In a move which is unsurprising yet sad, the Savage City Council has agreed to allow yet another restaurant to fill the vacant space left by the Savage Depot Bistro. While the ownership/management of the Savage Depot Bistro had a variety of bad business decisions of their own which led to their (admittedly longer than I expected) demise, this new venture is dead from the get go.

The new restaurant known as “Flavor at the Depot” (or FLaVOR at the Depot as quoted by Burnsville Patch which would be even more ridiculous) will be a breakfast and lunch spot which means the two sisters opening the place are already shooting themselves in the foot by competing with nearby staple Windmill Cafe, but also because they’re not going to be able to sell enough meals after year one to make the ever-increasing rent:

From the Savage Pacer article:

The proposal reviewed by the EDC Wednesday requests a five-year lease with an option to renew for an additional five years. Proposed rent for the first six months would be $1 per month, then $500 per month for months seven through 12. The rent would increase in year two to $750 per month.

According to the Burnsville Patch article, the rent will continue increasing up to $1500 in year 5 which works out to an average of about $950/month over the five year term, something the City of Savage is unlikely to have to even think about.

The place is doomed from the start. It’s small, it has mandated limitations due to its historical state, it is in an area full of heavy competition from other well-established restaurants covering the entire gambit of types (Mexican, fast-food, bar, sports bar/wing joint, breakfast/lunch, etc), and most importantly, the name is simply awful.

What do you think about this one? Would you walk into a lease which you know is going to continue to increase over time eating away at whatever profits you were making? Do you think the City is being fair to the residents of Savage by charging a pittance for the first year? Do you think this one has any chance of making it knowing what they’re trying to do and the competition in the area? Whatever you have to say go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

According to this MinnPost article which discusses what makes people attached to a particular city. The article discusses with Katherine Loflin, a placemaking expert and lead consultant for a Gallup and Knight Foundation study on what drives attachment to a city. While the results of this study are interesting, most people may disagree with the findings.

From the article:

If people can find jobs and reasonable places to live, they’ll be attached enough. Worrying about quality of life, amenities, public spirit and all that squishy stuff seems a bit trivial in an economy that still recovering from one of the worst recessions ever.

But Loflin makes a business case for love of a place. These days, those people most likely to drive the growth of a city, namely young people between the ages of 25 and 34, have reprioritized. Quality of life registers high on their list of necessities. Corporations are finding that increasingly they have to sell talented recruits on the place where they would be relocating as well as the job.

As a hiring manager working in a field which is showing rapid growth and high competition during the turned down economy, I have been fighting to both recruit and retain people for my teams. While my experience is limited and certainly not as wide as the number of people looked at by this study, my experience in no way mirrors what Loflin has said. Talented recruits just out of school or with less than 10 years experience have just as much desire for high salary, regardless of their current location in our outside Minnesota, as anyone else I have talked to recently. You can sell them all you like on the greatness of the MSP metro but they know two things: money talks and it’s freakishly frigid here. When recent grad students are requesting six figure salaries without more than a few months of relevant real-world experience and getting offers from elsewhere with it, I can give you a 99.999% guarantee that this study is bunk.

What do you think about this one? Would you pass over a much higher income elsewhere just so you could stay where the people are? Are you surprised that recently minted masters-level students without much relevant experience are receiving such high offers when you hear in the news that this group is so hard pressed for cash lately? What attaches you to the MSP metro? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear what you have to say.