Center aims for a bullish future

By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Cooker Bar & amp; Grill didn't make it. China Coast was a bust.
Now, developers are hoping a retail shopping center will succeed where other businesses failed at U.S. Route 224 and Tiffany Boulevard.
Tom Komara, owner of Komara Jewelers, and Ed Pease, president of Cliffwood Construction in Poland, are transforming the former Cooker into a marketplace-style retail center they're calling Bull Market Square.
Set to open in early May, the building already has two major tenants. Komara Jewelers is moving there from the Boardman Plaza, and Pease is opening the Bull & amp; Bear Tavern, a new, locally owned bar and eatery.
Casual feel: Komara said he's planning a casual, "living-room atmosphere" for his new store.
"We want to get away from the typical chrome and neon," he said. "We want a laid-back, quaint feeling to fit the marketplace theme, a place where people can feel comfortable."
Komara Jewelers, a family business in the Valley since 1948, also has a store in the Coal Creek Plaza in Cornersburg.
Pease said the Bull & amp; Bear Tavern, his first venture in the restaurant business, will serve lunch and dinner six days a week. He's including a small stage and a dance floor and plans to feature local jazz bands and other talent.
As the name suggests, the tavern decor will feature a stock market theme. Bull & amp; Bear will accommodate 100 to 150 people, and plans are to offer outside dining during warm weather months.
Cliffwood Construction is refurbishing the building interior to fit its new use, and workers were able to preserve some parts of the Cooker's mahogany-trimmed bar and restaurant area.
Closing: The 9,100-square-foot Bull Market Square site had been vacant since October 1999, when the West Palm Beach, Fla., Cooker chain closed the three-year-old restaurant without notice. Company spokesmen said the eatery wasn't profitable.
Komara and Cliffwood Construction bought the building for $1.25 million.
Coldwell Banker FFY Commercial Real Estate, which brokered the sale, is leasing the remaining 4,000 square feet. Pease said the company has had inquiries from two national chains as well as from some local businesses.
First business: Darden Restaurants, a subsidiary of General Mills Inc. of Minneapolis, constructed the building and opened a China Coast Restaurant there in January 1994.
The restaurant closed after a little more than a year in business, and Darden later closed all its China Coast locations.
Darden had acquired the site by buying out the previous occupant, the locally owned Boathouse Restaurant; then, it closed down that restaurant and demolished the building. The Boathouse reopened last year at a new location on South Avenue.
Pease said Cliffwood is experienced with turning a restaurant into office or retail space, having recently completed renovation of the former Moonraker Restaurant, also on Tiffany Boulevard. That building is now headquarters for Coldwell Banker FFY and houses a bank branch and other offices.