Nothing For Dinner

Last March Fleming told Harper her building would be ready in July. "In July it was nowhere near ready," she says. "If you're working on your numbers, you need to be able to tell the bank."

Fleming also missed projected openings last November and December. "They couldn't give you good answers," Harper says. "They couldn't give you good information."

Like DiCapo and others, Harper could not agree with the JDRC on the lease. She had $330,000 in available start-up money, yet the rules were stifling. "You had to pour your own concrete slab," Harper says. "You had to do your own signage, but it had to be consistent with the historic district. The market was unproven. We felt it needed to be a better partnership for me to take on a risk like this."

Harper wrote a memo to the JDRC "requesting a viable marketing plan with some indication of the amount of money that would be spent by JDRC to help attract and bring potential customers to the district." She also wanted the JRDC to supply the furnace, air conditioning and ductwork and pay six months' rent. And she asked for a bigger rebate for the improvements she would have to make on her own, writing, "The current amount of $15 per square foot we feel is inadequate for leasehold improvements such as: plumbing, bathrooms, walls, ceilings and electrical, all of which benefit the landlord (JDRC) in an area that has no proven track record or enticement for potential customers."

Fleming told Harper she would have to install her own air conditioning. And, he said, if he waived her rent for six months, he wouldn't be able to pay the project's construction bills. Harper, he says, has "known for a year and a half that she was responsible for leasehold improvements."

Despite the delays, Harper decided to move forward. In January she contacted architects and designers to plan for a summer opening. But then Fleming told her that her numbers were too consistent -- they did not take into account changes in the number of people coming to eat on a given day or the varying amounts they would spend. She replied that several advisors had signed off on her numbers.

"I don't think you know what the hell you guys are doing," she told him.

Yet, Harper says, she recently received a letter of intent from the JDRC, which has improved her likelihood of getting a loan. Now she thinks she'll sign a lease at the end of June, start her improvements in June or July and be open for business by late fall.

Jerry Gaines says that when it comes to commercial real estate deals, that sort of timetable is pushing it. For buildings that are already up, it usually takes three to four months for a tenant to sign the lease, make the leasehold improvements and open. With new buildings, the process might take six more months, though those figures can vary with changes in weather or exotic leasehold construction. But when it comes to the wait at 18th and Vine, he says, "That's way too long."

Still, other restaurateurs are also making it through the process. Mike Hughes and his family started working with the BEU back in 1997 on plans to open a Cajun restaurant called New Iberian Heaven, which he hopes will be up and running this summer.

"Business is not easy anywhere," Hughes says. "Entrepreneurs have to do some things they didn't expect to have to do. I feel Al and them have some challenges. He's doing all he can do."

It also appears that the district will finally have a local soul-food anchor -- years after the Sylvia's debacle. Vera Willis plans to open a second Peach Tree restaurant; its 6,400 square feet is almost twice the size of the buffet she owns on Eastwood Trafficway. "Restaurants are risky businesses," she says. "Banks are reluctant to even loan you money."

Willis knows. She and her husband, James, started the Peach Tree in 1996 after James, a longtime operations manager with the Kansas City school district, was laid off. Most of their start-up money went toward removing the concrete floor and installing new pipes at her original location.

At first, Willis didn't pay much attention to the jazz district. She had her own restaurant to worry about. But when Sylvia's bailed out in 1999, Willis got in touch with Fleming. She found the process as difficult as others have, but she says she knew what she was getting into. "When I looked at that lease, I knew I wasn't signing it without negotiating. Leases are always drawn in the landlord's favor."

Willis submitted the Peach Tree's plans to the city last October. She finally received a construction permit in late March. "Now that I have the key in my hand, my knees are shaking," she says. She faces astronomical quotes from builders. Haggling with them will push the opening date back to sometime in June or early July.