Downtown Johnson City re-development? New plans? (appointed, lease, tenant)

[houshoes]

The old Sunny's Bld located at 601 Spring St. has Re-Opened as Klub Karma- Restaurant / Sports Bar / Up-Scale Nightclub
The Owners have picked off a very prized & beautiful bld. and turning it into what seems to be something that could really provide the downtown area with alittle of what it takes four to five businesses to be; ALL IN ONE!! They have got a Gourmet Chef , in which, everything is made in house. The menu is VERY diverse , Soups, salads, sandwichs, ribs, steaks, chicken & seafood!! I tried the, NEVER head of, salmon quesadilla and it was OUT -OF -THIS -WORLD!! And i over heard a few more tables say they had never had such great tasting food. I was visited by a manager myself and he also visited each table to check with the guest. in which they seemed to all be pleased. So that kind of relationship with the customer has always been important to me so i think they have got off on a good foot with the management staff. As far as the sports bar , it is a image or a theme they have.... it is covered with murials painted on the walls, mostly our favorite & local teams, huge murials painted. This guy must have spent 100's of hours on these!! i was in WOW!! of the size and the quality!! The staff is dressed in very nice stitched logo referee shirts.. very cute and fitting. They have alot of flat t.v's and a huge bar. and nightclub part the server informed me that the bottom stage developes into dancing and entertainment from 10 to 3am/ 7 days a week. and that the second whole floor , 10,000 sq. ft. , will be a 25 & up :Up-scale night lounge!! with jazz, blues bands, martini like feel for the older crowd. somewhere to where, even the kids couldnt get into under 25!! With HIGH CLASS decor and she said they have a brand new elevatoer to get you there!! WOW!! just the elevator ride sounds fun... V.I.P. at its HIGHEST !!! and the big part is YES, YES, YES!!! It is SMOKER FRIENDLY!! MEaning it was ... YES, YES, YES... 21 & up.... She said this Thursday the 21st of august was there first night of full operation with the nightclub on the bottom. I believe ill give them a few more visits one being this thursday all and all it sounds like the owners are on to a big catch , lets just hope they can reel it in!! I rate it a 9 on my first visit leaving them room, a point , to improve!! oh yeah and the prices on the food was very reasonable and they have nice togo boxes too!!

[dcommander]

Anyone eaten at Copones yet?? From the outside I couldn't tell if it was more bar or restaurant.

[jabogitlu]

As far as Karma goes, it was hard to tell from your review. Is the entire building 21+? You mentioned that while talking about the second floor, but also said it was 25+. So I'm a bit confused. Being only twenty, I don't want to march up to the door, just to have to turn right around (a bit redder than before, probably ) and march back out.

[SarahSal]

*Very* pleased to know it's going to be more upscale (since we own a nearby downtown bldg). So tired of all the bars even though they're somewhat better than they used to be back in the 90's. We actually had planned to something similiar in our building but the city bureacracy and restrictive codes made the costs unaffordable. The city *has* recently adopted the International Building Code, which should make more restorations possible. Unfortunately though, prior to these changes, many entreprenuers (we know) were discouraged by the requirements to bring an old historic building up to today's code and went elsewhere (to places like Kingsport). Because of that we lost many good, visionary people who loved downtown JC and wanted to be part of its revitalization. We'll plan to stop in and wish the new owners the best of luck in their venture! Thanks for the info!
With this club and Freiberg's things are looking up for downtown JC..

[SarahSal]

*Gatsby's* food used to be terrific - lots of delicious items on the menu and good, friendly service. Then the owner focused more on the college crowd and over time they stopped serving at dinnertime (we ate there often when we lived downtown). A downtown friend actually got married downtown and had her reception at Gatsby's and it was great! Then the business apparently was sold and and went steadily downhill - from my perspective. We haven't eaten there since it's become 'Capone's' but someone from the JCDA said it was decent..??

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by SarahSal

*Very* pleased to know it's going to be more upscale (since we own a nearby downtown bldg). So tired of all the bars even though they're somewhat better than they used to be back in the 90's. We actually had planned to something similiar in our building but the city bureacracy and restrictive codes made the costs unaffordable. The city *has* recently adopted the International Building Code, which should make more restorations possible. Unfortunately though, prior to these changes, many entreprenuers (we know) were discouraged by the requirements to bring an old historic building up to today's code and went elsewhere (to places like Kingsport). Because of that we lost many good, visionary people who loved downtown JC and wanted to be part of its revitalization. We'll plan to stop in and wish the new owners the best of luck in their venture! Thanks for the info!
With this club and Freiberg's things are looking up for downtown JC..

Kingsport has IBC codes too however from what I hear Kingsport City is easier to deal with than JC's, from personal experience so far Kingsport has been very reasonable to deal with on rehabbing a building, but not done yet.

[SarahSal]

mbmouse - Are you doing an old building too?
And, yes, we know former JC renovators who've gone to Kingsport and are now doing a bunch of buildings with investors. They've *experienced* JC (and its inspectors) and found Kingsport much more open and easy to work with.. We ARE hopeful though that things will change in downtown JC because of two new, more visionary commissioners who seem to understand (finally) what a benefit a revitalized downtown will be for the city at large!

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by SarahSal

mbmouse - Are you doing an old building too?
And, yes, we know former JC renovators who've gone to Kingsport and are now doing a bunch of buildings with investors. They've *experienced* JC (and its inspectors) and found Kingsport much more open and easy to work with.. We ARE hopeful though that things will change in downtown JC because of two new, more visionary commissioners who seem to understand (finally) what a benefit a revitalized downtown will be for the city at large!

Yes. I bet we know that same couple hahaahahha They both may be called cities but they are still "small town" when it comes to what is going on.

[SarahSal]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

Yes. I bet we know that same couple hahaahahha They both may be called cities but they are still "small town" when it comes to what is going on.

Those two have amazing energy - and tried real hard to share it when they were here.. Although people 'listened' at the time we always wondered if anyone really *heard* what they were proposing (which made so much sense). Now that they're essentially gone (to Kingsport), I know some folks are becoming aware of what's been lost. And that's happened more times than I'd like to remember...

I agree that, yes, these are *small* cities comparably but maybe that's actually good because if they were larger the work to bring them back would take much longer..
It's been fun 'talking' with you all.. Everyone is so friendly, especially when compared to the general forums on politics - that is a *war zone*..

[jabogitlu]

I hear ya, I eked out my first C-D postings on the Religion/Philosophy forum, back before there was a Christianity subforum. Whew!