Businesses opened in 2010
Bar Tiki (closed Dec. 31)
Color 2 gallery
Elaine Balsley Fine Art
5th Street Clayworx
Las Americas Caribbean Cuisine
Omega Music
Side Bar
ReCreate
Businesses scheduled to open in 2011
Press coffee shop
Lucky’s Taproom and Eatery
Dance club in former Bar Tiki location
DAYTON — Three adult children of Omega Music founder Gary Staiger are ensuring that their dad’s vision of a successful record store in Dayton’s Oregon Arts District will not die with their father.
Omega’s move to the former Gem City Records location has been great for business, which is “triple, quadruple sometimes” from its previous site in north Dayton, said co-owner Katy Gottschlich.
“Had he still been on North Main, I don’t think we would have kept it open,” said Gottschlich, who is Staiger’s daughter. “Financially, it just wouldn’t have worked out.”
Gottschlich, 30, has been running the store with her brothers, Alex Staiger, 24, and Greg Staiger, 23, since their father died unexpectedly Nov. 25. “We just try to keep moving forward,” Alex Staiger said. “We knew we weren’t going to close.”
The record store that opened Oct. 29 has been warmly embraced by patrons and by fellow Oregon District business owners, who have weathered their own tough times and are not only surviving, but in most cases thriving. The district has seen a net increase of 14 new businesses since 2008, and it owes that success in part to the spirit of collaboration among business owners that has buoyed Omega’s owners.
“It’s that business advice that is golden to us,” Gottschlich said. “We don’t have Dad to fall back on and ask questions.”
Omega’s location on the East Fifth Street commercial strip provides an anchor for the arts and entertainment district, said Sandra Gudorf, president of the Downtown Dayton Partnership. “For the short time it was vacant it really affected the streetscape,” Gudorf said. “So it is very critical.”
Something’s working: The district’s signature dining and entertainment sector had a banner year in 2010. Consider:
• Side Bar restaurant opened to large crowds in the spring of 2010 in the former Pacchia spot, and is credited by several neighboring business owners with stimulating foot traffic in the district.
• The former John Henry restaurant space at 520 E. Fifth St., mostly vacant since the restaurant closed in 2008, is springing to life in the coming weeks as Lucky’s Taproom & Eatery. The sports bar with an automotive theme will join Las Americas Puerto Rican restaurant, which opened in August 2010 in a portion of the former John Henry restaurant.
• Boulevard Haus at 329 E. Fifth St. is a turnaround story: It filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in April 2009 when it was operating as Cafe Boulevard, successfully reorganized, changed its name in November 2009 when it started serving German cuisine, made profits throughout the second half of 2010, and emerged from bankruptcy entirely just last month, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court records.
• Oregon District established restaurants Thai 9 and Dublin Pub saw their sales increase in 2010 compared to the previous year, according to their owners. And they found creative ways to boost profits: Rob Strong, Thai 9’s owner, said his restaurant was boosted in 2010 by an increasing emphasis on craft beers; a revamped wine list is coming soon in 2011.
Dublin Pub co-owner Steve Tieber said when the restaurant’s sales started softening, owners looked to a new market — families. “We went out and bought highchairs and booster seats, and now we have a children’s menu,” Tieber said. “That’s a whole market we didn’t even consider 11 years ago.” And it’s working, he said.
• And new businesses continue to open. Press, a coffee shop and arts space, had its grand opening Friday.
Restaurant and bar owners continue to collaborate with retail shops and art galleries on projects such as “First Friday” and Urban Nights, giving the district a competitive edge over other entertainment districts, Gudorf said. In other cases, individual business owners work cooperatively: Oregon Express co-owner Joe Bavaro said he and a few other business owners on the west end of the Fifth Street strip went in together to hire a security guard to monitor a large parking lot from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights.
On Jan. 1 district business owners joined the Downtown Dayton Special Improvement District, paying a combined assessment of $50,000 to $60,000 annually for programs and services, said Mike Martin, president of the Oregon District Business Association.
The SID will increase the level of cleanliness and safety “so that when our patrons come down they have an enjoyable time and a safe time in the district,” Martin said. The SID also will encourage other businesses to locate in the district, he said.
Still, not every Oregon District business is rolling in customers. Some of the retail-shop owners closer to the middle of the East Fifth Street commercial strip in the heart of the Oregon District say foot traffic seems concentrated on both ends of the district and doesn’t always extend to their stores, and some retail shop owners have closed in recent years. But the district’s dining and entertainment sector is clearly thriving as the Oregon strip’s restaurants find creative ways to attract customers.
Janet Phillips, owner of Vintage Clothing and Antiques, 440 E. Fifth St., said visitors often patronize the bars and restaurants at either end of the district’s Fifth Street strip without walking the short block to the middle of the strip, where she has operated her store since 1978. She’d like to see more retail shops in the district.
But she is a staunch defender of the Oregon District and its charms.
“I love it here,” Phillips said. “I like the mix of people. I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the city.”
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