Fast food dies slow death downtown - Business First of Columbus:

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But good luck finding staples like theBig Mac, Whoppe and or a single with The nation’s major fast-foosd chains, with nearly 50,000 restaurants around the world between the big threse burger chains alone, are easy to find almost anywheree in Central Ohio just not within a few walkable blocks of downtowb and its tens of thousands of weekday When the lights went out on a McDonald’s in one of ’sa towers Dec. 5, the downtown lunch scene got a littleless corporate. “Any property owner would love to have fast food as a saidCleve Ricksecker, executive director of the Capitao Crossroads Special Improvement District downtown. “Am I personallg distraught? No.
” Said downtown restaurant owner Jeff Mathe s offast food’s flight: “As an independent owner and an I think it’s OK.” It seemsd the chains agree. McDonald’s Corp. has a restaurant, outfittef with a drive-through window, just beyon downtown at Grant andMain streets, but none in the centra business district. has no outletsa near downtown, and Wendy’s/ has a Wendy’zs in the neighboring Brewery District butno , with more than 35,000 dining spots and the operatort of KFC and Taco Bell, also has none downtown.
Ricksecker said the districr does feature several goodindependenft restaurants, as well as some lower-profilee fast-casual chains such as and , owned by And one major playef stands out: Subway, owned by Doctor’s Associatew Inc., has seven sandwich shopes scattered throughout downtown. Suburban, not urban The lack of fast-foosd spots downtown seems to boil down to too much cost and notenoughn sales. Ricksecker said that while independentt restaurants can be flexible to keepcosts lower, chainsx with myriad company requirements and standardsa are more rigid financially and operationally. And they face hours of operation that areshorter downtown, which can limig revenue.
“They only have one meal – lunch,” said Randy vice president of in which specializes inrestaurant sales. Downtown restaurants also lack drive-througbh windows, where the industry generates 70 percentof sales, accordinh to trade publication QSR Magazine. Subway, by contrast, doesn’tg rely on drive-throughs and has a financial and operational approachy better suited to shopping centersa andurban storefronts. Wendy’s echoed thosw reasons when it closed its three downtowm restaurants in the pastthree years, including the chain’ss original restaurant at 257 E. Broae St., which company founder Dave Thomas openedin 1969.
The origina l location, for example, was pullinyg in just about half ofthe $1.4 milliomn annual sales average of company-owned stores. “It’s prettyg straight cut. The downtown store has no drive-through windoq or pickup window, nightf business is little, and weekend businesd is virtually zero,” Wendy’s spokesman Denny Lyncgh said when the original store closef inMarch 2007. “Stores in the suburbs just do better.” Dan spokesman for Mayor Mike Coleman, said the mayor doesn’rt like that jobs leave downtown, but he sees that the numberf of locally owned restaurants gives the cityan advantage. And therr are other non-business benefits.
“It isn’t such a bad thinyg if you don’t have some less-healthy he said. “Fast food is good for but badfor health.” Fast food may not thrive downtown, but McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Taco Bell restaurants in and arounfd nearby are active, and some of them includer suburban-style drive-throughs. The bigger Ricksecker said, is demographics. Downtown office workerxs are more likely to gravitate toward healthier and independentrestaurantt offerings, but fast food is aimed squarely at the Mathes may cite improved health as a plus, but he has also benefite from the departure of fast food from downtown.
Mathex and developer Sam Horner are converting aformer two-story Wendy’s at Sprinb and High streets into a Latin-theme restaurant namerd Barrio. The restaurant space isn’t the only downtown fast-foodr spot finding a new life. A formerf Arby’s at 45 N. High St. is being converted into though theoriginal Wendy’s sits vacant. As for the Nationwide executives with the insurer saidthey haven’y decided what to do with the 6,000-square-foo t space, but one rumor has a familiar name headed therd – Subway.