Panera Bread will soon close its Shaker Heights location.
The final day of operation at 20060 Van Aken Blvd. will be Nov. 21, manager Shannon Ross said.
The company is closing the Shaker Plaza location in favor of a soon-to-open site at Cedar Center in South Euclid.
The city first reported the news Monday afternoon on its Facebook page.
"As you know, we've secured all of the funding for the reconfiguration of the Warrensville/Van Aken intersection and are in the midst of planning for the revitalization of the Van Aken District," Shaker's Facebook page reads. "As that proceeds, we expect it to attract additional restaurants, coffee houses and gathering places."
Shaker Heights Economic Development Director Tania Menesse said refilling the space would be a large part of the Van Aken project.
"Right now, it's very well set up for food," she said. "It would be really nice to see investment in the area. That's what the community is looking for, food and entertainment."
Though the space is large, Menesse said the income tax impact of Panera's departure would not be nearly as great as the "community life aspect" of the closure.
"That area is ripe for development," she said, " and for everyone its not coming quickly enough."
Elmer Evans
3:18 pm on Monday, November 12, 2012
There is no way for Shaker Heights to put a happy face on this closing.
Panera is ADDING stores nationwide and not closing or rationalizing them, in any way shape or form. They are one of, if not the premier retail food establishment these days.
This is an embarrassment for the city and is an indication of how bad an investment both Van Aken and Shaker Town Plaza are to large retail chains. Care to bet the over/under on how long Fresh Market stays open?
AM
4:33 pm on Monday, November 12, 2012
Bravo Shaker leaders (extreme sarcasm). Only Shaker elected officials could take the most successful eatery in Shaker and drive them away. It takes real skill to drive away a business with their nationwide success rate. But, they do have the $40,000 they gifted to Juma gallery with a total of 2 employees and the $65,000 gifted to Amy Fulford's consulting business (6 employees). The loss of Panera is a loss of at least 20 employees. How can we fix this? Elect a mayor and council with some civic knowledge and responsibility who know how to run a city and make the city appealing to businesses. Not the officials we currently have who think this is the same Shaker of the 1960's and will not change the way they operate.
Garry Kanter
8:38 am on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
You should see the CH council throw $ away.
They proclaim themselves to be "developers", when they are merely a bank account open to anyone with a story and friends.
Cavs
4:37 pm on Monday, November 12, 2012
Very dissappointed. Cendar Center had identified Panera as a tenant months ago. You would think the city would have been all over this, but as of a week ago they stated that panera was staying put. Now the center has 2 large vacancies on that end and we hear about 'future development". Of course no concrete details have been released meaning they are nowhere near moving forward with anything other than the intersection, which has funding. Across the street the center is half vacant. If the plan is to demolish both centers and rebuild something new then I guess a strategy of havng large vacancies makes sense but I don't think this is the plan. Lets hope that the city doesn't spend a lot on incentives to get a mediocre tenant in the Panera spot.
Derek Duncan
9:51 pm on Monday, November 12, 2012
We stopped by the new Five Guys on Cedar a few days ago and I could hardly eat I was so torqued that CH, and Beachwood too, have managed to press ahead on great new retail/business development and infrastructure projects while Shaker can't get off fricken square one with this V.A. project. Well at least we have Paner.. uh, forget that. I see according to its notice the "Shaker Heights" Panera is moving to Cleveand Heights "to better serve" us. That makes sense. The kids can walk there just as easily. But of course it won't really be missed since no one ever gathered there anyway for meetings, study groups, family time, coffee dates, etc. Wonder what will move in that space...another autozone, a dollar store..? Imagine the possibilities.
Garry Kanter
8:37 am on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
That portion of Cedar Center is in South Euclid, not Cleveland Heights.
SE will poach anything.
William Cody
8:43 am on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
No way I am driving to Cedar Center or worse to Harvard Square for our favorite Panera goodies. Shaker has lost a nice amenity. I thought they should have been incented to move to the corner location where the pet store was. Oh well. Also i have heard that it was partly a very poor landlord (don't know who that is) at fault. Comments above are right - Shaker leadership should have stepped in and provided a vision. Poor form!
Involved Resident
7:23 pm on Sunday, November 18, 2012
Does anyone know why Panera decided to move to Cedar Center. I wonder what, if anything, the SH could have done to stop the move. If the attraction was to the happening new development, SH will need new buildings. The danger in that is we could end up with the Bedford experiment (see Northfield/Rockside).
William Cody
11:24 am on Monday, November 19, 2012
They didnt really move. they just closed the store. The new location was in construction for quite some time. And to the point of the fellow above - guess who is opening in the location of the old CVS near Shaker Heights HDW? Dollar Tree!