The northwest corner of Summit Hill and Central Street has long offered a prominent example of the damage done to downtown in the 1970s and 1980s. Once filled with buildings, the half-acre space has offered a parking lot and, since around the 1990s, a faux diner. After the diner phase, the corner became an Enterprise Rental Car business. Enterprise vacated the spot for the Langley Garage in 2015, a much more appropriate spot for a fleet of cars.
Merchants of Beer (under different ownership) announced plans to open in June of 2016. It took nearly a year, but the business finally opened in May of 2017. A very different business then, it featured a humidor on one end and the rear parking lot continued to be utilized for cars. By October 2018, Thomas Boyd owned the property and announced a new vision for the bulk of the property to shift from parking to an outdoor dining and drinking space with a food truck parked to one side. The vision ultimately incorporated a stage.
In the time since, the corner space has become a lively gathering spot for diners, drinkers, and for a range of uses including vintage markets, concerts, live radio broadcasts, and more. Quite a step up from the parking lot, with lively events making the corner a visually appealing place, it offered some connection between the two major parts of downtown. But it wasn’t really enough.
Thomas said that he knew all along the ultimate plan would call for further development of the property, feeling that the space was underutilized relative to its potential. “I always had ambitions to do a greater development” and he says he is hopeful that will now happen, though not necessarily in his hands. “There are a lot of underutilized spaces downtown and if you look at that spot, it’s a 2,000 square foot, single-story building on a half acre. It isn’t a great use. Going vertical on a lot of the empty spaces downtown is the natural next step.”
“October 26 will be the last day. It will be sad, but it’s been a long time coming.” He said he’s excited to see what comes next and said he expects to sell the property to someone else for its next phase. He added that the staff has known about the plans for months and have made their plans accordingly.
So what comes next for the space? In that 2016 article linked above, I noted the win with Enterprise moving to a more appropriate spot, wished for a reduced Summit Hill Drive, and for a taller structure on this corner. Maybe we’ll finally get that next step. If that corner is developed with a larger building, who knows? Maybe that Summit Hill reduction could be next. At the least a larger development on this corner would be another step in threading the city back together again. Stay tuned for news on that front very soon.