City Council to take up Piggy's loan

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Oct 14, 2004 | by Kent, Joan, | Cahalan, Steve

City officials and the owner of Piggy's on Front came to terms Tuesday, and the La Crosse Common Council will vote tonight on owner Chris Roderique's request for a $500,000 loan from the city.

Roderique plans to move Piggy's to the former Mike's Building Supply building at 100 King St. and is seeking the loan from the city to help convert the new location to a restaurant.

Roderique said Wednesday he bought the new location about three weeks ago. He declined to say what he paid for it but said buying and renovating the building will cost more than $4 million.

"It's an empty building," Roderique said. "If I don't get the financial package I need, it will remain an empty building."

The city loan is an important part of the package, he said. With it, he said, he is optimistic he will obtain' the additional financing he needs from a bank. He hopes to begin renovation work about Nov. 1.

The restaurant's move is one of the pieces in the city's preparation of a site on Front Street for the Riverside Center, which will house Logistics Health Inc. The site will include the former Listman Mill property, which the city owns, the Cargill grain elevator property, and the property where Piggy's is located.

The city has been negotiating with Roderique, who owns the restaurant business, and with Gary and Sue Roberts, who own the restaurant building. .

"Yes, we have come to some sort of terms on the loan with the city," Roderique said after the council's Committee of the Whole considered the loan request in a closed session.

"Now we can move forward to the bank financing."

Roderique declined to say what the exact amount of the city loan will be.

"We have offered them a loan and they have agreed to the terms," said Council President Mark Johnsrud.

But he said the amount of the loan will not be exactly $500,000. "It is money we have already borrowed," he said. "We are not going to borrow additional money." He would not yet specify the source of the money and said he did not know the exact amount.

With the loan, Roderique and Mike Poellinger of Poellinger Inc., consultant on the renovation, said they hope to develop a "premier downtown destination."

Like the current location, the new site will have a river view, Roderique said. The restaurant probably will be on the second floor, and the first floor might be converted to a banquet facility, he said.

"The menu will be the same," said Roderique, who also plans to keep the Piggy's name. "That is what is driving our business."

The size will be slightly smaller, and will accommodate 125 people compared with 150 in the current location.

The challenge will be to meet the time frame, Poellinger said. The restaurant must move from the current location by March 31, he said. "We have compressed from the average of six to eight months to a tight window."

"Our last date of business (at the current location) is preliminarily the 31st of March," Roderique said. "We want to have a seamless transition" and open immediately after that at the new location.

Roderique said his current location has a great atmosphere, ambiance, view and location. "I think it'll be even better," he said of the new location.

He also said he isn't concerned that the new Logistics Health building also will have a restaurant. "It doesn't bother me," he said. "I think the more the merrier. If we can get this little corner of downtown well-known for excellent restaurants, we should be able to feed off each other and all be successful."