Firehouse Subs closing

[dganson]

"Until the meters are abolished, the one way streets taken up and a policy is formulated for the homeless downtown, NO RETAIL will be able to succeed.

We have literally tried everything except the obvious.

Despite the fact that every resident, visitor and merchant (with the exception of the bitter old jeweler) consistently says the same thing."

How utterly wrong!. To begin with you ignore the many successful long term business's in the core downtown. Everytime a business closes you blame it on the same old tired reasons. There were more business closings in Regency Square Mall in the past year than in all of Downtown. And many new start ups are enjoying success. You can't  blame every business failure on these non issues.

How do explain the success of Chew, Zodiac Grill, River City Deli, Desert Rider, Quiznos, Confetti's, Sunrise Deli, International Deli, Ray's, John,s Deli, Pete's Pizza, Mudville Grill, Pizza Italiano, Wades, Benny's,Burrito Gallery, London Bridge, The Atrium and I'm sure I missed a few. And this does not include anyone in The Landing. There are approx. 18000 people working in the core and if you can't succeed with that captive market its not the meters and one way streets...its bad business. Quit blaming these things and quit being so critical of everything. You create so much negative energy here that it is amazing. And to defend a national sub chain like it is something to be cherished as part of every great Downtown is so contradictory. I want the above mentioned eateries to survive as they are privately owned by members of our community and not investors on the NYSE.

And as a long time merchant I can assure you that most of us enjoying success do not agree with you as you infer "all merchants" and we continue to invest and grow and succeed. And we do not focus on whats wrong but rather the enormous opportunities available Downtown and what is so clearly right.

[dganson]

Stephen,

You so misunderstand who I am. These are not my policies as you claim as I neither support or oppose.  I am too busy running a business to be very involved. I am only here at metjax for entertainment. I am not the sharpest tack in the box so I have to try extra hard to stay focused and profitable in a difficult market. I do not disagree with most of your points, it would be hard to, but mostly I disagree with your passion for bashing everything when there is so much evidence of success to point to even in this shrinking market. Your attitude and approach is cancerous at best.

[dganson]

I also notice that you resort to personal attacks and juvenile namecalling when ever you are called out in these blogs. I have seen in the past that anyone that dares to disagree with you is immediately and viciously attacked. This does not encourage real and open debate of ideas, only disharmony. You discourage opposing views on this blog....and that is too bad for the rest of the membership.

[thelakelander]

nice list, captain dumbass.

Lets keep the debate clean guys.  We're all adults here.

[dganson]

I respectfully disagree. Although my first contact with you did call you a hard on, I have never again denegrated you personally. Yet you always refer to that from 2 years ago. You said that you were offended and that told me not to refer to like that again and I respected that. But you personally attack me each and every time I enter a debate..Why is that? Are you incapable of mature dialogue or afraid of dissent, I don't get it.

[dganson]

Until there is a time that you do not consider every business open or closed in Downtown a failure there is no debate, only your opinion. You have consistently refused to accept that not everyone wants the same Downtown that you do and that many of us are just simple hard working merchants tires of you bashibg us I see no way to have a discussion.

"none of them agree with you, and being friends with many of these people, and having had them bitching about the same things at the same meetings that your pompous ass was too good to show up for, most of them totally agree on the issues."

As an example of what I am talking about is this statement is patently false.

But essentially I have to admit that I am outshined but your sheer genius and do not deserve to waste your time by opposing your brilliance. I bow to your superior point of view Stephen and as always good luck in all your pursuits.

[thelakelander]

Firehouse Subs closing Adams Street Location

When the last stack of meat and cheese is pulled out of the steamer on West Adams Street Saturday afternoon it will be the end of Firehouse Subs’ Downtown location.

The restaurant opened in January 2002 and was the first street-level tenant when the new Police & Fire Pension Fund Building opened. Since then, midday business during the week has been brisk, often with a line forming at the counter long before the lunch hour officially began. Evening and weekend sales were soft, however, prompting the decision to lock the doors for the last time.

“We applaud their courage in joining us as Downtown pioneers and hanging in there for six years,” said John Keane, executive director and administrator of the Police & Fire Pension Fund.

“When we opened and they moved in, The Carling was empty and so was 11 E. Forsyth. Firehouse Subs helped stabilize the rebirth of Downtown.”

The Adams Street location was one of 291 restaurants chain-wide and 29 in the area and a company-owned unit.

“It was just not the right location,” said Robin Sorensen, who founded the company in 1994 with his brother, Chris.

“We were about a block out of the traffic flow. When we opened, we understood a lot of things were going to happen on that block. But they didn’t happen fast enough,” he added.

Sorenson also said while it’s always a difficult decision to close a unit, it doesn’t happen very often.

“In 13 years, we have opened 300 stores in 14 states and we’ve only had to close 10. The company also owned the only other location in a Downtown in Little Rock, (Ark.) and we had to close that one too a couple of years ago. Nights and weekends account for half of the total business at a unit. When we look at a location now, it has to have at least 20,000 people in a three-mile radius. We probably have that in Downtown Jacksonville for lunch, but they need to be around for dinner and on the weekends, too.”

