Plaza Frontenac doesn’t want any do-good charity bull crap next to Saks Fifth Avenue or Neiman Marcus. Apparently that stuff doesn’t make any money and that’s just not going to cut it, so the city has worked with the fancy shopping center to preemptively block any nonprofits from getting in the mix.
Jesse Bogan has the details at STLToday –
The story starts with a St. Louis Bread Co. cafe — specifically, the one in Clayton that opened earlier this year as a nonprofit, promising to kick back its profits to charitable causes.
Frontenac leaders grew worried that a Bread Co. slated to open at the Plaza could also become a nonprofit. So they pressed the issue with Davis Street Land Co., which owns the shopping center and is adding two buildings to the site, including the new restaurant.
The city’s odd stand has taken it’s citizens and Panera Bread, who owns the St. Louis Bread Co franchise, by surprise. The location slated for Frontenac will be for profit and after this, don’t plan on Panera doing anything progressive there any time soon.
“We have not gotten this response from any other parts of the country,” said company spokeswoman Linn Parrish. “We never open a nonprofit cafe where it isn’t wanted because we consider it a gift to that community.”
Frontenac Alderman Tom Hizar adjusted his metaphorical bow tie and monocle has managed to get a rebuttal out while maintaining a straight face right after he and his fellow city officials made the mall owners sign a document to never allow a non-profit store in it’s confines:
“It’s not that we are against charities or anything of the kind,”
…we just don’t like the charities that won’t give us any money.
He’s right. Sometimes we spend too much time worrying about children and doing the right thing, when we should really be making sure the richest neighborhood in St. Louis is getting enough taxes and that Saks Fifth Avenue doesn’t have a “poor person restaurant” in the same mall. Next thing you know they’re going to let that Tiger Woods fellow start golfing where ever he wants.