Five area businesses, including 4 in Elyria, close doors as economic slump continues
ELYRIA - Four Elyria businesses - Krazy Mac`s, Blockbuster, Pulse Cafe and World Leather Outlet have closed, along with Carpet & Tile Liquidators in Sheffield.
As if that weren`t bad enough, four more downtown properties owned by real estate developer Jay G. Tokar go on the auction block Wednesday, creating more uncertainty.
Phone numbers for several of the shuttered businesses and their owners were disconnected or rang without answer.
But signs on the doors of the empty businesses told the story. Krazy Mac`s, which engaged in a long battle with the city of Elyria over a sign when it opened last year, will relocate to Lakewood in June, according to a notice on the door of the restaurant at Broad and Cedar streets.
Don Brackenhoff, the city`s economic development director, said he lunched several weeks ago at Krazy Mac`s, and owner Ron Heinbaugh didn`t mention he was contemplating a move. Brackenhoff said the closings of Blockbuster on Cleveland Street and Carpet & Tile Liquidators on Abbe Road probably relate to difficulties within their chains.
A sign on the Blockbuster store on Cleveland Street said another Blockbuster store remains open in North Olmsted.
Eight of the 14 Carpet & Tile Liquidators, including the Sheffield store, have closed while the six stores that remain open are selling off flooring stock, according to an employee of the Strongsville store.
World Leather Outlet, on Cleveland Street, featured clothing and other leather goods.
As for Pulse Cafe, another eatery, Brackenhoff said owner David Andras had a one-year lease for his Middle Avenue restaurant, which is in one of the Tokar buildings to be auctioned next week.
A sheriff`s sale is set for 10 a.m. Wednesday for four buildings owned by JGT Enterprises Inc., the company led by Tokar, once referred to as king of Elyria`s downtown. The JGT Annex at 374 Broad St. includes two law firms, offices for a security company, the Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Services and headquarters of the Ohio Elks. It is appraised at $360,000, a reduction of $90,000 from its appraised value of $450,000 in October.
Also to be auctioned Wednesday are Tokar`s buildings at 140, 144, 146 and 148 Middle Ave., which are home to Minute Men Staffing, Pulse Cafe and several residential units. Lumped together for sale, the buildings are appraised for $270,000, a reduction of $105,000 from their appraised value in October.
Minimum bids start at two-thirds of the appraised value, or $240,000 for the JGT annex and $180,000 for the buildings on Middle Avenue, according to a representative of the sheriff`s civil office, which conducts the sales.
The high bidder must have 10 percent of the winning bid unless it is the plaintiff in the foreclosure. National City Bank sued JGT for foreclosure, and some $45,000 in delinquent taxes are owed on the buildings.
Last fall, several other Tokar buildings were foreclosed on and sold, and tenants were able to remain in those buildings, Elyria Mayor Bill Grace said.
Nationwide Insurance agent Brian Fehlan, who operates at 140 Middle Ave., says he isn`t worried about the abrupt change in ownership.
“I would think whoever bought it would like to have tenants,” he said.
Grace said he hopes prospective buyers will see value in the latest round of Tokar buildings to go on the auction block.
It`s sad when businesses close, but it`s happening all over the country, the mayor said.
The closings “are just additional results of this horrible economy we`re in,” Grace said. But several new businesses opened last week, he said.
Overall, Elyria Auditor Ted Pileski said city income tax revenue is down 10 percent this year.
“This is kind of unprecedented,” Pileski said, adding that the city hasn`t taken such a hit since the closing of GM`s Fisher Guide plant.
Meanwhile, the city will likely see $100,000 less in revenue-sharing from the state, Pileski said.
“I see no reason to believe it will change (in the near future) because of store closings and people being laid off,” he said.
Between November and April, a total of 6,734 people lost their jobs in the 44035 area code shared by Elyria and parts of Carlisle and Elyria townships, Pileski said. There were slightly fewer new jobless claims - 903 - in April versus the 1,102 in March, he said.
Still, the news for Elyria hasn`t been all bad. A new art school and studio opened recently at 381 Broad St. And in the coming weeks, at least four other small businesses plan to open, a women`s clothing boutique called Kelly`s Boutique at 10 Lake Ave., a shoe store called Steppin` Out! Footwear at 381 Broad St., a diner and coffeehouse called Peggy`s Place at 354 Broad St. and an information-technology consulting firm, Bafmin LLC, on Middle Avenue.
