The Yard @ College Avenue Restaurants Announced
- Thread starter Leonard23
- Start date
State College has ALL of the students in one location. Imagine putting Cook/Douglass on Albany and Busch/Livi in Buccleuch Park. Every national store would be begging to get in
Just curious how it works.......if I buy a mini for $4.50 at Jersey Mikes and validate my parking. The first hour is $3.50. Who pays the $3.50? Jersey Mikes? NBPA?
It will be part of our operational budget
Security landscaping , advertising, parking...we certainly believe that most of the customer base will be walk in but we hope to attract folks from surrounding communities for movie nights, ball games, or just a nice place to hang out in the summer and have a surf taco or a cup of coffee (beats a strip mall parking lot) for those people we also believe its money well spent (an hour free parking) to get them to become regulars
Security landscaping , advertising, parking...we certainly believe that most of the customer base will be walk in but we hope to attract folks from surrounding communities for movie nights, ball games, or just a nice place to hang out in the summer and have a surf taco or a cup of coffee (beats a strip mall parking lot) for those people we also believe its money well spent (an hour free parking) to get them to become regulars
Last edited:
Not super critical to this thread, but nearly every commercial baker uses a mix. Hang out long enough by Carlo's and you'll see a tractor trailer of Dawn commercial mix unloading. Most bakers then doctor that base mix to create a "signature" taste and crumb (texture). But nobody doing any real volume is scooping flour, eggs and butter from scratch every morning.
Krispy is better than nearly every other slice I've had around campus. They will do well.
As Bella expands, I'd expect one of two things as Shake Shack sues them--they will change most of their branding, which is clearly ripped off from SS, or they will fold under the financial pressure of defending themselves. They have an entire category on their menu called "Shack Burgers." The faux wood grain is also ripped off. That is fine when you have one store in Basking Ridge. Ain't gonna fly as you start to entertain ideas of becoming a regional brand.
We did ask Burger Shack first and waited 6 months before they declinesd. They were somewhat outraged at Burger Fi at the time and I do not think they sued them...but they were not public at the time
You mean Shake Shack?
It makes sense if they declined. At this point, NB doesn't fit their first tier markets.
stand corrected...Shake Schak...and I agree but we gave it the Old College Try
I think an NB location for them would ultimately be more successful than the one they opened in Bridgewater.
Can't blame you. That would have been a coup of epic proportions.
That said, I can't imagine that they are easy tenants. So, maybe blessing in disguise.
Starbucks is a great anchor and Krispy will do well. Like a few others, I have reservations about a cupcake shop as a business model, but stranger things have happened.
Overall, I think you're on you're well on your way to a successful blend.
Maybe. Maybe not. I'm speaking purely from their POV. Not from the actual business realities. I know a few people in their development area. They have very stringent demographic guidelines they need to satisfy before a proposed location even gets the greenlight for serious consideration, let alone get's put on a short list. Call it a "pre pre screening" test. Where we are in October of 2015, NB isn't fitting that bill. Perhaps that changes in 12-18 months. We all hope it does, obviously.
The second challenge is the price point. It's hard to get out of there under a $10-11 pp check average. Smack in the heart of a college campus might not be the place to put a place that can EASILY get to $13-15 pp. Also, beer is a major part of their business model nationally. We all know Jersey's ridiculous license costs. Even if a license was reasonably available, would DEVCO be on board with a co-developed spot serving beer/wine?
SS's development people are very solid. If they passed on NB, with what I'm sure was a nice package of incentives to be there, they have legit business reasons.
Shake Shack is the best. Surprisingly, Bridgewater doesn't have beer/wine but I always see a steady stream of customers anyway.
Neither Paramus location does either.
The cost of license in NJ makes the economics tough.
I'm too lazy to look it up, but SS has very aggressive metrics for stores to pay for themselves with free cash flow. Adding several hundred grand to the number in the form of a license is tough for them to justify in their models I guess.
I like SS. I think it's expensive and therefore a destination, rather than a regular spot. But in that niche, I think they do a good job.
Agreed with all of this but I just think the destination for students once in a while and a J&J lunch crowd would have brought more money in. I feel like it's more centrally located than Bridgewater also which would have made it more of an easier destination to get to from people a little further away. I don't think the price points are that high without getting alcohol. Surf Taco is going to run people the same $10-13.
And if advising Surf Taco, I'd have the same reservations about locating on the campus proper (unless the normal occupancy costs are in some way subsidized as part of the lease agreement).
Our students aren't Princeton kids and NB is not Cambridge. How often are you going to spend $13 bucks on lunch or dinner if you are a college kid? 2x a month? Maybe?
And in nice weather, people would walk from J&J. But they won't walk that far on a blustery February day to grab lunch. Same can be said for those who work in the courthouse.
