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Food & Beverage Industry

Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2001

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Brandel says that he got "a pretty good deal" on his lease that's a little better than the most desirable suburban locations. While other reasonable lease arrangements exist downtown, he reports that "they're going fast" as more restaurant operators gamble on the future.

While the downtown Detroit area offers growth potential for restaurateurs, the outer edges of the suburbs also afford the best opportunities for operators who hope to follow the shifting population, according to Jim Rogers, data center manager of SEMCOG.

DETROIT

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

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Population: 4.52 million, +2.26%

Population growth, est. 1999 vs. 1990: +4.49%

2006 population forecast: 4.90 million

Disposable income: $120.70 billion, +7.17%

Household Income: $71,874, +4.66%

Per-capita income: $26,674, +4.78%

Eating-and-drinking place sales (1999): $4.62 billion

No. of foodservice & drinking places (1997): 7,346

Foodservice & drinking place payroll (1997): $1.17 billion

No. of foodservice & drinking place employees (1997): 130,192

No. of residents per foodservice & drinking place (1997): 608

Hourly minimum wage: $5.15

Employers' tip-credit allowance: $2.50

State and local sales tax: 6%

Annual economic impact of travel and tourism: $4.4 billion

Local unemployment rate: 3.0%

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

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Bonnie Brewer Cavanaugh

As a city grows up, tourists help fuel thriving restaurant industry

When an illuminated pine cone dropped from the balcony of the Hotel Weatherford in Flagstaff, Ariz., at midnight Jan. 1 -- a Western twist on Manhattan's famed Times Square ball-dropping celebration -- it ushered in more than a new year in this growing city.

Amid the area's lush forests of Ponderosa pine and quaking aspen trees, the pine cone drop symbolized the opening of a new era in local history. As the new century dawned, residents prepared to embrace Flagstaff's rapid growth and to mend rifts in its business community and citizenry that run almost as deep as the nearby Grand Canyon itself.

Those rifts were created not by the rushing Colorado River but by something nearly as powerful: change.

Winds of change have been blowing through the high mountain city -- known around Coconino County simply as "Flag" -- ever since its population hit the magical number of 50,000 back in 1995. Before then life was rather ordinary. Although the population had been steadily increasing at a pace of about 3 percent yearly for ages, nothing much had happened to ruffle anyone's feathers.

But then the big guys came to town.

"Since we hit 50,000, every chain in the country came here to open something," says Pamela "Sam" Green, co-owner of the 101-year-old Weatherford Hotel, which houses Charlie's Bar & Grill, an eatery dating back to the time of Western writer Zane Grey. Green is a member of the Downtown Business Alliance and an active voice in maintaining the integrity of the downtown district.

Food & Beverage Industry

Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2001

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