The Studio-Revisted Again

In the Journal today.....

Looks like Ms. Vitori and others are entertaining thoughts of buying and developing the old Studio Theatre. They are exploring bank financing, grants, city help (stay in the private sector for the money please) and other lending options to make the Studio a Franklin "Legends" kind of place with an outdoor theatre, entertainment, etc.

The other option is to demolish the building, which the city has talked about for decades now, and make the lot yet another open area or mini-park and create yet another empty "green space" lot for the city to maintain. And who would use this "park" where it is located city officials? Not close enough to the downtown "core area" at Central and Broad is it?

Problem with these ideas is the same problem that has allowed the building to stand unoccupied for decades.......the cost of asbestos removal estimated in the millions I believe at last count.

The cost of rehabbing the building and making it into this "Legends" entertainment venue will seem miniscule versus the cost to make the site environmentally correct. Just wondering if Ms. Vitori and company have considered the cost of pre preparation prior to actually developing this building. This will cost them much more than they will ever reap in their investment even if the place stays open for business for decades and is packed every day. Just seems that the initial cost would outweigh the breakeven point as they will not see any profit from their investment for a long time, if ever.

I wish them success IF they are able to obtain financing for this endeavor but I seriously doubt that this will work.

The city can't afford to demolish the building due to the aforementioned asbestos costs and they can't give the building away for that reason as well.

Guess I'm no business person as I can't see any recovery costs at all on this idea......for the city or for Ms. Vitori's business partners.

Probably more important for admin/ED would be to find a buyer or some wholesaler to take over the Marsh supermarket. That franchise is the only true food center in the heart of the city. I can't see it closing, though the parent operator is in a financial mess.

If that store goes down, then we have two Savealots to supply real food to our inner community. Trust me--not everyone can easily drive to the Krogers, Meijer, WalMart(all located on the outskirts of town--Kroger/Meijer/WalMart all together hmmm...). Many have to walk or bike to market. Our community is fast becoming a healthy food desert, and none of the smaller locals can make it work any more due to our abundance of dollar stores and service station venues. Don't see Dorothy Lane, Trader Joes or Jungle entering the local landscape.

Talk about quality of life issues afftecting the entire community instead of playtime options in our playtime former downtown

I expect Marsh to be taken over since it does enough business to survive on it's own. Problem could be lack of owners left in the biz who would invest the necessary funds to take the store into the future.
Serious $$ with no short-term payback. Another issue being the parent company is pretty much toast. imo ED/admin should have been and probably were aware of this issue for a long while(since everyone else has known). I turned down "buying" the place three times.

We already have two savealots, swo, and that is probably one too many. We NEED those locations and formats and you should be very glad that they are here and remain open. Downturn demographics turned the community that direction + the glut of dollar stores and convenience stores. I am sure that you remember from what those savealot locations originated back when we had a different style of community.

It would be nice to have real shopping amenities within the core city, though we realistically know why almost all have moved on. Thriving businesses don't shut down