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Food & Beverage Industry

Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2001

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Meanwhile, new business and residential areas have sprung up in sprawling suburbs, creating a wealth of opportunities for restaurant operators there.

While the suburbs continue to grow outward from the city core, the downtown finally is seeing some major revitalization. And this time it appears as if many of the plans actually will become reality.

"Cities take a long time to rebuild," says Lawrence Marantette, outgoing president of the Greater Downtown Partnership. He notes that $3 billion in investment has been committed to the downtown core just in the last three years.

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"There is a common agenda for investment under Mayor [Dennis] Archer," Marantette says. "He's been in office for five years, and it takes a while to incubate development. Now it's just blossoming."

Major new developments either open or in the works include Comerica Park, the Detroit Tigers baseball stadium; Ford Field, the Detroit Lions football stadium; a theater district; three casinos; relocation of General Motors Corp. global headquarters from the suburbs to downtown; hotel renovations; creation of Campus Martius Park, a major mixed-use project that will include the $300 million world headquarters of Compuware Corp.; and construction and renovation of thousands of housing units.

A $1.6 billion expansion planned for Detroit Metropolitan Airport should benefit the entire area. Planners hope that the new terminal will open before the end of 2001.

All of that development is just the beginning of new opportunities for restaurant owners, retailers and entertainment operators, Marantette says.

Within the last 18 months eight restaurants and nightclubs have opened downtown. While not a large number, it is a new phenomenon for downtown. "Restaurateurs are waiting to see which way things will go," says Jerry McVety, a restaurant consultant based in suburban Farmington Hills.

Matthew Prentice, president of the $36.5 million Unique Restaurant Corp. in Bingham Farms, owns 12 restaurants and manages 15. Only two, Duet and Deli Unique Detroit, are located downtown.

"Detroit is probably one of the toughest restaurant cities in the United States, if not the toughest, because there is not a true city base, where people are coming into town to do business or shop or be entertained," Prentice says.

Duet does only one-tenth the volume on a Monday night that it does on a Friday or Saturday night, when guests are downtown for theater or concerts. "In the suburbs it's more balanced," Prentice says.

Prentice has developed a large corporate and social catering operation to help even out the slower times, especially on week nights. "You have to be more creative here to be profitable," he notes.

"Detroiters are largely homebodies. In Chicago people dine from 5:30 to 10:30, but here everyone wants a 7 or 7:30 reservation," Prentice says.

Mickey Bakst, who manages the Farmington Hills restaurant Tribute -- which is owned by Epoch Restaurants and ranks as the metro area's priciest restaurant with a $125 check average -- agrees that the market presents considerable challenges. "There's no tourism, no conventions, no masses of people coming in," he says. "It's challenging to be competing in a market that doesn't have what makes big-city markets click."

Food & Beverage Industry

Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2001

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