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No Starbucks at former Fountain Inn location

As has been speculated in some of the comment areas as well as the Forums, Starbucks will not be opening up in the old Fountain Inn.

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The international coffee roaster and retailer has withdrawn from its agreement with Pineville Properties LLC, the developer of the planned Starbucks/Walgreens corner at Nutt Road and Bridge Street.
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The company's Phoenixville plans fell through as a consequence of the same corporate pressures that led to the announcement by the company July 1 that it would be closing some 600 stores nationwide. Included in those closings, scheduled through the last half of this year and into the first quarter of 2009, are 21 stores in Pennsylvania, from Plymouth Meeting to Pittsburgh.
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The owner of the property, Pineville Properties LLC, is currently in the process of finding a new tenant.

For more, including information on the opening of the Walgreens which shares a parking lot with the former Fountain Inn, see today's article in the Phoenix.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Let's hope that someone can come up with a good idea and bring that nice old building back to life again. I hope the Fountain Inn does not go the way of the General Pike Inn (it only took them 20 years to figure out what to build there)
Anonymous said…
How about an Einstein Bro's coffee shop? It's such a little building and small property. Nothing big will really fit there.
Anonymous said…
What about the empty Rite Aid building? It would be great to have an Olive Garden there.

I would think the Fountain Inn would have to be a small cafe-like place -- there just isn't much space there.
Anonymous said…
Carrabba's is so much better than Olive Garden. But I agree that a chain restaurant would fit nicely in that location - Chili's, Ruby Tuesday, Applebee's. What's the current rumor for that Rite Aid location? Still I-Hop?
Anonymous said…
How about a chick-fil-a, the only real fast food worth eating in PA :)
Lori said…
Bertucci's blows both Carrabba's and Olive Garden out of the water.

But really, I'd like to see an independently-owned restaurant there.
Anonymous said…
I agree with a nice restaurant in that space. That would be a nice idea and I guess a perfect spot for a theme restaurant (wait, gagging again in my throat). Please not a Chic - fil- puke! That is the worst excuse for a sandwich or chicken like substance I have ever seen in my life. Oh well, maybe Trader Joe's could go in that spot (now watch the rumors of a Trader Joes coming to town spread like a bad STD - I'm serious, just mention TJ's and it spreads like wildfire). Well, i guess it needs to start somewhere.
Anonymous said…
Ummm, the Trader Joe's rumor has been going around for a while now. So don't think you started it.

Chick-Fil-A would be awesome to have in town! But can it fit on the corner of Nutt and Bridge? Or are you thinking the old Rite Aid location?

Limerick has a Sonic now. And a Chick-Fil-A. Time for Phoenixville to step up!!
Anonymous said…
I have an idea, let's nix all of these fast-food chain restaurant ideas and encourage Pineville Properties to recruit a year-round grower's market in the Fountain Inn.

This would provide a space for locally grown, raised, and/or crafted products and food.

I think some of the best reasons to buy locally are demonstrated in this document, released by www.buylocalphilly.com:

1.KEEP MONEY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
For every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $45 goes back into the community – and our tax base. For every $100 spent at a chain store, only $14 comes back.*
2.EMBRACE WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods. Where we shop; where we eat and hang out – all of it makes our neighborhood home. Chain stores are getting more aggressive throughout Philadelphia and changing the character of our city. One-of-a-kind independent businesses are real. If we wanted to live somewhere that looked like everywhere else, we wouldn’t be living in the Philly area.
3.GET BETTER SERVICE
Local businesses often hire people who have a better understanding of the products they’re selling, and take more time to get to know customers.
4.BUY WHAT YOU WANT, NOT WHAT SOMEONE WANTS YOU TO BUY
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses means low prices over the long-term. Small businesses, choosing products based on what their customers love and need – not a national sales plan – guarantees a more diverse range of product choices.
5.CREATE MORE GOOD JOBS
Small local businesses are one of the largest employers nationally and in Philadelphia, and local businesses offer greater loyalty to their employees.
6.HELP OUT THE ENVIRONMENT
Independent businesses make purchases requiring less transportation and usually set up shop in commercial corridors and in-town instead of developing on the fringe. This means less sprawl, congestion, habitat
loss and pollution
.
7.SUPPORT COMMUNITY GROUPS
Nonprofits receive an average 350% more support from local business owners than they do from non-locally owned businesses.
8.INVEST IN THE COMMUNITY
Local businesses are owned by people who live here, work here, and are more invested in our future.
9.PUT YOUR TAXES TO GOOD USE
Local businesses in neighborhoods
need comparatively less infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
10.SHOW THE COUNTRY WE BELIEVE IN PHILADELPHIA
In an increasingly homogenized world, people are more likely to invest in or move to communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and unique attitude.

Granted, the much of the content is Philadelphia-specific, but that's not the point. The focus is to buy local and keep your money local. The jewel of Phoenixville borough is our downtown, sans chain stores, fast-food establishments, etc. If you want to see chain after chain, please relocate to a community of sprawl, where every strip mall looks the same (i.e., most exits off 422), your house looks just like your neighbor's, and you become ever dependent upon your car. There, you will find chain-store, chain-restaurant, fast-food utopia.
Anonymous said…
Everyone has different tastes. I guess some of our palates are not as refined as mr or mz pukefest. Not all of us can afford to eat at the overrated and and overpriced restaurants in town. Sometimes a little chain competition is a good thing.
Anonymous said…
Oh, come on, it was the appropriate response because people got so touchy over Chic-fil-a. Seriously, that is just ridiculous. I think the point was that everyone has eaten at chic-fil-a and it's below grade food (seriously) and I'm hoping we can do a little better than that for a business to go into that spot. The response was the deserved response. And my palate is pretty refined since I had some great, aged, locally grown McDonalds last night. I think I puked after that to. And thanks for acknowledging the help from my Mom since I usually forget to mention all the help she gives me. Thanks Mom - I love you (your beloved son)
Anonymous said…
To be honest, I don't think anyone but you was really objecting to Chick-fil-a.

