By: Diane Benjamin
The new restaurant was announced on Facebook:
How much is Normal rebating? Since nothing happens in Uptown without incentives look for food and beverage tax rebates and maybe some free parking for customers in the garage.
Review this story for details of what Normal wanted in this space back in 2016: https://blnnews.com/2022/04/19/kevin-mccarthy-re-writing-history/
Is Tartan going to decrease the rent taxpayers fork over every month for the floor right above this? It’s now up to $37,430.85 every month! Anybody believe this restaurant will be paying this much?
Filling the empty space on the circle is wonderful. Next up: two empty banks right on College. How many years will it take to fill them? What happened to the developer approved last April for the north side of the circle?
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Don’t get me wrong, I am all for businesses, but corporate welfare for things that do not ADD to the economy. This will pass because the town staff want a new place to eat lunch.
No doubt this will be subsidized. It will be another “Portillios” like deal. All the other restaurants will be forced to pay for their competition to have an advantage. No new meals will be consumed, they are just shuffling around where the same number of meals are consumed.
I agree they will pay multiples less than what Normal pays in rent for a less convenient floor. Of course, the council nitwits and WGLT will do damage control and say that the restaurant has to pay for the buildout. Guess what, taxpayers paid for the buildout on the 2nd floor too. I also expect to hear b.s. about how this “taxpayer investment” will increase tourism.
Normal should lift their thumb off how this space is used and let any business that it is zoned for move in.
But will it have white table clothes?
Diners will be parking in the parking deck and walking over. Let’s see that goes in January and February.
Plus what about accessibility for people in wheelchairs. Where will the handicapped parking spaces be located? The have to be accessible.
They will get screwed when the Underpass construction starts then after that Trail East and Trail West starts. That whole circle will be closed and it will be too loud and dusty to eat outside. That whole area is going to be hard to access until all that construction ends. By then space in Trail East or West may be better for them anyway. Sounds pretty risky to dump a bunch of money into a new buildout just before customers and people avoid the area anyway.
Add to your list of spaces to be filled, Subway in Uptown Station. Have to wonder how long this will last in Uptown when one of the world’s largest fast food franchises can’t make it there. Yes, this will no doubt be subsidized by the taxpayers.
I guess LaBamba, another restaurant down the block that serves similar food gets no interest because its owners don’t appear to support the current administration. If it drives them out of business because of the sweetheart deal coming with this, we will have the same problem at a different location.