Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 31, 1995 TAG: 9507310023
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A taxpayer-supported loan aimed at encouraging business growth in Roanoke helped spark a series of events that led to a popular downtown restaurant's move to North Carolina.
Vanucci's Italian Cuisine closed June 30. Despite a loyal clientele and frequent waiting lines, Walter Vanucci says he's moving his food-service operation to a new Greensboro restaurant he expects to open this fall.
"I don't want my loyal customers I had here to feel betrayed for any reason," Vanucci said Friday. "It was purely a business decision."
His wife, Ilma Amaral, and their two children will remain in Roanoke. With her brother, she owns Carlos Brazilian International Cuisine, another popular downtown restaurant that will stay put. Vanucci will commute between Greensboro and Roanoke twice a week.
Circumstances leading to the move began early this year with a decision by Vanucci's landlord, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Philip Trompeter, to renovate the building and three adjacent properties along Market Street and Church Avenue.
After a closed-door meeting Jan. 12, City Council granted Trompeter a $100,000 low-interest loan for major repairs to the roofs, windows and cornices of the buildings. The four properties are adjacent and include the former Italian restaurant, a now-closed Hot Dog Queen, a former adult bookstore and Capitol Restaurant.
Trompeter expects to invest another $700,000 in renovating the buildings' interiors, a process that could take years.
Doug Chittum, a city economic development specialist, said the city loan is almost a prerequisite to bank financing, which is difficult to arrange on projects of this type.
Trompeter said he always expected Capitol Restaurant to move as part of his renovation plan, but he had hoped Vanucci's would move into the old Capitol space.
Vanucci said that was his intention, too - until he got an idea of the investment he would be required to make and the rent he would be asked to pay for the somewhat larger location.
He said he was offered a "shell" - commercial real estate lingo for an empty room. Vanucci would have been required to decorate and furnish it and buy expensive kitchen equipment, for which he would have had to borrow money.
Vanucci said he was offered a lease in the $16-$18 per-square-foot range, almost triple the $1,350 a month he was paying for the old space. He said it was presented as if there were no room for negotiation, and he believed the rent increase and loan payments would eat up his profits.
Trompeter disputed the restaurateur's account. While the subject of a rent increase did arise, "we never got down to brass tacks about that issue," Trompeter said, and nothing was presented as a take-it-or-leave-it offer.
"We never even got to a point where we talked about those details," he said.
The judge noted he will have to charge more for the space to recoup his large investment.
Vanucci said he began looking around for another Roanoke site but couldn't find a building at the right location in his price range.
In the meantime, several loyal customers who regularly drive to Roanoke from Greensboro learned of the situation. They begged him to move to their city.
When Roanoke heard Vanucci might be moving, officials tried to persuade him to stay, Chittum said.
"We begged him. [Economic Development Chief] Phil Sparks went down and met with him and showed him some downtown spaces," Chittum said. "We made a valiant effort to keep him here. The mayor even went down and talked with him."
But it was no go. Eventually, Vanucci found a Greensboro building that will accommodate more than double the 52 people he could seat in his old restaurant. The landlord will buy and install the kitchen equipment. And the rent is about the same as he was paying here, Vanucci said.
The new restaurant, Leblon, will open in November, he said.
It's probably unfair to say the city loan to Trompeter directly caused Vanucci to leave, Chittum said, although it's certainly one of "four or five pieces in the puzzle.''
"It's an unintended result of the building renovation. I think that's a fair statement. It's also certainly an unwelcome one."
by CNB