Comments on: Another Bar Down: Copa Too To Close http://www.philebrity.com/2007/05/21/another-bar-down-copa-too-to-close/ philly's longest-standing cityblog Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:04:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Sonnyhttp://www.philebrity.com/2007/05/21/another-bar-down-copa-too-to-close/comment-page-1/#comment-2281 Sonny Wed, 23 May 2007 18:26:31 +0000 http://www.philebrity.com/2007/05/21/another-bar-down-copa-too-to-close/#comment-2281 This reminds me of the fable from Aesop about the dog with a bone in its mouth that saw his reflection in the water and lost his bone trying to go after what he thought was the bigger one.If there's one thing to avoid in urban retail -- restaurants are retailers -- in real estate markets other than New York City, it's turnover. The owner of this place had one tenant for 22 years, and that kind of consistency is money in the bank.Now comes some prolonged period of tenants in a revolving door -- clothing boutique that fails, sundry store that fails, Dunkin' Donuts that fails -- that gives the owner nothing but headaches, until one day we find newspaper covering the windows and no one moving in. This is what most of Philadelphia looked like in the 70s and 80s. This reminds me of the fable from Aesop about the dog with a bone in its mouth that saw his reflection in the water and lost his bone trying to go after what he thought was the bigger one.

If there’s one thing to avoid in urban retail — restaurants are retailers — in real estate markets other than New York City, it’s turnover. The owner of this place had one tenant for 22 years, and that kind of consistency is money in the bank.

Now comes some prolonged period of tenants in a revolving door — clothing boutique that fails, sundry store that fails, Dunkin’ Donuts that fails — that gives the owner nothing but headaches, until one day we find newspaper covering the windows and no one moving in. This is what most of Philadelphia looked like in the 70s and 80s.

]]>