Like so many cities, downtown Rochester business owners are eager to say hello to the good weather and al fresco dining by opening their sidewalk cafes.
In Rochester, there's at least three new sidewalk dining choices. The cafes could have opened April 15th, but the weather had other ideas.
So as soon as possible,
Sanders' ice cream and candy store is opening an outdoor area, as is
Tower Pizza. The former Andiamo's Italian, which became a
Rojo Mexican restaurant last year, will also for the first time throw open its large wooden shutters on downtown.
Penny Black, a restaurant opened in November in the former downtown post office and named after the first postage stamp, offers an outdoor patio at busy 4th and Walnut Street this year. Penny Black's owners also operate The Hills restaurant in Rochester Hills.
"We didn't have a restaurant there all last summer, so that was a pretty dead corner for us," says Kristi Trevarrow, executive director of the
Rochester Downtown Development Authority.
Downtown Rochester's retail vacancy rate is still low at three percent, and its downtown office space vacancy rate is 20 percent, or about 120,000 square feet, she says. New owners of the office space are taking an active approach to finding new tenants.
"We're excited when it's time for the outdoor dining to return," she says. "It adds more interest. It put more people on the streets. People walk or drive by and want to stop and be a part of the activity."
Source: Kristi Trevarrow, executive director, Downtown Rochester DDA
Writer: Kim North Shine
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