I was only half serious when I suggested it (and not for the fountain inn, for the old rite-aid). I really don't eat a lot of fast food, but honestly, you'd rather eat at that grimy, nasty KFC/Taco Bell than at Chick-fil-a? I bet you're a big fan of O'Gradys as well.

The fountain inn spot is sadly not really a great building, even if it is historical, I can't really think of much that would do well in there, although I did like the idea of an Einstein Bros, only because I love bagels. My coffee $ goes to Artisans or Steel City, or to Trader Joe's for beans.
Anonymous said…
Erm, that was quite a run-on, go me!
Anonymous said…
Just read Fast Food Nation once, you'll never want to eat fast food again (unfortunately, the movie did no justice to the book)
Anonymous said…
Oh, I've seen Supersize Me, and read fast food nation.

I didn't need either to know that eating fast food was bad for me however.

That doesn't mean that lemonade, waffle fries and fried chicken aren't yummy in my tummy.
Anonymous said…
Do you find it ironic that there are 20+ responses about what to do now that SBUX is not coming to Phoenixville, yet there is ZERO public participation in the previous blog posting about the PASD allowing for an open forum to address facilities, finances, etc? Those topics affect our bottom line (in the form of higher real estate taxes) far more than any fast food, mass produced franchise ever will.
Anonymous said…
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Anonymous said…
According to a reputable dietary magazine: Did your favorite restaurant make the grade?
A
Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A excels in every category we tested for. With a slew of low-calorie sandwiches, the country’s “healthiest” chicken nugget, a variety of solid sides like fresh fruit and soup that can be substituted into any meal, and nutritional brochures readily available for perusing at each location, Chick-fil-A earns the award for America’s Healthiest Chain Restaurant (for kids, for the adults who drive them there, plus anybody else wise enough to make it their fast food choice).

Your Survival Strategy: Even the smartest kid in the class can still fail a test, so be on your toes at all times, even at Chik-fil-A. Skip salads with ranch or Caesar dressings, any sandwich with bacon, and avoid milkshakes at all costs.
JW said…
Not for nothing, but we have gotten WAY off topic on this one.
Anonymous said…
As long as it's not another pizza place then I am all for it.
Anonymous said…
Here's an idea. If you don't like fast food or think it will make you fatter than you already are, don't eat it. Plain and simple. Just like if you don't like bars, don't go to them. Or if you don't like the texture of bananas, don't eat them either.
Anonymous said…
Trader Joe's will never come here so get over it. There's one ten minutes down the road, now stop posting about Trader Joe's, please.

If another pharmacy or pizza place goes in my head will explode. Frankly, I don't care what goes in there because it's not walkable for most people, have you ever tried crossing Rt. 23? How about good Mexican place? Crazy cactus is not authentic and Las Mariachis food quality is terrible - eating the beef is like trying to eat a sliced up baseball mitt.
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~dawn~ said…
As much as I hate to interrupt this enthralling conversation ;) does anyone know what happened to the liquor license the Fountain Inn had?
Anonymous said…
I'm sure that was sold long ago. Those licenses are worth big money.
Lori said…
I agree with the poster who said to put something at the Fountain Inn site that supports local business. We do NOT need yet another restaurant of any kind in town. What we need is more locally-produced goods and services. Chain restaurants do not pump money back into the local community. Why not a boutique, a shoe store, etc?
A Stout Yeoman said…
What anonymous said about the year-round grower's market would be fantastic, but all of us (including the poster) must know that there are two chances this will happen...slim and none. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion of course...on this blog and elsewhere...but just seeing the suggestions of the folks here (Chick-fil-a, ruby tuesday's, olive garden, einstein bros, trader joes) leads me to believe that we're in the minority.

There are loads of restaurants around...isn't there some other kind of business we can get in there? Something beneficial?

Also, to Anonymous on 8/1...I think you should start thinking of some other folks. Yeah, YOU may have to cross 23 to get to this place, but what about all of the folks on the other side of 23? There are like 5 apartment complexes back there who would probably be pretty upset that you're discounting them in this thing. Heck, the high school is over there along with Foresta's...which I think is one of the best local businesses we've got. This blog is called 'around phoenixville', not 'downtown phoenixville'.

And not for nothing...but a buddy of mine used to work for Chick-fil-A and in his training, they told him that if anybody asked him outright, we was legally required to tell them that they used cloned chicken parts. For what it's worth.
A Stout Yeoman said…
HA...and of course as soon as I say this is not called 'downtown p-ville' it's called 'around p-ville' I go to the home page and noticed it's called 'BridgeandMain.com'.

Oh, why do you taunt me!!
Anonymous said…
It's amazingly surprising how immature and rude folks become when anonymity is involved. Thank goodness the founder of this blog finally posted a gentle reminder to be polite. Of course, eventually, this will have to become a site only accessible by registration due to the fact that folks can't control themselves.
Anonymous said…
How about a Historical site? If anyone is a true Phoenixville person they are well aware of the historical value of the Fountain Inn. Just a thought.
Barb Vanderslice

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