New crisis means new rules for community development

 As giant chains close locations en masse (and almost arbitrarily), and mall developers declare bankruptcy, we're reminded once again why locally-owned, locally supported businesses are important.

Tumbleweeds Restaurants were "back on the growth track" a couple years ago. Now the Wisconsin locations - including the Franklin location, which seemed to be popular - have abruptly closed. Did it matter that business was good at the Franklin location? Not a whit to a franchise; the Excel spread sheet tells the corporate office what to close without regard to local conditions.

Woe be to the city that places too much trust on big chain restaurants and retailers without encouraging a "deep economy" of locally owned businesses. This will be something I'll attempt to emphasize for as long as they let me serve on the Economic Development Commission - - you'll see more on the topic here in coming weeks, as my first meeting with the Commission (which I will write about in the very near future) did not seem to address that issue.

Meanwhile, we await the tenant announcements for Shoppes at Wyndham Village (aka The Target Center); will there be incentives for local businesses, or is it a Starbucks-only zone?

New crisis, in commercial real estate, looms - Economy in Turmoil- msnbc.com

Comments

[Greg Kowalski]

Here's to hoping that Tumbleweed will be returning to Franklin and New Berlin; the corporate office has tried several times to purchase the properties from the franchisee. Sadly, no luck.

I'll assume that the corporate desire to purchase the properties means that they'd still like to be in the Milwaukee area.

[John Michlig]

It's a lesson in the arbitrary nature of chain/franchise site management. It's not enough for one particular site to do well.