That price point cares me in that location.
That isn't to say it won't work or that Shake Shack wouldn't have worked. But it is an alarm bell that you need to consider with other parts of your model to make sure the numbers work.
A Shake Shack in any well travelled mall is as close to a can't miss as you'll have in the industry. They don't sign leases for $100+ a s/f retail space if they aren't pretty damn sure the foot traffic is there.
You're underselling the Bridgewater location & ignoring the $130k+ median family income.
The Bridgewater location is in an outdoor mall across from the Bridgewater Commons mall, across the street from the Bridgewater Marriott, just off 287, 22, 202/206, down the road within a mile or 2 from Bridgewater-Raritan HS & MS, police station, municipal complex, Somerset County Votech, the Prince Rodgers baseball complex & numerous corporate parks & has tons of parking. It's a lot easier & quicker to get in & out of than New Brunswick.
We need to get away from this overparking mentality. There's already too much parking in New Brunswick. There's a wealth of literature on this, how it's a hidden tax on everyone and really hurts sustainable, walkable development.
The true answer is that we need more housing in New Brunswick, more complexes. If you could build thousands of additional units, that's the foot traffic that makes a lot more of these projects viable. I shake my head and sigh whenever I read objections to building height or demands for additional parking, when precisely what NB needs is to get denser and quickly.
Agree 100% regarding height, density and the need for more housing. However, the discussion is regarding the viability of retail on the grease truck lot. No way clothing/Urban Outfitters comes in without convenient parking for customers. A food court will be successful due to the thousands of walking students in the area for classes. We all eat three times a day. This retail area is literally, on campus. Different dynamics apply to this location, as opposed to a downtown environment. These national retailers know a lot more than any of us on the board. Their absence speaks volumes.
I expect more from you. You live an hour away. lol
You "weigh anchor" to bring it aboard before departing port.
Anchors Aweigh is the USNA fight song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchors_Aweigh
"The Yard" is the unofficial name of the USNA campus--inside the walls.
Are you asking about "aweigh?" That is indeed correct. It refers to an anchor being pulled from the bottom that so the ship can move, So it's kind of like "away" but it has a different origin.
UO has plenty of locations with minimal parking. These have foot traffic and people with disposable income.
Indeed, an Urban Outfitters can be found on Walnut Street in Philadelphia near 17th -- that is, in the prosperous urban shopping district -- as well as in the upscale shopping district near Penn and Drexel on the other side of the Schuylkill
Yeah. Im kind of disappointed in myself to be honest. That seems like the exact kind of trivia/usage that I would bust people over. Well, now I know. I always assumed it was Anchors Away - which now that I think about it, makes absolutely no sense at all.
What's your beef with Old Bridge? Any place in Middlesex County has positives.
Don't mind him there is one in freehold too. Since he never heard of the BROOKLYN founded krispy's then it must not be any good. Meanwhile read reviews about them and you will see people saying otherwise.
OId Bridge has kind of declined in comparison to the surrounding towns. Really sad because it has very good transportation access.
Both Bloomington and Madison has one on the the main drag where students shop. No immediately adjacent parking but lots or decks nearby, a few blocks.
Spoon University
5 Reasons Why Rutgers Needs A Wawa ASAP
This student (I assume) is interested the place as an inexpensive alternative to eating out?
5 Reasons Why Rutgers Needs A Wawa ASAP
This student (I assume) is interested the place as an inexpensive alternative to eating out?
Convince the bank across from st. Peters hospital to sell to wawa and violà, problem solved. Wawa isn't needed on Rutgers main drag. ; that's what going home for holidays are for
Pretty sure Cofifa explained a while back WaWa is only interested in locations they can have a gas station at this time. That's why they turned down The Yard. A Block & Lot like Korb said would make sense especially with the lack of gas stations in the area.
They should buy out that crappy gas station on Easton across from the current location of Hansel. That place was always an eye sore.
That's because it is a mechanic that sells gas. Most reliable mechanic around NB in my opinion.
That can never happen. The gas station is owned by Shell. Shell will sell their property but only if you agree not to build a gas station other than Shell. They are the only gas station in that area of town, I don't see them ever leaving.
Are you sure it's owned by Shell? Large brands like Shell generally do not own stations with their name on it. I think 1-2% of them are actually corporate owned. Most are franchised local owners. I don't know anything about that site but I suspect its a local owner - may or may not be the mechanic because often the garage space is leased to someone.
Regardless that site is probably of no interest to QC or Wawa because it's not big enough. Their model is to look for large sites and put 10- bays of gas and large stores plus a lot of parking around it. Not to say they don't adapt but it doesn't seem like the kind of spot that they currently target.
