Despite operating a successful businesses on Main Street, the owner of said he doesn't know how much longer he can swallow the blighted properties and lack of destinations along Smithtown's center.
It's that quandary that has kept restaurant owner Allen Holmquist from spending the $989,000 to buy the building, which his landlord recently put on the market.
“[Main Street is] physically unattractive, [it’s a] decaying block, most of the stores are vacant,” he said. “Obviously people coming down to this area see that and it just gives an overall sense that the area is decaying. It’s not a vibrant area.”
Smithtown Patch has been chronicling the glut of vacant properties that are plaguing Main Street, and has seen similar points made by readers.
But it's not just blight that has Holmquist concerned. Main Street lacks the attractions that other Long Island towns such as Sayville, Huntington and Port Jefferson, have to make them destinations, he said.
“They are almost a magnet for people,” he said. “Smithtown downtown is not that situation.”
The Town of Smithtown has offered up , including the near the train station, but so far no programs have tackled the problem of Main Street vacancies.
One exception, however, is a recent announcement that the town plans to demolish a former auto dealer at 10 East Main Street . Comments on Patch, however, suggest the community was hoping for a better destination business than a masonry shop.
Holmquist said Thai House has grown in the four years it’s been open, but would only consider investing in property locally if there was an economic turnaround and Main Street became more physically attractive.
Adjacent to his restaurant is a former lumberyard, and not having them shipped out as lumber from it. The former near his restaurant.
Thai House, known for its good lunch value and for being one of the few restaurants in the area serving staples such as Pad Thai, rich coconut curries and spicy soups, isn't the only Asian eatery with local business concerns. The owner of Korean barbecue restaurant . In that case, the owner blamed the town for making the permit process too difficult for him to expand.
