Restaurants remain, living hand to mouth

By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- The food court at the Phar-Mor Centre is in danger of losing most of its remaining eateries.
Several business owners say they are struggling since Phar-Mor closed its stores in July and let go nearly all of its 200-person corporate staff in the downtown building.
"It's dead," said Nick Capuzello, owner of Jay's Famous Hot Dogs shops there and in Campbell.
One day last week about 50 people were at the food court at noon, but most tables were empty.
Jammed before
Capuzello said the food court used to be jammed for two hours. His business would have lines of people waiting for hot dogs. Now, people drift up to the counter one or two at a time, which happens only around noon.
Because of the 75 percent drop in business, he has family members working in the downtown shop for free and is working another job.
"I don't know how much longer we're going to last," he said.
He hopes to keep the shop open until spring to see if another company moves into the offices vacated by Phar-Mor.
Franco's troubles
Business has been dropping for some time, said Frank Naples, owner of Franco's.
With the additional hit from losing the Phar-Mor workers, sales at his Italian eatery has dropped in half in the past two and a half years.
He intends to drop the restaurant business once he finds a new home for his catering business, Franco's Catering. The catering business handles corporate luncheons as well as weddings and graduations.
"If we only had walk-up business, we would have been out years ago," he said.
Joyce Collingwood, manager of Yogurt Corner in the building, said business there is down quite a bit.
"We're taking it each day as it comes, and we'll see how it goes," she said.
Worries about staying
Bgunt Pta, owner of Wok Inn, said he doesn't know if he'll be able to keep his restaurant open in the center. Sales at the 10-year-old business had been good until Phar-Mor let go of most of its workers, he said.
Gary Ellis, owner of Russo Pizza, said his business has been down a little but hasn't been too bad. He recently signed a one-year lease for his space.
All of the business owners said they hope another company will move into the Phar-Mor offices.
The restaurants had much better business prospects 10 years ago because Phar-Mor had 1,500 employees in the Phar-Mor Centre and the Erie Terminal on Commerce Street.
The food court has five eateries left after Plaza Donuts closed its shop in the building in July.
Vansickle Corp. closed its Conva-Med Pharmacy in the Phar-Mor Centre Aug. 31.
Mike Marshall, Vansickle vice president, said there wasn't enough traffic in the building without Phar-Mor workers. The company, which also operates Rehabilitation Network, opened the pharmacy a few years ago after civic leaders and nearby elderly residents complained because another pharmacy had closed downtown.
Phar-Mor offices
Phar-Mor offices took up most of the second floor and all of the third floor of the building, which used to be a Strouss-Kaufmann's department store.
OSI Strategic Receivables, a debt collection company, operates a call center on the fourth floor. The fifth floor is vacant, and the sixth floor is occupied by Hanahan-Strollo & amp; Associates architects and the Nadler Nadler & amp; Burdman law firm.
Phar-Mor still has about 20 workers who are wrapping up the company's final affairs.
Strouss Building Associates owns the building. SBA is owned by Phar-Mor and a subsidiary of Phar-Mor.
shilling@vindy.com