Contact Cindy Leise at 329-7245 or cleise@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by May 22nd, 2009 in BREAKING.
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Mr. Brackenhoff,
please close your mouth and wipe the drool off. Of course a business owner is not going to tell you a thing. But then again even if they did would you notice? (think)Value City)
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Will inflated residential property values be reduced by 20 to 28% as these commercial properties were?
if the Auditor gives us a 5% reduction we’ll be lucky. They need your money, why you ask……………………
What is the largest employer in the county ? You guessed it, Lorain County Government!
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Wonder if their signs had anything to do with it.?
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hummm2680,
Value City? Whats that got to do with Brackengoof? Value City was not in Elyria, so why would they care to talk with him? More intelligence is needed before posting.
JMHO.
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So what city was Value City located then?
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So Elyria wants to fight one of their actually successful businesses, Krazy Mac’s, over whether their sign creates a blight on the city… yet the remains of General Industries sit for months, creating more of a blight than a simple sign ever could. That’s just perfect….
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if Krazy Mac’s was so successful, then why shut down.
running a restaurant right now is very, very difficult, that’s the reason the big boys ( McD, Burger King, Arby’s, Fridays, KFC) are advertising more, for a better shot at the limited income
BTW the sign issue was more with the sign guy who thought he could do whatever he wanted.
as far as GI goes ( which is totally apples and oranges), can’t blame the city for not wanting to foot the bill for cleanup and I dont believe the building owner had insurance on the property, so it waits.
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EDB, same as it has been for 50 years. But not in a city. Carlisle Twps.
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Johns,
thats a great point. If Krazy Macs was all that good it would still be open. Personally i was not into 12.00 mac and cheese when I could by Kraft and throw some bacon bits on it and call it gourmet.
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Wow, people have such short memories, or memories that just serve their little pokes and jabs. To those with poor memmories, rember when Value City was closing and Mr. Brackenoff didn’t know it until he saw the signs posted all over town that they were closing? He expressed concern over the closing.Apparently sarcasm is greatly lost upon some of the posters here. What it means is that as an economic developer, he needs to actually leave his office for other purposes than just heading home at the end of the day. Tour the city, check in on some of the smaller business locations then work your way up. The TOPS location - what’s going on there?, the old Manor Electro alloy building being torn down on Abbe whats that site becoming? the old Circuit City building ect ect. is there a plan or just ho hum lets see what happens eventually.Location for some of these business is not that good. Blockbuster was a pain (just like the Red Barn site it currently sits) Krazy Mac’s also has a poor location due to the lights and traffic. Pulse Cafe ? I never knew when it was open. The city needs an aggressive economic plan and some exposure as to whats happening in town not wait until its too late and then say well they never said they were goining to close up!
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just my 1.2 cents it would have been 2 cents but taxes and such ……
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See the usual Grace goonies are attacking Krazy Mac’s, maybe because Ron & Brian made Grace look like the fool he is over his Design Review rules. Hey Brakenoff maybe Ron will call you like Wal-Mart did, Oh sorry forgot Wal-Mart hasn’t called yet.
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I think the saga over the sign lasted longer than the business.
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sparrky, if you re-read the postings, KM only came up because a poster made the claim of chasing off a successfull business.
whether it called design review or planning commision, most cities have some sort of design review process to approve signage in their communities. I know of a business (not in Lorain Co. but close) who had a sign issue in another community because one was illuminated and the other was not. He had to come up with a acceptable solution and come back to the planning commission
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johns
I agree with you in part about most post claiming it might have been chased away. I should have been pointed out this post below; I will admit it put blinders on as to the other post. So there for I was referring to, in my opinion, one Grace goonie. If one would look back when the saga was going on about the Krazy Mac sign you would fined this same person but under a different screen saying the personally was into $12.00 Mac & cheese back then.
jonessandy Says:
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:01 am
Johns,
thats a great point. If Krazy Macs was all that good it would still be open. Personally i was not into 12.00 mac and cheese when I could by Kraft and throw some bacon bits on it and call it gourmet.
(Report comment)