Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News,  Jan, 2001  

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"We've got to be one of the smaller cities with representation from all of the steak houses, without a doubt," Imbergamo says.

What's different about the restaurant industry in metro Denver today is that operators are able to do phenomenal volumes, Mathews says.

When The Cheesecake Factory opened, it was estimated to do at least $9 million in sales, besting Denver's leading restaurant, Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery a few blocks away on the 16th Street Mall downtown. Cheesecake Factory's manager reported a year later the restaurant not only had met its sales expectations but even was exceeding them. That store reportedly does $11 million to $12 million a year in sales. A second Cheesecake opened in Boulder last year.

Steak houses such as Del Frisco's also reportedly are generating sales similar to Cheesecake's numbers.

At the same time restaurants in the metro Denver area have seen increases in the cost of leases although rents are still all over the map, Mathews maintains.

"Older mom-and-pop deals can be $8, $10, $12 a square foot, while a new II Fornaio at Flatiron Crossing is $30 a square foot," he says. "It all depends on the location and if a landlord has made a contribution to improve the space."

The biggest challenge for all restaurants, however, remains the state's low unemployment, which has been at or below 3 percent for the past year and a half.

"The biggest obstacle to enter the Denver market is employment," Imbergamo says.

DENVER

(2001 estimates, except as noted; growth rates are est. 2001 vs. est. 1999, except as noted)

Population: 2.28 million, +6.36%

Population growth, est. 1999 vs. 1990: +32.39%

2006 population forecast: 2.44 million

Disposable Income: $52.92 billion, .15.85%

Household Income: $62,211, +9.33%

Per-capita Income: $24,902, +10.46%

Eating-and-drinking place sales (1999): $2.15 billion

No. of foodservice & drinking places (1997): 3,875

Foodservice & drinking place payroll (1997): $690.3 million

No. of foodservice & drinking place employees (1997): 72,804

No. of residents per foodservice & drinking place (1997): 491

Hourly minimum wage: $5.15

Employers' tip-credit allowance: $2.13

State and local sales tax: 2.9%-7.95%

Annual economic Impact of travel and tourism (1999): $2.3 billion

Local unemployment rate: 2.4%

Sources: U.S. Dept of commerce; u.s. Census Bureau; Editor & Publisher Market Guide; NRN Research.

Detroit

Carolyn Walkup

Once the scene of urban blight, Motown is hip-hoppin' to a new beat. revitalization

A renaissance is taking place in the city best known for auto manufacturing, Motown music and, unfortunately, a blighted downtown.

Since the 1950s Detroit has lost about 1 million residents, mostly to the suburbs, in one of the most massive examples of "white flight" in the country, exacerbated by rioting in the late 1960s. Business owners also gave up on the city. Many abandoned buildings and vacant lots still mar the urban landscape. Suburban population now totals an estimated 3.8 million, compared with about 1 million in the city, according to data compiled by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.