In a span of less than half a mile in Eastown, there are nine restaurants that serve pizzas.
That includes four restaurants in a row as a hungry customer walks across Lake Drive and Wealthy Street: Hungry Howie’s, Harmony Brewing, Gino’s Pizza and BC Pizza of Eastown.
Stretch that down the street and customers can also choose from Cottage Inn, Quarantino’s, Terra GR, Pizza Hut and Dominoes.
That’s a lot of pizza in a small space. How does that all work from a commercial real estate perspective?
Mike Murray, Advantage Commercial Real Estate partner and senior vice president of retail, was involved in bringing Hungry Howie’s to Eastown, the last pizza joint to join the party. It revamped a former car wash in the Eastown Citgo gas station, 1560 Lake Dr. SE.
“The reasoning has to do with what we’ve been saying in our commercial real estate world for a while, we’re out of retail space,” Murray said. “There’s no new zoning to create more and when you’re in the middle of mature, developed residential neighborhoods, it works.”
The Hungry Howie’s franchisee was in the Breton Village mall area for more than 20 years. The store ran through all its lease options and needed to relocate and was between Breton Street near 28th Street and Eastown. He even briefly considered Gaslight Village in East Grand Rapids, which itself less than a mile from Eastown has Jet’s Pizza, Big Bob’s Pizza, Pera Pizzeria and Rose’s.
“He felt like that was a bit of a peninsula, people don’t need to go through EGR to get to other parts of Grand Rapids,” Murray said. “He felt like that might be too separated, so if we can’t go near 28th Street, let’s go toe-to-toe with the other pizza places.”
The franchisee has approximately 12 Hungry Howie’s and 20 Jimmy John’s around the area, including the Jimmy John’s in Eastown. So he was well aware of the residential density surrounding the Eastown area.
“It’s a walkable area, people know where it is and it’s easy to get in and out of from lots of parts of Grand Rapids,” Murray said.
Several of the pizza places have been there for years, including Pizza Hut and Dominoes. Papa John’s was also in the area for a while before closing shop. Murray said there are simply a lot of pizza concepts in the world, and the companies generally know what works.
He also said customers recognize the differences between the national chains like Dominoes and more local joints like Gino’s Pizza. Also separated are the sit-down restaurants like Harmony and Terra.
“Customers recognize those differences,” he said. “If you’re having a big get together and ordering a lot of pizza’s, it’s likely not from Gino’s or the brewery.”
And the move a little more downtown and pizza places might struggle. A Little Caesars closed at the corner of Fuller Avenue and Wealthy Street, just a stone’s throw from the Pizza Hut. That included finding a sublease tenant for multiple years of left on the lease, Murray said.
For now, the seven pizza places in Eastown appear to be doing well, Murray said. Will that always be the case?
“There is a lot of pizza there, so it will be interesting to see if they all can make it work long term,” he said. “But it’s an accessible area, with zoning that works and where there is and isn’t parking.”
