For HNN by Art Harvath
Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002
Huntington--For people who have been following the Pullman Square project, the announcement Wednesday by the Huntington Urban Renewal Authority and it’s chairman Ron Smith of accepting the developers’ plans was no surprise. No one ever really thought that HURA would reject Metropolitan’s plan.
Smith also said that Chi Chi’s has forwarded some financial statements and that these statements are part of negotiations. That’s news? Aren’t financial statements always part of negotiations?
Smith said Wednesday that Chi Chi’s wants to be part of Pullman Square. That’s an odd statement coming from the man who recently said that Chi Chi’s is not the right kind of restaurant for an “urban setting.” So you could say that is news.
It seems, however, that HURA is taking Chi Chi’s position lightly. At least publicly. The big question is whether the city’s offer to Chi Chi’s is a fair offer for all parties. It may well be a fair offer. But there is another side of the story that suggests otherwise.
“I think it’s criminal the way we’re getting run out of town,” said Rob Carl in a telephone interview Wednesday. Carl is Vice President of public and media relations for Prandium, Inc. Chi Chi’s is a subsidiary of Prandium. “It’s amazing in America that this could happen,” he said. “This isn’t Russia.”
Carl said that Chi Chi’s took a huge chance coming to the Superblock and building on an empty, ugly lot. Not many business would have taken that chance. It turned out to be a good business move that “hard work has turned into a thriving concern that has 70 employees,” said Carl. He said that Chi Chi’s was not against development of Pullman Square. “We only want to be dealt with fairly,” said Carl.
Carl commented on a recent article in the Herald Dispatch when Vickie Shaffer, CEO and President of the Tri-State Transit Authority said that not putting a buyout clause in the original contract with Chi Chi’s was a mistake. “That’s stupid. What business is going to invest all that money only to be bought out later on?”
“I would caution others (that want to open a business in Huntington) that in 7 years they would be asked to leave,” said Carl. Prandium certainly has the connections to caution other businesses. Prandium runs the world’s largest family of full service Mexican restaurants. They operate in the midwest and eastern part of the United States and they have restaurants in 7 foreign countries. Some of the restaurants they operate are El Torito, Casa Gallardo, Koo Koo Roo, Hamburger Hamlet and Chi Chi’s.
As to Wednesday’s Pullman Square update in the Herald Dispatch Carl said, “they’re putting a spin on it to make it look like there was some movement.”
This seems to be the case. Quoting Carl from an earlier interview, “we are not going to roll over on this.”
