"? What does this mean?
An overlay district is a legal term that physically describes that area described as downtown area. It defines the business area, the residential area. It is a Tax Increment Financing District, which means that it is a commerical tax base that generates money for that area.

Another question I received was related to funding for businesses downtown. Are any grants or incentives being offered to help generate interest in opening a business downtown?
Right now, through Downtown Development we're applying for money to help us fund the Kimbrell's Furniture area (the first block of Evans Street on the corner of Evans and Dargan Street), which has already been revitalized by Steve Powers, owner of SNW Printing. One of the things we've talked about having there is 5 o'clock Friday concerts. There's also a grant being looked into concerning a facade revitalization, which decorates the facades of buildings downtown so that even vacant buildings don't look like they're vacant. There are plans for residential neighborhoods to be built in downtown and if you have development in the downtown market you get businesses. The one thing we could certainly welcome is a high-end restaurant in downtown because judging from the crowd that came out of the new Florence LIttle Theatre, a new restaurant in that area would thrive.

So, you see what's happening now as promising development for Downtown?
Mayor Willis brought Mayor Joe Riley from Charleston here about 10 years ago and Mayor Joe Riley says, "It takes a long time for this to happen." Here we are in 2008 and we're seeing substantial, big pieces of Florence undergoing change. Shoot, Greenville has 92 restaurants downtown. If you'd said, 30 years ago when they started their redevelopment that they would have 92 restaurants, they would have said you were crazy.

So, in light of all this, do you see the restaurant base in Florence as being viable and, perhaps, flexible enough to extend its reach to different types of restaurants?
I think it's a viable restaurant base, but I do believe the southern palette doesn't necessarily wrap its arms around some of these exotic restaurants that you could go to California and run into all kinds of things, (where) every block has five different ethnic groups represented. When things are recessionary, people do cut back on dining out, but I don't think the restaurants that have gone out of business, I would not give any irregular motivation, (nor would I give any irregular motivation to many restaurants) we've seen open. If I had a nickel for everytime someone said, "When are we going to get an Olive Garden?", I could've retired. There will always be naysayers, but, right now, there's so much momentum downtown.

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