Blacksburg’s Kent Square Subway location closes
The Subway at Blacksburg's Kent Square building is closed, but own Scott Hillyard hopes to find a new location closer to downtown. Photo by Mike Shaw | The Burgs.
Former Kent Square Subway customers were greeted with a "permanent closing" sign today. Photo by Mike Shaw | The Burgs.
BLACSKBURG – One of four Subway restaurants located in Blacksburg closed its doors today.
Subway employees could be seen this morning inside the restaurant packing up boxes.
According to Subway franchise owner Scott Hillyard, the Kent Square location is closing because that restaurant hasn’t seen the same “increases” over the past 10 years that his other locations in the area have.
“Students just aren’t willing to walk those three extra blocks,” said Hillyard, who owns 10 Subway locations throughout the New River Valley.
Hillyard said he’s also heard complaints from his customers about parking in the Kent Square Parking Garage.
“If you park your car there, you have to pay 50 cents just to get a $5 sandwich,” Hillyard said. “That just seems like too much of a hassle for someone to get a sandwich.”
Lori Lester and two of her coworkers were on their way to lunch at the restaurant today when they spotted the “permanent closing” sign on the door.
Lester visits the restaurant at least once a week because it’s close to her job and Subway offers healthy food options, she said. She said she’s sad to see it go, but is willing to walk a couple more blocks to get lunch.
The Subway location relocated to Kent Square from College Avenue about 10 years ago because of the larger space it provided, Hillyard said.
He’s been looking for the past five years to relocate the restaurant to a new space downtown, closer to the flow of local and student foot traffic. Many of the locations he’s looked at have either been too big or too small for his restaurant.
“We are looking for a location back down in the downtown general area,” he said.
The Roanoke Times | 381-8627
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Cooks Clean on N. Main in Blacksburg has closed as well due to lack of parking.
Comment by Bill — June 7, 2012 @ 6:26 am
Wow-people really ARE that LAZY. Fat America please know that the actual distance from your mall parking space IS further than parking in the garage. Pathetic.
Comment by LoveNRV — June 7, 2012 @ 8:22 am
Way to go Blacksburg!!! 2 stories about businesses in downtown closing in 2 days. And parking is the issue listed a prime driver for both. Its time to get realistic about what you’re demanding of your citizens.
Comment by Noodle 78 — June 7, 2012 @ 11:42 am
Perhaps there is more to the businesses closing than the favorite red herring, parking. Maybe people just aren’t using dry cleaners much anymore and maybe Jimmy John’s siphoned off some of Subways business. The recipe for business success is complicated and can rarely be attributed to one factor.
Comment by Observer — June 7, 2012 @ 3:32 pm
So maybe Subway could move into the old Cooks Clean center site and give Mike’s Grill some
competition.
Comment by Gloria — June 7, 2012 @ 4:27 pm
Observer – go observe the lack of parking places downtown. Quick! They’re disappearing fast!
Comment by DJ — June 7, 2012 @ 9:30 pm
I work downtown and have never had a problem finding parking spaces at any time of year- unless of course there is a football game scheduled. I am, of course, willing if necessary to park in the parking garage and WALK a few blocks. Now isn’t that a novel idea? Seriously people take a look at other towns and cities across the world and realize that Blacksburg does not have a parking problem. And if you really cannot bear to park more than 5ft from a store, take the bus and be dropped off right outside the door. We should be more concerned about improving our public transport system than complaining constantly about the perceived lack of parking.
Comment by Len — June 8, 2012 @ 5:29 pm
I do not own a single item that would requires dry cleaning…most clothes are made not to need that service anymore.
As for Subway closing- “According to Subway franchise owner Scott Hillyard, the Kent Square location is closing because that restaurant hasn’t seen the same “increases” over the past 10 years that his other locations in the area have.”
Mr. Hillyard does not say that his business at Kent Square was not profitable, he states that it has not seen the same increases as other locations…..I understand that to mean that he was certainly making money there….just not as much as he wanted.
He goes on to say:
“Students just aren’t willing to walk those three extra blocks,” – well it probably is hard to stumble that far when you are drunk; far easier to fall into the fast food nearest to the last bar and vomit in the doorway…but that is a whole different issue altogether.
And my point is? Stop blaming everything on parking and look into the other reasons which determine how and why a business operates.
Comment by Ann B — June 8, 2012 @ 5:38 pm
Perhaps they are not using them because they can’t find a place to park?
I’m sure Jimmy John’s is a factor, but the location of Subway was not conducive to the college crowd stopping in.
The town has known for years that it needed to add parking spaces. No surprise here.
Comment by Richie — June 8, 2012 @ 9:25 pm
Personally, I believe it is the combination of high real estate costs and low student spending that shuts most of these businesses down. I have lived in town for over 10 years and parking is not really the issue people make it out to be (unless you’re talking about a special event like Steppin Out or a football game).
Comment by BburgRes — June 11, 2012 @ 2:34 pm