How Will Restaurants Benefit From GPAC?

GPACers have long been promoting how downtown restaurant owners will gain more business from the proposed Greensboro performing arts center and while I can't say one way or the other, with the help of members of Real Progress For Greensboro I have these maps that put it into perspective. You might recognize the maps as the same map the GPAC Task Force released to display their "excellent" parking arrangements with the red line set at 1200' from GPAC. We just added the restaurants. Clicking on either image will expand its size.

The following restaurants are over 1200' from the proposed location of the Greensboro Performing Arts Center. How much business will they gain? Methinks not much.

Fincastle's Diner
Bloody Mary's
Opa Greek Cuisine
Pizzeria L'Italiano
Pointe-Noire African & Caribbean Fusion Cafe
TAVO Restaurant and Tavern
Thai Pan
Undercurrent Restaurant

The following restaurants will not be passed by visitors who are on their way from the GPAC recommended parking garages to and from GPAC even though some of them are within 1200'. How much business will they gain? How much business do they stand to lose to GPAC attendees who are taking up the parking spaces where their customers regularily park?

Fincastle's Diner
Bloody Mary's
Opa Greek Cuisine
Pizzeria L'Italiano
Pointe-Noire African & Caribbean Fusion Cafe
TAVO Restaurant and Tavern
Thai Pan
Undercurrent Restaurant
Stumble Stilskins
Cincy's
Venice Italian

Of course, that's not all of our downtown restaurants but I think you get the picture. Especially if you happen to be a downtown restaurant owner. And what about downtown shop owners, how do you fit into the picture? Will there be enough walk-in traffic for you to justify hiring entire night shifts to capture GPAC walk-in business? Again, that's a question I cannot answer for you.

So it appears that only a handful of downtown restaurants stand to gain from the location chosen for GPAC. Was that deliberate? I don't know but it is very close to Center Point where Mayor Robbie Perkins is the leasing agent for the restaurant properties inside the building there.

Laugh at us and call us Provincial all you like but small town residents be they from the North or the South expect and demand convenient parking at the businesses where we spend our money. And if downtown Greensboro's restaurants and shops are unable to provide that... Well there's always the ever growing Friendly Shopping Center, the mall and in my case, Burlington. Do the math people. While I live only 3 miles from downtown Greensboro, I can be seated in my favorite restaurant in Burlington more quickly than I can drive to downtown Greensboro, park the car and walk several blocks. And with my 50 MPG Toyota and no parking fees I actually save money.