Business
Caldwell Urban Renewal Has Jitters Over Coffee
June 11, 2011 
Espresso/Deli Café Space Available
Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency seeks interested parties to lease a turn-key Espresso/Deli Café in the TVCC Building located in Caldwell. Interested parties who respond by June 17, 2011 by 4:00 p.m. will be considered. Responses may be mailed or delivered to Caldwell Economic Development Council, 117 South 9th Avenue, Suite #6, P.O. Box 668, Caldwell, ID 83606.
The above note was attached to the recent Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency minutes. Taxpayers put up nearly $100k of public money to provide the operator of this facility with a turnkey operation. The idea was the students at TVCC would provide a captive market for this operation. The lease was structured as a percent of the gross receipts…HOW COULD THIS FAIL TO MAKE MONEY? Very simple, college students don’t have the discretionary money to spend on coffee and food served in restaurants.
TVCC and students attending the Caldwell campus were going to bring “synergy” and critical mass to downtown Caldwell. An informal survey suggests the only downtown businesses to see any increase in business have been Vern’s Tavern and the Waldorf Bar. Interesting to see if the Urban Renewal Agency finds another operator for what appears to be a food service operation without adequate customers to keep the doors open.
Had the Caldwell urban renewal geniuses talked to the Boise CCDC geniuses, they would have found that after years of trying, they were unable to lease commercial space in the Ada Courthouse.
We recall a recent controversy in Ketchum over a publicly owned java joint in a visitor center as well.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Jun 12, 2011, 9:31 am
“HOW COULD THIS FAIL TO MAKE MONEY?”
Another example of top down bureaucracy. I guess there was some chance that their idea for the lease space may have worked. But it was so small as to be non existent. Why can’t bureaucrats understand a basic truth. When they get together to decide what can go in the lease space, there are hundreds if not thousands of choices of what type of business that could go in. The odds that they choose the correct one is minuscule. One in ten thousand, maybe. On the other hand their request might read:
“Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency seeks interested parties to lease a (fill in the blank) business in the TVCC Building. We promise not to burden you with stupid, bureaucratic regulations and we promise to let you run your business as you see fit”
This way there will be a higher chance of success. It still sucks that the CURA is involved in this venture, but this way it might make the best of a bad situation.
Jun 12, 2011, 1:46 pm
Drop a beer and wine license in the place, then stand back and see how much money the students will spend!!