developer meeting

today we met with the Harper Court developer and his colleague, some kind of expert on restaurants. they showed us detailed plans for the new buildings and we discussed how mundo bizarro could fit into the development. they both showered praise on our business plan. apparently i did a great job writing the thing, we get that from everyone who sees it. :-)

this is the map of the proposed redevelopment, from the Harper Court website. the blue section (A) is the Harper Court frontage, which is where mundo bizarro could be located. more specifically, the developer is thinking of placing us on the east side of the street, within the red oval area:

it’s not the greatest spot as far as visibility or proximity to the movie theater or the Hyatt’s front door, for example. it’s actually hidden from the theater entrance by the Hyatt Hotel building (the light blue rectangle in the center). in addition, the developers mentioned a few possible restaurants/pubs being interested in the venture, and being slotted in the more prominent locations (like the corners). all of that combined with the very high rent makes this less than ideal option for mundo bizarro. plus i would still prefer an old building over new construction (with that unique Hyde Park charm, preferably!) and a corner spot over being lost among a line of storefronts.

the meeting was quite productive. we talked numbers and money and construction costs and white box versus black box (has to do with how finished or raw the space is) and plumbing and venting and permits and taxes and rent and everything else, really. we ended the meeting with them needing more numbers from us and us being less positive about renting their space. well, me being less positive, Aloke still sees that location as a strong possibility, despite the many issues we’re not thrilled about.

overall, the meeting brought up new things to talk through, clarified some old questions, and opened up new ideas for us. like for me, trying again for Madison Park…