Jillian's heads to Greenbrier amid Waterside instability

NORFOLK

The owner of Jillian's restaurant, one of the largest remaining tenants at the troubled Waterside marketplace, says he will open a new location inside Chesapeake's Greenbrier Mall and may close his downtown location.

If Jillian's closes, it would leave the second floor of Waterside virtually empty. The city shut down Bar Norfolk and Have a Nice Day Cafe, clubs that officials said were troublesome, earlier this year.

Greg Stevens, who runs 11 Jillian's restaurants out of Louisville, Ky., said he has been looking for a new location for several months. He said troubles at Waterside, including the shuttering of the two nightclubs, the perception of crime and indecision on the part of the city as to what to do with the aging facility, caused him to look elsewhere.

Stevens said he will lease about 20,000 square feet on the first floor at Greenbrier near the mall's Sears store. Work has already begun on the new site, he said.

He said the demographics of the Greenbrier area made the decision to relocate there "a no-brainer."

"It's dead on to what we want to be serving to, which is families, visitors and business people," he said. He said the nearby hotels and office buildings and thousands of residents in the suburban locale "makes it an ideal location."

"Our customers won't have to worry about paying to park like they do at Waterside."

Stevens said he is open to maintaining a presence downtown, but said it would need to be smaller and the rent would need to be reduced substantially. He leases about 45,000 square feet.

His lease is up at the end of January, but he has negotiated an extension through March.

Mayor Paul Fraim said it's a good sign that Stevens continues to negotiate.

"They're trying to negotiate the best deal, which is what I plan to do when my lease is up" with his law firm, Fraim said.

"We want to keep Jillian's downtown."

However, he added that if Jillian's leaves, it gives city officials a "clean slate" to give Waterside a new direction.

Stevens said the city's lack of a plan to revitalize the waterfront marketplace raises doubts as to whether his restaurant can turn a profit there. He is concerned that most of Waterside is vacant and that tenants are not being allowed to sign long-term leases.

He said he hopes to get definitive answers on what direction the city plans to take by mid-January. However, city officials said that answer won't come until late 2010 at the earliest.

Opened as a festival marketplace in a public-private venture more than two decades ago, Waterside is credited with helping to spark downtown's revival.

Changes in downtown, including the opening of MacArthur Center, caused city officials to transform Waterside several times, the most recent into an entertainment complex.

The growth of restaurants and nightclubs on Granby Street has made Waterside redundant, city officials have said, and tenants have left in recent years.

The City Council announced in September at its annual retreat that it would embark on a yearlong process of public hearings and studies to find a new direction for Waterside. But no public hearings have been held, and the council made the same pledge at its 2008 retreat.

Mike Watterson, general manager of the Norfolk Jillian's, said the problem is that Waterside is publicly owned.

"If this were a private entity and this was their money rather than taxpayer money, they'd have made a decision by now," he said.

Fraim has said that whatever Waterside becomes, he wants it to be "family friendly." Said Stevens: "We think we can fit that need."

Jillian's offers a game room with 170 video games, billiard tables, a sports bar restaurant, and on Friday and Saturday nights, a dance club.

"There's a willingness on our part to remain at Waterside," Stevens said. "We've always believed in downtown. We just need somebody to tell us what Waterside is going to be."

Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com