Store Closure Transition. Royal Blue Grocery Closes: Safety Concerns and New Business Venture on Congress Avenue

Hey everyone, it's Monday morning, June 23rd, at 9:23 a.m. This is Gary I'm out on Congress Avenue, uh close to the intersection of, uh, Six and Congress, just a couple of blocks south of the capital. Yeah, just, uh, taking a look at the Royal Blue, which unfortunately, uh, this location closed down a couple of weeks ago, uh, last Friday. Um, it opened about 15 years ago, 2010, this particular location opened. Uh, it coincided with the city initiative to make this block of Congress more pedestrian friendly. Uh, traffic lanes were reduced, and it started to incorporate, uh, some sidewalk seating. Um Unfortunately, the numbers on this particular store had been down. They were down to about 60 or 70% of what they had been historically pre-COVID, but also the owners did indicate that revenue was down due to public safety concerns, unfortunately. Um, you know, the city has partly addressed that with the introduction of these folks, the Downtown Ambassadors and the Safety Team, but honestly it can still be quite salty down here. The good news is that all of the staff who worked at this location have found jobs at the 6 remaining. Royal Blues, and there are, uh, they're operating just fine. The other 6 Royal Blues are going just great. And it does look like there is a new tenant moving in. It looks like it's going to be a Japanese deli and a sushi bar here. So yeah, kind of bittersweet really, but that's the view from the. Old Royal Blue On Congress Avenue between 6th and 7th.