DD...I wonder if you have ever walked into room. I was just there and picked up candles for $12, $6, and $4. In addition I purchased a beautiful ceramic vase for flowers...it was only $25.
I am not meaning to plug room, but honestly, check things out before you assume such things. The store "may look expensive", but everytime I am there I always find something at a good price
The problem is will retail go there if there is no walking traffic? Restaurants create walking traffic. Cart before the horse does not work.
As an Allentown homeowner with cash to spend...GIVE ME SOMETHING I NEED. A real hardware store, green grocer, a nice home store to grab the quick final touches on say a dinner party. I want retail because we need it. I would spend lots of money in a place that had reasonably priced home decore items. I'm always up at Everything Elmwood picking up party favors, shower gifts, cool home chic. Restaurants are nice and I have spent my fair share at La-Te-Da, but not nearly as much as I have spent on gifts. The building is big enough for a retail/coffee/homestore but the opperative word is "reasonable". The Room store is nice but I cannot afford it. I miss Pier 1 too for candles and cool cheap wares. A savey business owner could make a mint. Trust me, there's gobs of walking traffic. If I can walk from Allentown to the Co-op, people will walk from Ashland to Allentown. Change is great and I am all for anything but empty storefronts. In my humble opinion, I would much rather stroll down to Allen for my needs than hike up Elmwood.
Restaurant! I hear that the restaurant would bring something entirely new to the Buffalo area..and I'm very excited for it!
I'd like to see a cool retail shop thats dedicated to affordable home decor. Since Pier One moved out, we are a little lacking in that genre.
This would make a terrific restaurant especially if they filled the little plaza (which separates Allen from Days) with tables. It could be very European. Another hard core bar would not add to the neighborhood. It is time to bring this part of Allentown upscale.
Upscale on that block of Allentown? Not sure that would work. We have to ask, why is La-te-da (sp?) shopping its lease if it is such a good scene for restaurants. Allentown is for bars still, unfortunately. Hardware is really a bar, with good food as an afterthought.
Nonetheless, I vote for the change.
But consider, is Buffalo going to be "gentrified"....no matter what people think/want, if they want entrepreneurs coming in and starting businesses that is what is going to happen.
Change is good
I think retail makes a lot more sense. It's been a long standing problem, on the lower west side and west of Richmond, to find stuff in the neighborhood; especially if you don't have a car. It's a unique opportunity to put something cool in there that would expand the appeal of Elmwood and make Allentown a little more palatable to the urban-phobic. As a retailer who moved out of the Elmwood/Forest fiasco and into Allentown, I feel qualified to say that Allentown probably has as many restaurants as it can handle already, but the other end of the Elmwwod Village is ripe for just such an enterprise as an upscale restaurant. With the new Burchfield art center, etc., what about the old Plate-Ohs location, or even the proposed hotel location? Anyone with vision and capital can see that that area is going to be hot some day relatively soon.
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