Oak Ridge Today

Restaurants, retailers can increase capacity; live music permitted; large attractions can re-open Friday

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Restaurants and retail stores in most of Tennessee’s counties can increase their capacity starting Friday if they follow certain guidelines, and large attractions such as amusement and water parks, auditoriums and theaters, and zoos and large museums can re-open under certain conditions on Friday.

Restaurants and retailers had been limited to 50 percent capacity since re-opening the week of April 27. There is no certain capacity limit for restaurants, as a percentage, under the updated guidelines released by the Tennessee Economic Recovery Group on Wednesday. Instead, the focus is on making sure tables are properly spaced.

The restaurants and retailers had been closed for about a month as the state tried to reduce the spread of COVID-19, a contagious respiratory disease that can be deadly.

Under the new guidelines, restaurants and retail stores can increase their capacity starting Friday as long as they continue to follow social distancing protocols. For restaurants, those protocols include continuing to space tables six feet apart—or installing physical barriers where adequate separation isn’t possible. Bars are to remain closed unless they are used for seated, in-restaurant dining where there is six feet of separation between customer groups. Live music is permitted with certain precautions, including maintaining at least 15 feet of separation between performers and an audience in order to reduce potential exposures.

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Restaurants, retailers can re-open in AC, Oak Ridge

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Restaurants were allowed to re-open under certain guidelines in 89 of the state’s 95 counties on Monday, and retail stores can re-open under similar guidelines on Wednesday.

The guidelines include operating at 50 percent capacity and maintaining social distance (generally keeping people at least six feet apart). The state recommends no live music, and restaurant bars should be kept closed. The state also recommends that employees in both industries wear cloth face coverings and that business owners follow federal guidelines for hygiene and workplace sanitation standards for COVID-19.

The 85 counties where restaurants and retail stores can re-open include Anderson and Roane counties.

Many businesses have been closed or operating under changed conditions as Tennessee, like other states and countries, tried to reduce the spread of COVID-19, a contagious respiratory illness that can be deadly.

“Tennesseans pulled together to flatten the curve, and it is time for people to begin to get back to work and back to their businesses,” Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said. “We are pursuing a careful, measured approach to reopening our economy that does not depend on heavy-handed mandates but instead provides practical tools for businesses of all sizes.”

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Governor: 15 percent of state’s workforce files unemployment claims

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On Friday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said 15 percent of Tennessee’s workforce had filed unemployment claims as of last week.

More than 400,000 people are without a job, Lee said during a press conference announcing new guidelines for restaurants and retailers that could open in most of the state’s counties this week.

Lee said $870 million in revenue was lost in March alone across some of Tennessee’s largest industries such as hospitality.

With employers and employees struggling, there could a $5 billion decrease in the state’s gross domestic product for 2020, the governor said.

The service industry has been hit especially hard, he said.

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Oak Ridge Chamber members hear about retail convention at networking meeting

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Leigha Edwards

Leigha Edwards, vice chair of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s economic growth efforts, gives an update on retail activity during a Tuesday morning networking meeting. (Photo by Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce)

Leigha Edwards, one of the Oak Ridge representatives who attended a recent shopping center convention, gave an update on retail activity during a Tuesday morning networking meeting.

Edwards works for UT-Battelle, which manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and she is vice chair of the Chamber’s economic growth efforts, a press release said.

She recently attended RECon, held by the International Council of Shopping Centers, along with other representatives of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce and the City of Oak Ridge. In addition to Edwards, other representatives who attended were Melinda Hillman of Roane State Community College and chair of the Chamber’s Board of Directors; Stephen Whitson of H-S Whitson; Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Smith; and Parker Hardy, president and chief executive officer of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

“The conversation at RECon about retail development in Oak Ridge has changed dramatically since the first year I attended in 2013,” Edwards said. “The fact that Crosland Southeast is purchasing the mall property changed things in a very positive way. Their reputation is such that it brought a great deal of credibility to the project and the city as a whole. [Read more…]

See Main Street Oak Ridge plans here

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Main Street Oak Ridge Master Plan March 26, 2015

Here is the master plan for Main Street Oak Ridge. See a larger version of the plan in the first link below.

 

Several readers have asked for higher resolution versions of the plans for Main Street Oak Ridge, the development that could replace the former Oak Ridge Mall with a mix of retailers, restaurants, residential units, and possibly a hotel.

