A
nd the next Silver Spring Merchant into the deadpool is...
Bella Donna. BD closed their doors yesterday.
Here's some irony .. as you google Bella Donna, you get a Journal-Sentinel article about Silver Spring from 2006, right after Bayshore opened:
Bay Shops Want to Keep Up With Neighbor:
..notable vacancies have appeared (on SS) lately: last week's closing of Heinemann's restaurant, and the departure of Talbots women's clothing, which will close its Silver Spring Drive store and reopen Thursday at the new Bayshore Town Center, in neighboring Glendale. Another restaurant, Ciao Café, shut down in July.
"It really disturbs me right now with all the people on Silver Spring leaving," said Cardone, who invested $30,000 to open Bella Donna a year ago. "We've got to change it around somehow."
"If we play our cards right, we can easily piggyback off of (Bayshore)," said Chris Breyfogle, who owns Murray's Wine and Spirits, a specialty beer, wine and liquor store in the middle of the Silver Spring Drive strip.
Bayshore is a threat "if we stand idly by and fail to improve our business district," said Jim Roemer, a banker and treasurer of the Whitefish Bay Community Development Authority. (Roemer is now a Trustee.)
If smart improvements occur, Roemer said, the business district "could be a real cool, eclectic complement to the more mainstream retail in Bayshore."
...street improvements have been discussed since 2001, when Bayshore announced its expansion and redevelopment plans. But that proposal has moved slowly, Harris said.
The streetscape project, which could include new sidewalks, lighting, benches and decorative planters, didn't happen immediately because village officials wanted to make those improvements and other changes in conjunction with a planned street reconstruction, said Ray Krueger, an attorney and Community Development Authority chairman.
...Meanwhile, plans for some of the sidewalk improvements are now proceeding, Krueger said. There is no specific timetable or cost estimate yet, but the project is "high on the agenda," Krueger said. The village also has created a program to provide facade improvement grants for commercial building owners on Silver Spring Drive.
Still, things have moved slowly, said Brian Henry, who operates Fox-Bay Cinema Grill, one of the street's largest businesses.
"It was sleepy when I got here seven years ago," Henry said. "It's gotten sleepier."
..."I think Whitefish Bay needs to open its eyes," Cardone said. "That's all I'm going to say."
Wow!
TWO YEARS have clicked off since that article was written.
Two of the three merchants who were quoted ARE OUT OF BUSINESS.
The streetscaping project has been talked to death, and as far as I know, has no start date.
Brian Henry said "it's gotten sleepier" in 2006 .. what is it now? Comatose?
Beyond sad.
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