Quote:
Originally Posted by CoryB
My main challenge with the Commons at The Forks is the original vision seemed to be that the vendor spaces would essentially be kickstarter like spaces to help people with new ideas get short term space to test out the concept and build some funds to move on to a different venue. This structure would have then given the Commons a constant freshness as there would be a fairly steady stream of new places coming in. Instead it basically took already established places with a track record of popularity among the current young adult crowd and made them essentially permanent fixtures. Sure that might work today and a year from now but in five years time it will again feel old and dated.
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They started doing that concept with half the spaces but quickly realized it was a logistical nightmare (constantly hunting for new tenants, risk of having none in units at times), and way too costly to try and change the space for rotating tenants. That's why they had one unit as the "NEXT" rotating 3-month pop-up space for a while, however KYU Grill performed so well in their 3 months that they signed a lease.
FYI, they are now only signing 2 or maximum 3 year leases for vendors. Rent is tied to sales, and all the vendors now use a central POS system so The Forks can actually properly track sales data. When leases are up, if the tenant is underperforming, they won't be renewed. This is one of the reasons why The Forks supplied all of the kitchen equipment, and why it was too expensive to always change it - if after 2 years they don't renew, they haven't screwed a local business out of any infrastructure costs.
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