specialty food shops

[sarah5]

I think that adding a variety of specialty food shops/cafe's to downtown would bring a TON of business, beautification & people to downtown. Some ideas for shops are bakeries, chocolate shop, bread shop, or fine meat & cheese deli. An idea for a cafe is a gourmet panini cafe (where you could get ANYTHING on a grilled sandwich). The more unique, unusual & modern the better. Everyone, especially the college students are attracted to anything that is not mainstream. When I travel the last place I want to eat is a chain restaurant. I am all about checking out what is unique to the area.

A kinda sore spot on some areas of 4th ave. are "junk" shops. I am not sure what kind of "rules" are downtown right now but I think making standards that all shops have to live up to or they are out!! I think this would weed out many of the lazy shop owners and make it easier on entrepreneurs to own their own spot.

It has been such a long time since Huntington has been vibrant that most places are SOOO ran down. On top of that the places are expensive and need a TON of renovation. Which makes it VERY hard for someone to come in and turn it around. What if the city had some sort of "helps" program for entrepreneurs with a great, unique business plan?

[tbailey1138]

Great ideas. They are putting in a place on 4th Ave where Quizno's used to be called the Blackhawk Cafe. It is supposedly run by the same guy who runs the Blackhawk Grille in Barboursville. So that may help fill some of this niche. In terms of a chocolate shop, there's a guy here in Huntington that makes chocolate and I think it would be neat if he or someone else would open a choclate store. http://www.chiammaya.com/index.php Also a Panera type of store would do good on 4th Ave as well. The more stuff like this the better!
Tim

[JW]

If the city would be more small business freindly and be able to offer some assistance to fledgling businesses, perhaps figure out how to secure extra low interest loans or some sort of special rent/lease agreements to help business owners get started, then your good vision may just be able to get off the ground.

[Christina Bailey]

I would love to see more stores like this downtown, too. Also, I think it would be great to have some sort of higher-end grocery store like Whole Foods or Trader Joes downtown. It would be ideal to have it within walking distance of all the new condos and flats that are being built so that these residents would have a convenient place to shop. And I'm sure a lot of other people would frequent this type of grocery store as well-- I know I would!

[tbailey1138]

A grocery store is VITAL to the residential growth of downtown. It would also be worth it to see if someone who is already here like Julian Saad could open something like this. He already has a small grocery store so he could split products between the 2. Buying more bulk might also help him decrease costs while increasing profit.

In addition to a small gorcery store downtown, Huntington desparately needs to have one of the Krogers renovated or enlarged. Since the one on 5th avenue wasn't even originally a Kroger, it would be nice to see them build a new one on the same lot parallel to the railroad tracks and then tear the old one down for parking. This would allow them to offer better and more products and also probably bring more people from across the river. I think this would be true especially once the food tax is completely gone. Look how popular the one in Barboursville is. I think it would also entice more people to live downtown if they had a nicer grocery store and it might even encourage more development in that area they way that things can snowball sometimes.
Tim

[eve]

I looooove the idea of a Trader Joes downtown,which would solve both the whole foods and the general grocery needs of downtown Huntington, as well as international and organic foods. The one in Columbus has great Chocolate and Wine sections, too.

For the location, it would need to be near enough to 3rd or 5th Avenue so it could be reached quickly from the highway (6th St bridge) with ample parking, yet close to Pullman. And as JW said, maybe the property owner or the city could offer something to attract Trader Joes here, like lower rent or a B&O cut.

Oh, and I think a Trader Joes might carry some of our local WV made products, too.

[nayji]

Trader Joe's has been contacted. They have a very specific plan for growth and it doesn't include WV anytime soon. But that doesn't mean we couldn't have a similar type store downtown. Does anyone know of other stores that might fit the bill? We could contact them and see if they could be convinced to come here.

Also, the Saad's idea is great. Has anyone talked to Mr. Saad about it?

[tbailey1138]

I've never talked to Mr. Saad about it myself but I'm not sure if others have. I think it would be best to offer something like this to someone local first and then go to other national stores. Since Trader Joe's is a no go, what about a place like Whole Foods Market? They might be a fit. Either way, we do need at least a small grocery store downtown if we expect more and more people to live down there. Here's a link to Whole Foods. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/
Tim

[Mark Hallburn]

Trader Joe's would be GREAT for Huntingon! I would drive there AT LEAST once a week!

Mark Hallburn
www.PutnamLIVE.com

[Richard Cobb]

Great ideas, guys! Living, working and playing in our newly developing "urbanized" downtown area is the wave of the future; it has already begun. Good on us!

[bloomingkit]

Anybody know how to start a food co-op? Many college towns have those in place. I know there is Good Foods in Lexington, KY. Whole Foods is getting killed in the market and I imagine Huntington's demographics suggest there is not enough wealth to support one. (and whole foods is really expensive, which is why I would always go to Trader Joes instead.)