Number of downtown Columbia restaurants are rising; so are lease rates

James Pickle has been a stalwart in the hospitality industry for nearly three decades. He serves as bartender at two of the city’s best known establishments – the British Bulldog Pub in Harbison and Ruth’s Chris Steak House in the Vista – as well as at Uncle Louie’s in the Vista.

But when the long-time Vista sports bar Wild Hare recently closed, he decided to take the plunge as an owner. He will open Moriarty’s in the Lincoln Street space this fall, an Irish pub named after Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis in the classic British detective novels.

The new bar and restaurant will be one of five eateries opening in the Vista in September, with Five Points adding three more and yet another slated for North Main Street. But the flurry of new properties, added to exponential growth in restaurants all over downtown in the past five years, is making space more precious and lease rates rise.

“The Vista is beyond 100 percent” occupancy, Pickle said. “They’re building out anything that’s empty.”

Prime space in the Vista, Main Street and Five Points is approaching $30 a square foot, nearly twice the rate of a couple of years ago, according to Ben Johnson, an analyst with commercial real estate firm CBRE. And Johnson predicted that will continue to rise as more residents continue to pour into downtown, looking for more places to eat, drink and be merry.

“They are going up,” Johnson said, “partially because construction costs are increasing and because land prices, particularly in the Vista and Five Points, are increasing. There are fewer buildings and tracts of land that are able to be converted and occupied by restaurants.”

Johnson offered these examples:

▪  In the Vista, Damon’s restaurant for years was paying $13 a square foot. In 2010, the location at Lincoln and Senate was put on the market at $16 a square foot – the same as Wild Wing Cafe at Gadsden and Lady streets.

Motor Supply, a block away on Gervais Street, was paying $18 a square foot.

Today, the space in the 700 block of Gervais Street, where the old Columbia Antique Mall was located and where the new Grill Marks burger bar is now located, was advertised for $25 a square foot.

▪  On Main Street prior to 2013, the Chick-fil-A restaurant on Main and Lady Street was leasing for $13 a square foot. When the popular Tex-Mex restaurant Cantina 76 moved in, the space was advertised for $20 a square foot.

Now the developer, Ben Arnold, is asking $30 a square foot for restaurant space in the old Moe Levy’s building, which he is renovating, at Lady at Assembly streets.

“This isn’t a done deal,” Johnson said, “but it certainly shows growth in the asking rate.”

▪ Five Points

The Nicky’s Pizzaria space on Greene Street at Pavillion Street, near Group Therapy, was advertised for $20 a square foot before the restaurant opned in 2013. Now Publico Kitchen & Tap is going into the old Garibaldi’s space for $22.50 a square foot.

“It’s grown from $20 to 22.50 within two blocks of Greene Street in two years,” Johnson said.

▪  North Main Street

Cason Development has purchased a building at 1209 Franklin St. with plans to convert it into a restaurant. Johnson said the building sold for $250,000 and the company is putting another $150,000 into it, presumably for a hood system and grease trap.

Efforts to reach a representative of Cason Development were unsuccessful. But several sources said two businesses – a barbecue restaurant and a brick oven pizza restaurant – had expressed interest in the North Main area.

One of the biggest transitions in the downtown Columbia restaurant scene is Publico, which will occupy the venerable Garibaldi’s space. Publico plans a fusion Southwestern restaurant with a heavy emphasis on craft beer selections, quite a change from Garibaldi’s upscale Southern/Italian/seafood fare.

Michael Duganier and his partners, Bob McCarthy and Stan Panos, have operated restaurants across the country, often affiliated with Disney or with NFL players such as Jerone Bettis and Eddie George.

Duganier said they checked out the Columbia market on the suggestion of friends. They liked that it was a growing mid-sized city, the Five Points community was supportive and friendly, and they loved the size and location of the room.

But as important was the price. While $22.50 or so a square foot might seem expensive, it’s a pittance compared with other cities around the nation.

“It’s a good value town for what you get,” he said. “It’s one-third of what you get in other cities near here – not even considering places like New York or Chicago. I know what those places cost. And this is a bargain.”