Oakland’s business area changes its face

The Kings Court building stands empty on Forbes Avenue. Through the stone facade, black… The Kings Court building stands empty on Forbes Avenue. Through the stone facade, black windows face out onto the street. Where concert dates were once advertised on its marquee, a telephone number is printed on a sign announcing, “for rent.”

Kings Court has stood in this state for a little more than two years now. A popular concert venue called the Beehive formerly filled its rooms, but since it closed, the building has been empty.

Recently, two more businesses have gone bankrupt, following the Beehive outside Oakland: Sam Goody and Schwartz’s Bagels. At the same time, multiple businesses have reopened or are in the process of opening across the street.

Qdoba Mexican Grill occupies the place Music X once held. Farther down the street, in Sennott Square, a Panera Bread Company and a New Balance shoe store had their grand openings. A Blockbuster Video is still to come.

According to Alicia Sirk of the Oakland Business Improvement District, Oakland is changing its face.

“Communities are either living or dying – not stagnant. This is Oakland reinventing itself,” Sirk said.

Sirk is one of the many members of OBID, including longtime Oakland business owners, who are working together to bring positive changes to the area.

According to Sirk, the business owners in the area are very conscious of their market. They want to wait for the right tenants to come along.

“As private properties we have the option to rent to whoever we want to,” said Linda Schwartz, landlord of Kings Court.

Schwartz said she has had many opportunities to rent the property to people looking to open bars and nightclubs, most with little or no previous experience in such businesses.

“It doesn’t help us to rent to anybody who comes down the pipe. How does it help us if the police are there every night?” Schwartz said.

According to Schwartz, landlords in the area are looking for tenants who are willing to make investments in the properties. They are looking for tenants similar to Chad Brooks of Qdoba Mexican Grill. Brooks said his company had to work hard to convert the space they now occupy into a restaurant. But Brooks added that he was happy to do it.

“Contributing to the restoration of the business district appealed to us,” he said.

In fact, the area as a whole appealed to his company, which he said tends to do well in college areas.

Pitt’s campus is so appealing, explained Brooks, because the market is “a pulse of the city.”

Where some perspective business owners might be concerned about the idea of a college market because of the lack of students on campus during the summer, Brooks believes Pitt is different.

“Oakland is as much of a captured audience as you can find. The hospitals and universities aren’t going to go anywhere. So you are going to have that base,” he said.

Andy Hardie, owner of Dave and Andy’s Homemade Ice Cream and Yogurt, agrees. He says the great thing about Oakland is that there are always people here.

Hardie is a member of OBID and is on a committee created to recruit perspective businesses into the area. He believes the primary thing the Forbes area needs is more retail diversity.

“I still feel like a store like Urban Outfitters or The Gap would do well here,” said Hardie.

According to Hardie, such retail stores would get people who work in the area to stay in the area to shop. This is one of the reasons Hardie was happy to see that a Blockbuster is opening in Sennott Square.

However, with the combined effort of the business community and what Mike Hanley, owner of Joe Mama’s, Fuel ‘ Fuddle and Uncle Sam’s, described as “a constant flow” of students, it remains hard to fill the empty storefronts that still remain in the area.

Sirk says multiple factors contribute to the problem.

“The economy right now, the fact that people aren’t shopping like they were, students are more mobile, and then there is the Waterfront,” she said.

Sirk even believes that Sept. 11, 2001, played a role in limiting the business in Oakland.

But, despite selective landlords, a poor economy and a lack of retail diversity in the area, Schwartz said that one thing holds true. According to Schwartz, there are many businesses that have remained in the area a very long time.

“When tenants come they like to stay,” she said.