“They’ve been opening a lot of stores in a lot of places, but they promised us they will be the next one they start,” Smith said to the several hundred in attendance to hear the annual city update held this year at the former Danbarry Theater on NW Washington Boulevard that’s expected to be home to a new Shooters Sports Grill. “So they are coming, I do get a lot of questions, so you can have your epic tacos at some point in 2023.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
This is the first news about the status of the Agave & Rye development for about a year. The Journal-News reached out to the owners several weeks ago but were declined an interview through a contracted media relations company.
The delay had been due to the owners trying to right-size their project, which will be a little smaller in scope and will see more parking instead of pickleball courts.
“There are going to be a couple of mild changes,” Smith said. “With inflation and everything else, they were hoping to come in at close to $2.5 million, and their numbers came in well north of $2.5 million.”
Construction activity should start in 30 to 45 days as a demolition permit has been pulled to raze the building behind the historic Ritzi garage structure. The owners, however, dispute any construction-related timeline saying through the media relations company in an email earlier this week, “[I]t’s undetermined as of today as to when development will begin.”
Though Smith didn’t say why costs exceeded the projected budget, this is the first Agave & Rye that’s not either a new construction project or a remodeling of a former restaurant. They’re converting a former automotive garage, Ritzi Body Shop, into a restaurant.
But it’s small businesses like Agave & Rye, and other established businesses around the city, like Municipal Brew Works, Petals and Wicks, Pinball Garage, All 8 Up, that are the foundation of that community. It’s the small businesses that help bring in the big projects, like Saica, 80 Acres, and Spooky Nook, Smith said.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Hamilton had been mired with failure as big businesses moved out of the city prior to Smith’s arrival more than a decade ago. But he said “there’s always going to be failure,” but it’s about how a city responds. It’s about a city’s resiliency, which the city manager said “is powerful.”
“Small businesses help bring in more residents, they help bring in companies like 80 Acres, they help bring in places like Spooky Nook, but the foundation of any city is its people, and the foundation of the business community is always going to be your small businesses.”
Champions of the city, from city leaders to volunteers to residential cheerleaders, believe in the city’s renaissance, which has happened one piece at a time, and the collection of 12 to 13 years of development and attracting small business has transformed the city. Or, as Mallory Greenham, said Thursday evening, “There’s been a relentless amount of incremental change. Big things, medium things, little things, all the things. That’s really the only way we’ve got here.”
In addition to the scores of existing small businesses in Hamilton, there will be 30-plus businesses that will be opening anywhere from the next few months to the next couple of years, which Greenham said is “a lot.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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