BDN photo/Jen LyndsHOULTON — For more than 20 years, a variety of restaurants have been housed at 127 North Street, just next door to O’Reillys Auto Parts and the VIP Discount Auto Center that has been at its locale for a similar amount of time.
Local economic development officials acknowledged recently that several factors make the location challenging, but they still are receiving calls about the site from potential entrepreneurs.
“I certainly think that it is in a good spot, being right on the main drag on North Street,” Nancy Ketch, grant writer and economic development director for the community, said recently. “It is not hidden away on a side street or anything. That location has a tremendous advantage.”
Ketch was speaking of a building that most recently housed Amato’s, a restaurant that opened here in May 2013 and sold pizzas, pasta, subs and other fare. The same owner had first opened an Amato’s franchise in Presque Isle in 2012, but both locations were closed in December 2013 due to a downturn in the economy and some health issues he was suffering.
Prior to that, the building on North Street housed a KFC, which spent approximately eight years there on the heels of Little Caesar’s pizza shop, which lasted from September 1997 to January 1999. The structure was originally built in February 1994 as a space for Dunkin Donuts, but lasted only two years. Ownership blamed the closure on the economic decline faced by all of Aroostook County as a result of the loss of Canadian business and the former Loring Air Force Base. Dunkin Donuts returned to town several years ago and is thriving in a new location a shorter distance up North Street.
Both Ketch and Jon McLaughlin, executive director of the Southern Aroostook Development Corp., an economic development group, said that it is at times puzzling why several businesses have come and gone from 127 North Street while O’Reilly’s Auto Parts and VIP Discount Auto Center has found its niche right next door.
Both businesses are so close together that they share a parking lot, Ketch noted. Both agreed, however, that the difficulty of entering and exiting the parking lot of 127 North Street, especially during peak hours, might have discouraged diners.
“If you were in their parking lot and you just wanted to make a right handed turn, that wasn’t much of an issue,” said Ketch. “But if you wanted to take a left turn, that meant you had to cross two lanes of traffic and sometimes if there were larger vehicles you didn’t have a very good view of what was coming at you. It was sometimes easier just to go right and then pull into the shopping plaza by the traffic lights so you could make a left.”
Janice Hanson of Houlton agreed. She said recently that she frequented Dunkin Donuts when it first came to town because it was new, but soon discovered that many people in town were just as enamored as she was.
“I liked to get a fresh muffin in the mornings, and even though I allowed myself extra time, they were always backed up at the counter and in the drive-thru,” she recalled. “So pulling out of the parking lot onto North Street, there would be a line of five or six cars trying to beat two lanes of traffic in the winter darkness some mornings. Most people who were going left would just get mad and go right and correct themselves later.”
McLaughlin said that the Maine Department of Transportation had considered correcting the congestion around the area and other nearby stores, but had abandoned the idea due to budget cuts.
“I thought that was really too bad, because it was not like these people had bad business ideas,” he said. “KFC did pretty well there for awhile, and case in point, Dunkin Donuts moved a short distance up the road and is always busy. I think it was the perfect storm of several things, the economy, population loss, health, traffic.”
Ketch said that the building remains in “great shape” and is all set up for a restaurant to come in and take over with all of the built-ins, kitchen supplies and the drive-thru on site.
“I can think of three or four business prospects who have contacted me to ask about the place and I have sent photographs,” she said. “So it is definitely not a lost cause by any means.”
