Merchants huddle: They seek more details on Sugar House project

"I have to look," Bond said. "I have employees, and I have created something that's unique to Salt Lake. And this breaks my heart. I don't want to leave Sugar House. I love what I've done. But what choice do I have? I have to look."

However, relocating poses its own challenges, said Andy Fletcher, owner of Orion's Music, 2106 S. 1100 East. Fletcher moved from the 9th and 9th area in Sugar House before it was redeveloped.

"We moved 12 blocks from a Sugar House community to a Sugar House community, and I'd say it cost us, a conservative estimate, $80,000 to $100,000," Fletcher said. "The businesses here, I don't care if you're moving right across the street and you put a big banner up, you will lose business."

To mitigate those expenses, Fletcher reiterated his desire to hold a monthly or bimonthly "buy-cot" starting later this month.

"Instead of boycotting the area, I think it's important that people know that we're going to incur an awful lot of expense when we move our businesses," Fletcher said. "We're going to lose a lot of business. But twice a month, let's get people down here to find out what's going on with the block."

Fletcher proposed regular meetings featuring community and city officials, candidates for political office and consumers, sharing information and proposing ideas for what might be done.

And, he added, "let's get the news to the public that if they want to support small businesses, if they want to see us succeed, they need to come down here and spend money in the next three or four months, so that we have the money to move. Let's get the word out that this is where we're going, this is what we're doing and these are our intentions."

---

E-mail: jnii@desnews.com