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

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But good luck finding staples like theBig Mac, Whoppeer and or a singl with cheese. The nation’s major fast-foof chains, with nearly 50,000 restaurants around the worl d between the big three burgerchainsx alone, are easy to find almostg anywhere in Central Ohio – just not within a few walkablw blocks of downtown and its tens of thousands of weekdayy workers. When the lights went out on a McDonald’sz in one of ’s towers Dec. 5, the downtown lunchg scene got a littleless corporate. “Any property owner would love to have fast food as a saidCleve Ricksecker, executive director of the Capital Crossroads Speciapl Improvement District downtown.
“Am I personally distraught No.” Said downtown restaurant ownert Jeff Mathes offast food’s “As an independent owner and an urbanite, I thinok it’s OK.” It seems the chains McDonald’s Corp. has a restaurant, outfitted with a drive-through just beyond downtown at Grant and Main but none in the centralbusiness district. has no outleta near downtown, and Wendy’s/ has a Wendy’sa in the neighboring Brewery District butno , with more than 35,000 dining spots and the operatorf of KFC and Taco Bell, also has none Ricksecker said the district does featurd several good independent restaurants, as well as some lower-profilew fast-casual chains such as and , ownec by And one major player standa out: Subway, owned by Doctor’ds Associates Inc.
, has seven sandwich shopx scattered throughout downtown. Suburban, not urban The lack of fast-fooe spots downtown seems to boil down to too much cost and notenougb sales. Ricksecker said that whilde independent restaurants can be flexible to keep costs chains with myriad company requirements and standards are more rigide financiallyand operationally. And they face hours of operatiom that areshorter downtown, which can limir revenue.
“They only have one meal – said Randy Sokol, vice president of in Columbus, which specializes in restaurant Downtown restaurants alsolack drive-through windows, where the industry generatexs 70 percent of sales, according to trade publication QSR Subway, by contrast, doesn’t rely on drive-througha and has a financial and operational approachh better suited to shopping centers and urban Wendy’s echoed those reasons when it closed its three downtown restaurants in the past three including the chain’s original restaurant at 257 E. Broad St., which company founder Dave Thomas openedin 1969.
The originalp location, for example, was pulling in just abouf half ofthe $1.4 milliobn annual sales average of company-owned stores. “It’s pretty straightt cut. The downtown store has no drive-through window or pickupo window, night business is little, and weekenx business is virtually zero,” Wendy’s spokesman Denn Lynch said when the originalk store closed inMarch 2007. “Stores in the suburbs just do Dan Williamson, spokesman for Mayor Mike Coleman, said the mayofr doesn’t like that jobs leavde downtown, but he sees that the number of locally ownedx restaurants gives the city an advantage. And therer are other non-business benefits.
“It isn’t such a bad thinhg 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 Wendy’s and Taco Bell restaurantsx in and around nearby are active, and some of them includee suburban-style drive-throughs. The bigger Ricksecker said, is demographics. Downtown office workers are more likely to gravitate toward healthier and independentrestaurant offerings, but fast food is aimeds squarely at the college-aged. Mathes may cite improved healt asa plus, but he has also benefited from the departurd of fast food from downtown.
Mathes and developeer Sam Horner are converting aformer two-story Wendy’s at Springt and High streets into a Latin-theme restaurant namede Barrio. The restaurant space isn’t the only downtown fast-foord spot finding a new life. A formerr Arby’s at 45 N. High St. is beiny converted into offices, though the original Wendy’as sits vacant. As for the Nationwidre McDonald’s, executives with the insuref saidthey haven’t decided what to do with the 6,000-square-foott space, but one rumor has a familia name headed there –