The e-mails are flying, and I am sure that there will be a newspaper publisher running stories and editorials that will attempt to make downtown Parkville look as bad as possible. Of course, as everyone says, his job is to sell newspapers and not to promote the town.
Well, here's the news for all of us: While it is true that Angelo Gangai announced that the Power Plant Restaurant and Brewery is closing indefinitely downtown Parkville still has the lowest vacancy rate of any of the business areas in the town with the possible exception of the strip center on Missouri Highway 45. The loss of the Power Plant is to be mourned as is the figure of Angelo briskly walking the downtown streets taking care of his many tasks. We saw the last group gathering at the Power Plant, a campaign strategy meeting for Bill Quitmeier. As one leaves three others are coming in.
Word has it that a book store is coming to downtown as well as a tea room. In addition the scooter/motorcycle shop is coming along and we hop we'll soon see it in operation on County Highway FF west of the Power Plant building. We can count on one hand the vacant storefronts in the downtown. We wonder how many hands it takes to count the vacant storefronts in Parkville Commons. Comments?
Friday, October 3, 2008
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2 comments:
From my e-mail:
Our Economy is slugish on a National proportion. Restaurant magazines
speak of decreased sales all across America. Parkville is not unlike the
rest of the Kansas City area. We are fortunate that we have a low vacancy
rate in the Historic Parkville area. Parkville Commons and the Tuileries Plaza have
a high vacacy rate due to new construction and move outs.
Downtown Parkville will continue to be an attractive place to start a business or expand an existing company, our lease rates are markedly lower than the expensive strip centers like Parkville Commons, Zona Rosa,
Tuelilies Plaza, or Briar Cliff. Its time that the local leadership take notice and make adjustments in policy to promote economic activity. This is certainly not the time to get caught up in red tape and stifling regulations. A good excample was after the flood of 1993, the City of Parkville enacted a flood rehab policy for all downtown re-construction and development. As economic onditions decline, policies should be implemented to create measures that
would make the process painless and expedient. Parkville is still a 4th class city by state statute, too many resrictions will only discourage development and investment.
All elected officials and developers and community
leaders need to come together and work toward common goals that will make our community strong and viable for years to come.
Tom Hutsler
Over the past 12 months the downtown merchants have done over $8 million in sales, and this is with La De Da moving and Piropos being open only for special events, and Angela & Co. having moved.
I'm not sure how this economy downturn will turn out (I hope that the elections will help settle it somewhat...no matter who gets elected), but I am hopeful.
John Farrell Kuhns
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