Responding to our inquiry, Decatur city staff has confirmed that the long-vacant Ruby Tuesday’s space along West Ponce is close to being leased by a large, national health care company.
The space would be renovated and provide similar services as the Kaiser facility across the street with primary physicians and providing primary care services.
The large Ruby Tuesday’s space has been vacant since the restaurant chain closed the location back in May 2012.
Photo courtesy of Google Streetview
boooooring
True, but I am glad it’s not another restaurant. Hopefully this tenant will bring people to our existing downtown businesses throughout the day and will be in this space for the long haul.
I think our cute little town needs more boring.
Dead on. As much as I’d love some schmancy restaurant there, more office space means a bigger customer base for the ones that already exist. And folks that come to a facility like that need to eat too. This is great news, even if it is a little boring.
Furthermore, walkable medical facilities are among the primary wish list for empty-nest retirees in choosing where to live. These types of downtown amenities further contribute to our expectation that our increasing downtown units appeal primarily to revenue-positive, childless residents. So, though I’d welcome another spot featuring some of the finest beers in the world, I happily accept this instead.
Agree with all the points made above. Interesting that they’ll be located directly across from Kaiser though. It’s like two froyo joints squaring off.
True, except that customers of these have effectively prepaid to lock into one or the other rather than having the luxury of wandering across the road to see what’s on the menu.
Man, I don’t want a bunch of sick folks wandering around downtown.
I hollered out loud at this, despite my best efforts not to. š
Stay away from the salad bar, sneeze guard or not.
Can’t argue with the need for some balance to our restaurant-heavy downtown, but is this another HMO like Kaiser that requires membership to see their physicians? (or is that not true of Kaiser, either?)
This is not good news for Thumbs Up and Cooks Warehouse. They will be book ended by non-retail space that is empty on the weekends when you need complimentary businesses to support consumer spending. Banks and HMOs do not need to be located on a prominent retail strip.
Banks and HMOs need to be open on the weekend, Saturdays at least…
Are you sure, Irene? I’m no expert on consumer spending but back when I had a job I loved shopping and spending on my lunchtime and after work.
Did you enjoy spending your lunchtime at the HMO or bank?
While I am thrilled to hear that there will be a tenant for the site, I had been hoping that it would be something that would be open at night. That stretch of W. Ponce is pretty desolate at night.
I often feel bad for the folks heading into Kaiser who are having difficulty walking…. there’s no place to drop-off people near the door. They seem to have to quickly unload in a no-stopping zone… I thought there was lots of open space in the various office buildings that might have been a better fit.
Nevertheless, occupied is better than unoccupied at this point….
I’ve often thought the same of the very poorly selected Kaiser space. It’s like they were planning to be seeing only healthy people who walk there (and/or perhaps live in the building). Hopefully the new space will at least have direct parking deck access (though I believe they’d need to do some work to make that happen properly).
Carl,
You’re back! Hurray!
Merci beaucoup!