Decatur Breakfast Staple Blames Skyrocketing Rents for Their Closure (East Point: real estate, tenant)

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by arjay57

They still have serveral other locations, both ITP and OTP.

Decatur is just brutal these days.

Oh okay. They'll survive then.

[stoxdiamond]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

There's no reason to criticize. I know the owners, and there's no bitterness on their part. Their business model simply didn't work in that location anymore, they knew it, and they moved on.
Best we all do.

I'm sure the owners are nice people, but they are the ones blaming their demise on skyrocketing rents instead of their own poor business decisions. Criticism is fair. They are also making a call to action to the people to put pressure on someone (City of Decatur or the landlords) to lower rents. If rents are truly too high, then there will be lots of vacancies in which case the rents will eventually come down.

When you start pointing fingers be prepared to see some being pointed back at you.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by stoxdiamond

I'm sure the owners are nice people, but they are the ones blaming their demise on skyrocketing rents instead of their own poor business decisions. Criticism is fair. They are also making a call to action to the people to put pressure on someone (City of Decatur or the landlords) to lower rents. If rents are truly too high, then there will be lots of vacancies in which case the rents will eventually come down.

When you start pointing fingers be prepared to see some being pointed back at you.

But then you lose a bunch of local businesses in the process. Usually forever. Wouldn't it be smarter and more humane (for all parties involved) to prevent yourself from having to learn the "rent is too high" lesson the hard way by simply not pushing your greed past the breaking point?

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by JPD

But then you lose a bunch of local businesses in the process. Usually forever. Wouldn't it be smarter and more humane (for all parties involved) to prevent yourself from having to learn the "rent is too high" lesson the hard way by simply not pushing your greed past the breaking point?

Local cities should not be subsiding these local businesses, who's then to make the choice of which ones stay and which ones have bad business practices? There is plenty of affordable rent in other areas of Decatur, south of Memorial.

[jeoff]

Originally Posted by JPD

But then you lose a bunch of local businesses in the process. Usually forever. Wouldn't it be smarter and more humane (for all parties involved) to prevent yourself from having to learn the "rent is too high" lesson the hard way by simply not pushing your greed past the breaking point?

Yeah, but it is *because* blocks of Decatur were demolished, and “local” lower-end restaurants and businesses were driven out by rising rents that certainly attracted this restaurant to Decatur 10 years ago. What is so special about the displacement that is happening now, versus the displacement that happened 10 or 25 years ago?

[JPD]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Local cities should not be subsiding these local businesses, who's then to make the choice of which ones stay and which ones have bad business practices? There is plenty of affordable rent in other areas of Decatur, south of Memorial.

Not sure why this is a response to me, as I was not in any way talking about subsidies or government. All businesses, no matter how successful, have a breaking point with rising rents. If you have bad business practices, you're going to fail regardless of how much you pay in rent.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by jeoff

Yeah, but it is *because* blocks of Decatur were demolished, and “local” lower-end restaurants and businesses were driven out by rising rents that certainly attracted this restaurant to Decatur 10 years ago. What is so special about the displacement that is happening now, versus the displacement that happened 10 or 25 years ago?

Nothing whatsoever. 10 years is the blink of an eye, and Decatur will continue down its path towards exclusivity and betrayal of the vision set forth 40 years ago.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by jeoff

Yeah, but it is *because* blocks of Decatur were demolished, and “local” lower-end restaurants and businesses were driven out by rising rents that certainly attracted this restaurant to Decatur 10 years ago. What is so special about the displacement that is happening now, versus the displacement that happened 10 or 25 years ago?

Blocks of Decatur were not demolished ten years ago, and certainly not the block this restaurant is on. Not sure what you're referring to.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by JPD

Blocks of Decatur were not demolished ten years ago, and certainly not the block this restaurant is on. Not sure what you're referring to.

He's probably referring to the wholesale destruction of the southern and western sides of the square to make way for the courthouse and government offices, which is probably one of the worst things to ever happen to Decatur. But it was almost fifty years ago, not ten.

[JPD]

There's nothing "special" about this business compared to others, but there is a far smarter approach to raising rent. If you have a great, stable tenant that the community supports, but you feel you can get more in rent, why not work with the tenant, see how much of an increase they can withstand, and both sides can negotiate and make adjustments so everyone is happy. Isn't that better than forcing out a good tenant and then losing money on a vacant storefront while waiting for a new richer tenant to come along?