bdraznik

The percentage rent is now used by almost all of the bigger developers in OTR at this point, and is catching on elsewhere Downtown. It requires the developer to significantly invest in the hard start up costs (which bigger developers have the cash on hand for), and they essentially are an investor at that point versus just a landlord. It is usually a small percentage of gross sales and a base rent, and they pay the greater of the two. The successful bars/restaurants almost always end up paying the percentage rent, while light retail/boutique shops probably pay a mixture based on their busy times of the year. I would be surprised if UDF invests in a store downtown without a gas station. I heard from a UDF rep a couple of years ago that they don't invest in new stores that don't sell gas, and it is very hard to introduce gas stations in dense urban environments because of the environmental ramifications.

I am one of the partners at A Tavola. The City of Cincinnati's Historic Preservation Office regulates sign permits in OTR. The size of the sign was determined by our street frontage. So spaces like the old Sales Center and Lackman have more frontage than we have, so their signs were allowed to be larger than ours. In order to have neon, or lit signs in general, you need to submit a Certificate of Appropriateness to the Historic Conservation Board and then meet with them. This is a long and potentially very costly process, so we decided to go with a simple sign. We had to submit the COA and get the Historic Preservation Office to sign off on it, which was easier and quicker than going in front of the HCB. Also, in order to hang the sign, the business needs a Revocable Street Privilege in the area below the sign. But that is a whole other ordeal that I won't get into here. We believe the sign is an accurate representation of our concept. The sign, like our food and decor, is simple yet distinguishable, but not flashy. Also, places like Smitty's are grandfathered in, so they didn't have to change their signage. I'm not sure how it will work with the change of address though. I'm sure Larry will do whatever he can to get his old sign up there. I don't think the lights will be an issue because they are technically inside the building. I hope this helps. Please contact me if you have any more questions about historic development issues, and thanks for being interested in A Tavola. I can't wait to make pizzas down here, there will be more updates about the opening date in a couple of weeks.