[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

I'm not anti-developer or anti-capitalism by any means but you're not telling the whole story here.

The Hacienda Hills restaurant was very poorly managed. One of the problems was that it catered to the very old clientele that had been going there for years. As those people died off, younger villagers would go there and were not happy with the way things were being done. Management didn't want to change because they were afraid of losing their dwindling but loyal customer base.

As a result, the quality of the food and service began to go downhill. The last owner did make a last ditch effort to appeal to a younger client base but it was probably too late. He was losing money and couldn't maintain decent standards. That led to even fewer people patronizing the restaurant.

Eventually, his lease was up for renewal. The Villages saw the writing on the wall and increased the lease to a number that made it impossible for the restaurant to remain viable. I can't say for sue but they may have had the idea of shutting it down and building and apartment building in it's place when they did this.

Nothing wrong with that, it's their property, they have every right to do whatever they want with it. But if they could have made more money by leaving it as a restaurant I'm sure that they would have. If the previous lease holder could have made it work I'm sure that he would have paid the higher lease and updated the restaurant to appeal to a different clientele.

But the fact is that it was mismanaged. The food was terrible, the service had gone downhill and the building was deteriorating. They had been closed several times for health code violations. That is an indication of not enough money to maintain a business and also mean fewer people will want to eat there.

I'm a musician and played there several times. The room had terrible acoustics and was a horror to try to play in. My musician friends call it the room from hell. Most of the country clubs have music. Hacienda Hills had quiet dinner music geared to the over 90 crowd. When they tried to introduce music for a later generation, the over 90 crowd left and musicians like myself found the room very difficult to play in.

The whole thing was just a mess and I was glad to see that building taken down. I'd rather see them put up another restaurant that would cater to a younger clientele but that's me. I don't own the property and the owners are going to do what's best for them. I don't blame them one bit.

To be clear-er.

Management were the people who rented the building from the developer in the last ten years. I had not seen any evidence about an increase of rent. I think that prospective leasers were discouraged by the previous failures. It was very true that THE ACOUSTICS were a nightmare in that room. You couldn't hear your dinner companion.