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A Proposal to Make Tirzo's an Amenity

and a Comment by Ron Johnson

A group of neighbors from Canyon Crest Village had dinner together last week.  The topic of the restaurant at the Center with a repeat of the financial shortfall and potential litigation came up.

It seems quite clear that, after two operators fell short, that without outside financial support, having a successful restaurant in the old Trumpets location isn’t going to work. Not for Trumpets, not for the current operator and probably not in the future.

Our group came to the following conclusions:

1. A development of the quality and size of Sun City truly needs a restaurant that is  more upscale than the restaurant at the golf shop, a restaurant  that can supply food for weddings, anniversaries, special occasions and Sun City functions, in general.
2. The Trumpets facility is already equipped and fixtured.  A restaurant operation seems to be the highest and best use of the space.
3. If we lose the present operator, due to the impending negative reputation of our restaurant, we are very unlikely to find another who is willing to take on that location.  The space will most likely remain closed for a long time.
4. Sun City will be diminished if we do not have an on-site restaurant where we can take friends and family and point to with price.
5. With an on-going restaurant operation, Sellers of real estate in our community will have one more amenity to feature; buyers will have increased incentive to own here.

So what to do:

We believe the restaurant space should be considered a Sun City Amenity and not a profit center.  The profit center concept has been demonstrated to be unworkable – to fail.  Times are tough, people aren’t spending and there will always be a staggering number of excellent, competing restaurants along Eastern Avenue alone. It is hard to imagine any for-profit food operation ever being successful in the Trumpets location as currently structured.

The $7,000/month lease should be eliminated.  Absorbing this amount back into our Homeowner Dues would cost each property owner about $1/month.  We wouldn’t even notice it.

Reclassifying the restaurant space as an amenity will:

1. Allow the present operation to continue without interruption
2. Allow the operator to improve the menu without raising prices
3. Require the operator to pay his operating costs, utilities and a pro-rata share of common costs, and make a decent profit as an incentive to provide us the best possible restaurant experience
4. Stop the restaurant turnover
5. Avoid legal fees equal to or greater than forfeiture of lease income
6. Provide us a place that would create more customer/neighborhood participation and loyalty.
7. Complete our community.

In short, Sun City needs a restaurant far more than it needs the equivalent of $1/month/household. Re-classify this asset and continue the operation.

Submitted for publication by James Diss

A comment by Ron Johnson

Why should we validate a politically driven and expedient mistake in selecting a cook over a financially viable restaurant operator, hundreds of which were readily known at the time but were never informed or solicited of our interest in leasing Trumpets? Does that really make any sense? Now, if this suggestion is adopted, that mistake will just be compounded. As nice as Tirzo's dining experience may be, and having tried the same meal at both restaurants, why would we want to pay the same price for half the amount at Tirzo's than the amount that is traditional served by an extremely popular Italian cuisine operator? I find that very troubling in the long run, which may account for the obvious lack of community support.