By: Diane Benjamin
https://www.normalil.gov/bids.aspx?bidID=372
The Subway in the Amtrak Station closed in October. The Town of Normal now thinks they need a new tenant.
Subway closed because they didn’t have enough foot traffic to sell food in the volume needed. FYI, I know one of the former owners.
I was in the parking garage a few weeks ago when an Amtrak train arrived. The passengers didn’t enter the building on the main floor, they somehow streamed in from the south side on the second floor.
If Normal wants more Ford and Beverage taxes why aren’t passengers shuffled through the actual station where they would SEE food available?
Meanwhile, Firehouse Pizza in Uptown is moving to a smaller location. Is that because they didn’t have enough customers to justify their original location?
Facebook announcment:
Keep in mind it took years for a yet un-unopened restaurant at 1 Uptown Circle to get a tenant.
Also keep in mind the “professional staff” think Uptown needs a food court in one of the yet-to-submit-planned buildings for Trail East and Trail West.
It’s almost like Normal prefers businesses that generate Food and Beverage Taxes that fill their coffers instead of good paying jobs that would fill yours.
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BlnNews 
It’s almost like there is a slow decline going on with our economy? The Ozark House just announced they are closing. I guess it might be hard to “go out to eat” anymore considering the prices. And we got so many people on their 2nd or 3rd bout of Covid (in spite of having multiple injections), isolating or masking or whatever they do. I still see the door dash people delivering to houses. I have no idea what they pay for a bag of cold food. Whatever it is, it is too much. Yes… what used to be happy healthy people are now sick obese folks ordering cold bags of food delivered to the houses they don’t want to leave. I guess this is progress?
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Oh my. Koos dreams and promises prove to be nothing but bs again. By the way, that’s how form based code works, form #1, function a distant second.
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Normal commies don’t have a clue about private business
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If one of the world’s largest fast food franchises (Subway) can’t afford the rent in Uptown, who can? I think we all know the answer to that one. The town of Normal and their luxury office spaces in Uptown, paying some of the highest office space rent in downstate Illinois to a Chicago developer living large off a Normal TIF that robs Unit 5 of tax dollars so we can all get our taxes raised by Unit 5. Sonja Reece (the Queen mother) does’t seem to mind paying the rent for her luxury Uptown apartment either. The rest of us can eat cake.
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Very well said.
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