walty12 said

I enjoy reading your posts, never meant to "personally attack" you as mentioned on the board.  I always thought we kept things pretty light.

Posted On: Aug 2nd 2015, 10:23 AM #346853

You guys are fine, my post wasn't directed at you!

owl2Doc said

Rick, how difficult would it be to - in the specific instances where board members are logging out and posting under "guest" - change "guest" posts to the member's actual name? You did that when Anthony Mahjess posted attacks on this board.

This would preserve the "guest" function for actual guests and eliminate people logging out to attack board members (especially oc40, who gets the most heat from guests).

Posted On: Aug 2nd 2015, 11:09 AM #346856

Development work and a code change. We could look at that possibility, but it would be easy to navigate around it…

owl2Doc said

Rick, how difficult would it be to - in the specific instances where board members are logging out and posting under "guest" - change "guest" posts to the member's actual name? You did that when Anthony Mahjess posted attacks on this board.

This would preserve the "guest" function for actual guests and eliminate people logging out to attack board members (especially oc40, who gets the most heat from guests).

Posted On: Aug 2nd 2015, 11:09 AM #346856

Doc,

You may have noticed, but the word "Guest" must now be accompanied by something else. This will now make it much easier to stand behind  disciplinary actions if needed.

Although we do have a number of registered users who are choosing to make anonymous posts, the public identification of such through forced display names won't be pursued for a number of reasons - primarily global privacy and cost considerations.

However, rest assured that nothing has changed with respects to logging information according to the site's privacy policy.

Rick said

Doc,

You may have noticed, but the word "Guest" must now be accompanied by something else. This will now make it much easier to stand behind  disciplinary actions if needed.

I did notice that, thanks!

I couldn't find the original post please merge.
So I drove past and it doesn't look like anything is happening the banner is even down.
Is this still happening or did so one finally realize a nice steak house next to student apartments in strip mall want a good idea.

owlcountry40 said

I couldn't find the original post please merge.
So I drove past and it doesn't look like anything is happening the banner is even down.
Is this still happening or did so one finally realize a nice steak house next to student apartments in strip mall want a good idea.

Posted On: Jan 9th 2016, 12:05 PM #353601

Howard came into the store this week. I talked to him about it.  The banner was stolen.  Nothing inside has been started. Still is planning to do it, but there is some issue with the city where the previous owner has to do something to the site before it can be turned over for a new business. No estimate on time frame.

Who is to say what is a good idea or a bad idea for a business. To be honest, starting a Collegiate Fan Merchandise store in a tiny market is also probably a terrible idea.

I hope people support his place because it has good food and a good atmosphere to eat and drink and not because they like the idea or don't like the idea.

I am not a good judge of what's good before it even exists.

I've seen Schnellenberger occasionally  taking people through there but yeah I noticed the banner came down and there's been no construction so far.

Thanks for the update fauowl! I figured they were waiting on permits or something.

Overall that plaza is still trying to find itself. There's no real "anchor tenant" (chain restaurant, Best Buy, movie theater, grocery store etc) pulling in average people and Schnellenberger's place may help change that.

I know they wanted to drive student traffic there especially from University Park but with all the niche stores there's nothing really there that fits the bill - and IIRC UPark has a gym so the gym won't do it. They opened s Build-a-Sub place next to the gym but it seemed to close as quickly as it opened.

Blacklight mini golf, escape room, piano bar, improv theater, craft brewery, stuff like that would bring people in. 

I don't know how well Cosa Duci is doing but if it goes, replacing that with a brand name (personally I'd like to see Tijuana Flats there) would be key.

owl2Doc said

I've seen Schnellenberger occasionally  taking people through there but yeah I noticed the banner came down and there's been no construction so far.

Thanks for the update fauowl! I figured they were waiting on permits or something.

Overall that plaza is still trying to find itself. There's no real "anchor tenant" (chain restaurant, Best Buy, movie theater, grocery store etc) pulling in average people and Schnellenberger's place may help change that.

I know they wanted to drive student traffic there especially from University Park but with all the niche stores there's nothing really there that fits the bill - and IIRC UPark has a gym so the gym won't do it. They opened s Build-a-Sub place next to the gym but it seemed to close as quickly as it opened.

Blacklight mini golf, escape room, piano bar, improv theater, craft brewery, stuff like that would bring people in. 

I don't know how well Cosa Duci is doing but if it goes, replacing that with a brand name (personally I'd like to see Tijuana Flats there) would be key.