Here are copies of the plans provided by Oak Ridge Community Development. One is the master plan, and the other is a pedestrian connectivity and conceptual landscape plan. [Read more…]

Follow-up: AC Commission concurs with city’s mall TIF extension

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Oak Ridge Village Area Rendering

Note: This story was updated at 10:02 a.m.

County’s part of agreement does not change

The Oak Ridge City Council has agreed to add another 10 years to the agreement that will be used to help redevelop the former Oak Ridge Mall, and during its regular meeting in October, the Anderson County Commission concurred with the change.

There were no objections, and the Commission’s concurrence with the city’s 10-year extension of the tax increment financing, or TIF, passed 15-0. The city’s portion of the TIF has been extended from 20 years to 30, and the county’s remains unchanged at 20.

The city’s TIF extension had also been approved by the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board, and the County Commission concurred with that change as well.

Ray Evans, retail consultant for the City of Oak Ridge, told commissioners that Crosland Southeast, the North Carolina firm that has proposed the redevelopment, could close on the property at the end of the year. Demolition could start in the first quarter of 2015, and retailers could have space in the redeveloped 59-acre site by mid-2016, Evans said.

“We think we’re very close to getting across the finish line,” Evans said. [Read more…]

Customer Service Workshop at Oak Ridge Chamber on Thursday

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Customer service expert Bill Drury will present a workshop on customer service on Thursday, October 9, at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

The workshop is titled “A Passion for Service” and will discuss how to win customers and reduce lost sales. It’s scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to noon Thursday at the Chamber.

From 1985 until 1990, Drury was the national training consultant for the Zig Ziglar Corporation. He speaks, trains, and travels extensively, and has proven to be one of the most effective and entertaining speakers in the industry, a Chamber of Commerce press release said. [Read more…]

Anderson Commission unanimously approves Oak Ridge Mall TIF, project goes to state

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Oak Ridge Mall Concept Plan Featured

The Anderson County Commission on Monday unanimously approved a $13 million tax financing agreement that could be used to help the $85 million redevelopment of the mostly empty Oak Ridge Mall.

CLINTON—The Anderson County Commission on Monday unanimously approved a $13 million tax financing agreement that could be used to help the $85 million redevelopment of the mostly empty Oak Ridge Mall.

The vote was 15-0. Anderson County Commissioner Mark Alderson was absent.

“I am extremely optimistic about this,” said Anderson County Commission Vice Chair Robin Biloski, an Oak Ridge resident.

It’s the fifth unanimous or near-unanimous vote on the project in less than a month. The tax increment financing, or TIF, had also been approved with no opposition, but with one abstention, by the Oak Ridge City Council, and it had also been endorsed with no opposition by the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board and Anderson County budget and operations committees. [Read more…]

Guest column: E-fairness—good for Oak Ridge, good for Tennessee, good for U.S.

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Parker Hardy

Parker Hardy

For years, online-only retailers have enjoyed a significant competitive advantage over their local competitors: they don’t have to collect state sales taxes. This means online retailers can create the illusion of having lower prices than traditional retailers because those online retailers do not, in most instances, collect the same sales taxes that our local brick-and-mortar stores do. And because they do not collect those taxes, they automatically enjoy a 9.75 percent advantage over local businesses.

This is not only unfair; it’s bad for local businesses, communities, and families. It is money that is not available for use in supporting our schools, paving our roads, building our playgrounds, or hiring police officers and firefighters.

The Marketplace Fairness Act would set things right. [Read more…]

Guest column: Chamber believes Oak Ridge retail scene about to improve

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Working the retail scene

As you read this, a team of representatives from Oak Ridge is returning home from Las Vegas, Nev., where we attended the International Council of Shopping Centers annual ReCon convention. The convention is the largest gathering of representatives of national retailers and restaurants in the world.

Our team walked an average of about nine miles per day making sure we visited as many representatives as possible during our time here. We also exhibited in a pavilion that is set up specifically for cities around the nation. Several Tennessee communities were represented there. While there, we had 20 face-to-face meetings with representatives of national retailers and restaurants as well as representatives of Kroger Real Estate and Crosland Southeast, the company contracted to purchase the Oak Ridge City Center. [Read more…]