8A
Wednesday, November 1. 1995
CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
City abounds with restaurants
Chain eateries more successful
By Tara Trenary
Kansan staff writer
Opening a restaurant in Lawrence can be difficult, but the survival of a new restaurant may depend on whether it is independently owned.
According to an annual KU Small Business Development Center study, in 1995 there were 79 independently owned restaurants and 42 chain restaurants in Lawrence.
"This is more than we've ever had before," said Mike O'Donnell, regional director of the KU Small Business Development Center, 734 Vermont St.
He said the trend may be due to the demographics of families and the frequency with which people ate out.
"Lawrence is a growing community, but it's very competitive," said Malinda Bryan, assistant director of
Opening a restaurant?
Jodie Chester / KANSAN
the center.
She said that the most popular type of business to start in Lawrence was a restaurant, but the key to succeeding was planning. Chain-operated restaurants seem more successful.
Brad Johnson, general manager of Old Chicago, 2329 S. Iowa St., said that his restaurant, a chain of 18 restaurants, had been successful since their opening in April.
"It's already set up to run smoothly," he said. "Chains are easier because of name recognition."
O'Donnell said that planning and solid preparation were required before opening a successful restaurant of any kind.
"Independently owned restaurants are less likely to have done as much planning and preparation," he said.
found only 40 percent of independent restaurants in Lawrence would survive the first three years of life, compared to 96 percent for chain restaurants.
The center hypothesized that the local economy would not maintain the strong growth in new restaurants started this year.
"Some shakeout is very likely," O'Donnell call. "The Lawrence population is only growing so fast, and there is a limit to how much out-of-county spending you can pull into the county."
Free State Brewing Co., 636 Massachusetts St., is a privately owned restaurant success story in Lawrence. It's been open for seven years.
The center conducted a study that
Chuck Magerl, owner of Free State, attributed the restaurant's success to luck and devotion.
"I think that we've had the good fortune of having a good staff," he said. "We're devoted to what we do, and we work hard at it. There are no magic keys to success in any business."
Universities need building upgrade, Regent says
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Regents Chairman John Hiebert told a legislative committee on Thursday the state's universities need more than $30 million just to meet disability and fire code standards, with millions more needed to rebuild crumbling buildings.
The huge needs of Kansas' universities come at a time when the system is girding for a massive increase in enrollment, Hiebert told the Joint Committee on State
Building Construction.
Most of the money sought by the regents to rebuild the system will have to come from the general fund, which basically is tax revenue. That means the people of Kansas will have to pay for it.
Hiebert, university presidents and other regents officials outlined to the committee their plan for rebuilding the system's infrastructure at a cost estimated at $288 million.
Given the state's tight financial condition — which caused Gov. Bill Graves to order a 1.5 percent budget cut this past summer — the regents do not expect to get that kind of money any time soon.
The $288 million price tag, revealed earlier this year, includes $21.7 million for meeting requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act; $9.1 million to meet state fire marshal fire code standards; $161 million to repair existing structures; $15 million to make classroom improvements; $49.8 million for major remodeling, and $31.5 in new construction.
In his testimony, Hiebert listed meeting ADA requirements as the regents' No.1 priority, meeting fire code requirements No.2 and the rehabilitation and repair projects No.3.
"Solving the problem has been put off for many years and has now reached a crisis," Hiebert said.
Trafficway route may need KU land
City of Lawrence may buy four acres
By Tara Trenary
Kansan staff writer
The South Lawrence trafficway could affect many Lawrence area groups, such as Haskell Indian Nations University. But the University of Kansas, which also holds land in the route of the proposed trafficway, will take no stand on the issue.
Jeannene Johnson, assistant to executive vice chancellor Edward Meyen, said administrators did not want to take a stand on the traffickway issue.
"The University is not involved in the trafficway in any way," Johnson said. "I assume the county would treat KU's land the same way they would treat any other's land."
But how will trafficway constructors deal with the land issue?
John Pasley, South Lawrence Trafficway project manager, said that the University owned 20 acres on the southwest part of 31st and Haskell Streets. It received the land from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Education as surplus government land.
"if we use that route, we'll have to buy four and one half acres
right on the street from KU," Pasley said.
Hannes Combest, education assistant to the president of Haskell, said that Haskell granted a 31st Street easement to the county, and that it granted enough so that the county does not need any more of Haskell's land.
However, Combest said that Haskell stands against the proposed 31st Street alignment to the traffcway through the wetlands because of the threat to cultural, spiritual and academic life at Haskell.
"I'm so tired of people telling Haskell what to do that I wouldn't even want to begin to tell KU what to do," she said.
The trafficway now begins at 35th and Iowa streets, runs northwest to 27th and Wakarusae Streets, parallel to Clinton Parkway and county road 13, north and parallel to county road 13, to U.S. 40 and north to the Kansas tumpike and county road 438.
Pasley said that no decisions on the trafficway alignment would be made until February or March 1996 because they had to receive all comments at a public hearing, answer them and then choose a route.
The public hearing will be held Nov. 8 at 2 and 6:30 p.m.at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, 2110 Harper St., in Building 21.
---
---