Posted On: Jan 9th 2016, 3:27 PM #353604

a lot of that stuff seems tourist trapy.
I have been to a lot of college towns from and all there main students streets all look and feel the same.
Bar ,bar ,bar cheap place to eat apparel store bar, bar bar, cheap place to eat that turns in a bar at night.
Escapes rooms and mini golf are just not fitting for college students they are destination type places something you do once every few months.
Just look at Mid town UF it's litterly just 10 bars stacked on top and next to eat other with a pita pit, and pizza place squeezed in between.
5 points in South Carolina it's 5 way intersection of 10 bars going each way.
All I have ever said is Howard's should conform to the area a bit more. Have sports place, but focus on wings a cheap beer. If this place fails it could scare of other investers that want to build on 20th. 
Look at place like munchies that is doing well be user they kept it simple and are open till 2Am 4 days a week.
It's OWL time I more student friendly by having cheaper options than the book store and you can make stuff with the Owl logos for student clubs.

owlcountry40 said

All I have ever said is Howard's should conform to the area a bit more. Have sports place, but focus on wings a cheap beer. If this place fails it could scare of other investers that want to build on 20th. 

Posted On: Jan 10th 2016, 6:27 AM #353617

I get what you are saying but Howard is not the cheap beer and wings guy for 20th Street.  He is not trying to capture the every day college student business.  That is not his target market. Right or wrong, he is going after the parents of the college student who are visiting, and locals who may not need to eat a meal at Mizner Park.

But that doesn't mean it will always be the way it will be when it opens. Investors may say, let's try something else. You have your ideas when you start a business and then adjust to the reality of the situation.

I would guess his game day atmosphere will be a little different than his every day atmosphere, but you can't base your business on 6 days a year.

As far as conforming to the area…we all should open fabric shops    Hopefully Howard breaks the mold of conformity and opens up 20th Street to better possibilities.

owlcountry40 said

lot of that stuff seems tourist trapy.

Well, the idea being that you'd have a lot of different options of things to do, and you wouldn't have to leave Boca (or maybe even drive, if you lived on 20th street) to do it. I'd like to see Boca be one of those cities where if there's something to do somewhere else, you can do it here too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally with you about the string of college bars, cheap places to eat, college apparel store thing. I want that too... especially food. I was walking down 20th yesterday and wished there were more than three places to eat there (Munchiez, Community Table, Jimmy John's). As an aside, I like Community Table a lot and hope they become an FAU/Boca institution even after the area builds up.

Anyway...

Our issue with college bars right now is that Cantina got forced out due to volume (a problem it wouldn't have had on 20th street) and violence (a problem it would have had on 20th street), and NightOwl closed because, apparently, the "crowd changed" and the students that did come didn't want to pay for cover or drinks... you know where that goes.

And once you get a rep as a certain type of bar - college bar, bar for old people, etc - you can't really change the business model so as to bring in older, more paying customers to buoy the sagging business from the college kids, your intended market.

But the inherent problem with college bars, of course, is that the traditional undergrad is ages 17-22 and you can't legally drink until you're 21. Obviously there are ways around that with fake IDs, but you roll the dice with that business model because you know the cops - especially in a safe town like Boca Raton where they don't have as much to do - are going to hover. The upside is that right now FAU's average undergrad is actually a little bit older but it can be complicated because 25 year olds also tend not to want to frequent a bar with belligerent 18-19 year olds. Recent alumni on this board have stated that.

Here's the other thing: our graduate students (in 2014, the last year I can see data) make up about 15% (~5k students) of our total population. Compare that to Gainesville where 32% (16K) of UF's ~50k of them are graduate/professional. That's a lot of people to potentially patronize those bars if the undergrads have ID issues.

I don't quite believe the "in Gainesville you're stuck whereas in Boca you could hit up Delray or Fort Lauderdale". Technically yes that's true but convenience is always the top motivation. If you build an enjoyable area on 20th, students will congregate there. You just have to make it worth their time.

So what does that all mean?

College bars will continue to open in this area, albeit very slowly until a cluster can develop and 20th Street becomes a destination. Most will target the undergrads, like NightOwl did, and they'll roll the dice. In Gainesville bars open and close every year, so there may never be permanence, but it'll happen. The important thing is that when a bar closes, another one opens. Right now we lost both Cantina and NightOwl and there have been no announcements about a specific college bar opening up in the area. So we're losing traction right now, though we could regain that if University Shoppes can start stringing some local attractions (including bars) together while we wait on Boca to rename 20th and figure out how to convince/force the Boca Bargoons and DeShields places to relocate so developers like Alex Rosemurgy can start building some mixed-use housing/retail.

owlcountry40 said

Have sports place, but focus on wings and cheap beer.

That would be great.