Eggs For The Omelet
By Mitch Berg
Yet another University Avenue business – the Mai Village, which was one of the great University Avenue success stories until the Met Council’s toy train came along – is bleeding out the nose:
[Owner Mai] Nguyen said profits were down at least a third since construction began, which amounts to about $30,000 a month in losses. The $15,000 a month mortgage, which doesn’t include property taxes or insurance, has been impossible to keep up with, she said.
Mai Village did receive a $400,000 loan from the city — which has been deferred — to help build the restaurant. In addition, it received a $20,000 forgivable loan for help with construction-related losses, but Nguyen said that is a “drop in the bucket.”
In addition, the county halved the restaurant’s property taxes when the building’s value decreased a few years ago.
The couple has appealed to city leaders for more help, but has received little response, Nguyen said.
And the response (with emphasis added)?
City Council Member Melvin Carter III said his office has done everything it can to help Mai Village, and that there isn’t enough money to go around to help all the businesses that are suffering.
Anyone up for a MOB Vietnamese food night / slash / primer on the Central Corridor Business Destruction Zone?
September 18th, 2012 at 8:08 am
Anyone up for a MOB Vietnamese food night / slash / primer on the Central Corridor Business Destruction Zone?
Yes! Seriously, it’s a great idea! Even if one does not like Vietnamese food, I’m certain several folks would show up just to help the cause.
September 18th, 2012 at 8:14 am
I spent a couple of months last Winter working a project down there, about a block West of KSTP on University. The choo choo crept up while I was there, and suddenly driving was impossible. I won’t go back there ever if I can help it. Number of light rail trips I’ve made: Zero.
September 18th, 2012 at 9:00 am
We’d be up for that. Our family goes down there now and then (and, regrettably, less since the construction began) to eat at Saigon. We really like the pho and spring rolls there, but we could try a new place. Does Mai Village ban guns on the premises?
September 18th, 2012 at 10:58 am
If Mai Village can’t make it, I wonder who can.
September 18th, 2012 at 11:16 am
I wish I could–out of work and down in Waseca gets in the way, though.
It’s worth noting that this is yet another “investment” by government that is falling through. Sum up 400 big in direct subsidy to build it and about a million in loans, and this could be a big place that should never have been built. Even if you reverse the $30k/month loss, you are talking about a place barely covering the investment needed to build it–ROI on this kind of thing should be a LOT better.
September 18th, 2012 at 11:57 am
So if we were to do this, what’d be better – a weeknight (say, Thursday) or a weekend (Saturday or Sunday evening)?
September 18th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Trouble in the Mid-East is the reason University Avenue anchor business Mai Village is folding.
It must be. The City swore in Federal Court – twice – that light rail construction had no significant impact on local businesses, that any economic decline was caused by the larger national economy or by world events.
President Obama assures us the economy is booming so that can’t be it. It must be the riots in Benghazi, right?
Sure, I’m in for food. Thursday night is good for me. What’s the special?
September 18th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Kind of gets back to the left being generous with other people’s money. Charity is good as long as you tax other people and have the gov’t spend it.
Light rail is great, but I wonder why the Twin Cities left isn’t going in mass to spend money at these businesses. Same as my first point….they don’t want to do the work themselves, but to just make decisions from a far and not worry about making any actual sacrifices yourself.
September 18th, 2012 at 9:26 pm
The reason why light rail was abandoned in U.S. cities was because it could not handle a dynamic, growing population center. Cities spent millions on streetcar routes that eventually became useless.
The city fathers want to determine where you live, where you work, and where you shop. Once the light rail is in place, all kinds of laws will be enacted that restrict human freedom in order to preserve the light rail “investment”.
September 19th, 2012 at 10:14 am
Another reason light rail was rightly abandoned is the weight of a carriage needed to keep the carriage on the tracks with a 4’9″ rail gauge. More or less, when you do the math, you need 1-2 tons of carriage per peak rider, and that carriage is empty 3/4 of the time because cities also did restrictive zoning to keep industry away from residential areas. So outbound in the morning and inbound in the evening are empty, as is off peak–but you need to run those trains to let people know they can get somewhere when they need to.
In short, light rail is like giving everyone a Suburban that goes three miles empty for every mile it’s actually driven by a driver.