The six employees will be transferred to other stores in the area, according to Sorensen.

Keane also said having Firehouse Subs as a tenant “Was a great tie-in because one of the founders of the company, Chris Sorensen, is a retired firefighter who gets a pension check every month and so is his father, Rob, who is a retired Fire Captain.

“We hope some day they will return to Downtown,” he said.
quote]

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=48499

[RiversideGator]

I posted this at metjax also: 

I can tell you that it doesnt help business when you park outside a business briefly to run in and pick something up and then you are greeted upon leaving by a surly ticket writer. In fact, this has happened to me recently in front of the Starbucks on Forsyth. I told the guy that he was impeding commerce and he said it wasnt his fault that Starbucks didnt do "market research" before opening downtown. He said he owned a business and he knew what he was talking about. Basically, no business should be downtown then I guess. I can also tell you that it was interesting to be lectured by someone who is perhaps one tenth as intelligent as me.

Anyway, I did violate the parking laws out of necessity but the point is the law is ridiculous.  To argue that there is not a parking problem downtown is to be unaware of reality.  There are so many places where more or even free parking could be added (adding diagonal spots to appropriate streets and the harm to downtown property values and therefore tax receipts is greatly outweighed by the gains from coin fed meter and parking tickets.  Perhaps if we had a Mayor who actually appreciated urban areas and who did not have a vested, financial interest in the suburbs booming...

[tufsu1]

listen people...downtown locations are meant to operate based on foot traffic....free parking is not the long-term answer....I can show you many succesful downtowns that have parking meters....the thing to do would be for businesses to provide vouchers for up to 2 hours in a parking garage.....now that idea has been tried elsewhere and it works!

[vicupstate]

Parking meters that were based on current technology, instead of 1940's technology would be a big step in the right direction.  Not everyone has or wants to fool with quarters.  This is the 2000's, something that can accept  debit cards, credit cards and prepaid cards is needed.

From what I understand, it is nearly impossible for a restaurant to make a profit off of only one meal.  You can only bring in so much from one meal.  Once the lines get too long, the newer walk-ups, simply walk away and go elsewhere.  You could add more registers, and cooks, but you still have to provide the table space.  You can't 'extend' the lunch hour to 10:30 or 1:30,  the patrons are on a schedule.   If you charge more, you will lose patrons to cheaper alternatives.

At some point, you max out your capacity.  You have to have a second revenue window, ie breakfast, dinner or the weekends.   How many eateries did a great lunch business, but nothing else, and went belly up?  There are too many to count.   There are exceptions, but there is usually an explaination for their success. If the business owns the property, and acquired it when property values were low (not that long ago), then a low overhead might make it do-able.  However, no one new will have that advantage. 

Until  DT has more of a 24-hour population, (residents or a substantial nightlife) this cycle of open and close will  largely continue.  The parking nonsense makes matters worse though, and needs to be addressed.             

[RiversideGator]

listen people...downtown locations are meant to operate based on foot traffic....free parking is not the long-term answer....I can show you many succesful downtowns that have parking meters....the thing to do would be for businesses to provide vouchers for up to 2 hours in a parking garage.....now that idea has been tried elsewhere and it works!

Listen tufsu:  This system is great in an area where there is already a tremendous draw and population base in the urban core like NYC, DC or Chicago.  However, in a place like Jacksonville with a declining downtown (relative to past years) it is counterproductive to put your downtown at a competitive disadvantage to competing areas by having an unneeded meter/ticket regime.  I wish we had a problem in downtown with so many people coming there that they overwhelmed all available spots but this just isnt so.  We need more allowable parking spots and free parking for 2 hours.  Why are you so afraid of this given the fact that it works just 3-5 minutes away in Five Points and San Marco? 

You remind me of those Gator fans who supported Ron Zook as head coach just because he was head coach and represented the status quo.  Of course in that situation sanity prevailed, Zook was canned, we hired Meyer and won a National Championship.  Well, it is time for downtown to hire a new coach and win some games too.  We need a new parking system that does not punish people for coming downtown.  It is as simple as that.

[gatorback]

Stephen is this guy for real or are you just talking to yourself for shits and giggles. If he's for real have him pull his head out of his ass and look around. I seriously doubt he's been downtown or has ever talked to anybody who's been downtown  because any blind idiot see there's a parking meet issue in that zipcode.

[02roadking]

Stephen is this guy for real or are you just talking to yourself for shits and giggles. If he's for real have him pull his head out of his ass and look around. I seriously doubt he's been downtown or has ever talked to anybody who's been downtown  because any blind idiot see there's a parking meet issue in that zipcode.

He is real. He has a place at the Landing.   http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=46622&text=ganson

[gatorback]

has he ever been downtown? I don't consider the Landing "downtown" it's more like the riverwalk. Downtown is north of Bay or Water Street to like south of union. The landing is in its own world. 

[midnightblackrx]

Do you mean it's like the UN building in NYC is actually on international ground and not in the US?