Changes Coming To Broadway Businesses
Broadway businesses merging, updating
Link (JG)
“As business and property owners prepare for a Thursday meeting to discuss the future of the Broadway corridor, two landmark restaurants have struck a merger deal, and an international grocery store and microbrewery have improvement plans on the table.
About 4 p.m. Tuesday, owners of Chappell’s Seafood Market South, 2723 Broadway, and Hartley’s, 4301 Fairfield Ave., reached a merger agreement, according to Gary Chappell.
Discussions about a merger had been ongoing since early this year, Chappell said.”
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“Jerry Rongos, co-owner of George’s International Grocery, said he plans to improve the store’s facade at the shopping plaza at Broadway and Taylor Street.
Rongos said he would also like to eventually expand the store but that initial work will focus on beautifying the landscape and facade.
Mad Anthony Brewing Co. at Taylor and Broadway plans to add an outdoor seating area and facade work, according to Jeff Neels, co-owner and partner.
The patio will have seating for about 30 people. Representatives from the three businesses all said they were energized by word of the Broadway corridor improvements, as well as the potential business boost from the Harrison Square development.
On Thursday, property owners and tenants along Broadway will meet to talk about transforming the corridor into an eclectic, diverse, unified village.”
I’m excited by the prospect of improvements on Broadway, especially around Broadway & Taylor. I occasionally bemoan not having a supermarket within walking distance, when actually, George’s is within walking distance of much of West Central. It’s just a little farther than many residents are used to walking (not more than 50 feet from front door to parking spot, to drive to Henry’s).
The times that I’ve shopped at George’s I’ve liked the store. Good selection, interesting variety. I don’t know why I don’t think of it more often.
A big improvement in that area wouldn’t involve extensive planning or expense; cut down the ailanthus altissima trees and other trash vegetation by the railroad elevation and underpass, and treat the stumps with brush killer so they won’t sprout seven new trees for every one cut down. Ailanthus is generally recognized as a marker of blighted areas.
Pointless geezer reminiscing to some, but when I settled in West Central in the late sixties, the stretch of Broadway approximately from Wayne to Jefferson offered Alter’s Pharmacy, a bakery, a butcher shop, a Chinese laundry, a restaurant that was nice before Coopers got it, a Maloley’s grocery and a hardware store. The building on Jefferson now owned by Strebig was a Rogers Market.