Shawn and Megan McClellan love the changes taking place in Maumee and look forward to opening their new restaurant and bar smack dab in the middle of it.
The Maumee couple is poised to open Uptown Fondue and Wine Bar later this year at 422 Conant St. in the former Citizens Bank building in uptown Maumee. The new restaurant concept features a relaxed dining experience focused on “conversation and experience.”
“It’s not your typical go in, eat, and leave in 20 minutes. It’s more of a sit down, relax, and put your phone away type of place,” Mr. McClellan said this week. “And most people think that fondue is just cheese, it’s definitely not.”
When considering expanding the business, it was important for them to remain in the area. The McClellans also own Levi and Lilac’s Whiskey Room five blocks away and were drawn to the city’s vision and redesigned streetscape on Conant Street, which began several years ago.
As they prepare to open the new space, having invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the business venture, the couple sees the potential of a vibrant uptown business district.
“The improvements they have made add to the environment and atmosphere up there and we are one hundred percent for it,” Mr. McClellan said. “It’s nice to make it more of a destination than a town that people pass through.”
The city bought the Citizens Bank building in 2021 for $325,000 intending to market it to an incoming business. The McClellans have signed a 15-year lease agreement with the city, but they intend to buy the building outright eventually, Mrs. McClellan said.
Maumee city administrator Patrick Burtch said that the city’s decision to purchase the former bank building and redevelop it is part of the overall plan to drive economic development.
Through a multifaceted approach, the city is working to improve infrastructure and zoning standards with an emphasis on creating a residential and pedestrian-friendly environment that appeals to the business community.
“Economic development, if done correctly, is an art as much as it is a financial pro forma,” Mr. Burtch recently said. “And since art is a multi-faceted creative approach to helping us feel a particular way, and look at things differently than we have before, it stands to reason that units of governments play the same visionary, multifaceted, role when building and rebuilding communities.”
The economic development initiatives coincide with an unprecedented amount of public infrastructure work. Some are locally driven, while others are state and federally driven, but all of the work should be completed next year, Mr. Burtch said.
“I believe public infrastructure investment is often a catalyst for private investment. That is essentially what we are witnessing,” he said. “During construction nobody feels good, construction fatigue is a real thing. But when looking back next year and seeing how far we have come people will remember how the end product feels when it’s done.”
If you build it...
The redesign work has lured 94 businesses to either open, plan to open, or expand in Maumee over the last four years, Mr. Burtch said.
“Businesses want a space that feels comfortable, walkable, profitable, and more. All of those things are related to standards we hold ourselves to,” he said. “If we don’t improve infrastructure eventually the deterioration becomes more noticeable, and customers stop coming.”
Parting Clouds Yoga recently opened at 311 Conant Street in a space above Georgette’s Grounds and Gifts. And a new sandwich shop, Side Cuts, is being planned at 130 W. Dudley St., adjacent to Jacky’s Depot.
Another new business coming in uptown Maumee is Banter Bar Room, which owners Jason Szczublewski and his wife Ashley Lieber plan to open next spring at 128 W. Wayne St. The space will feature a bar and restaurant in the rear of the building with signature cocktails and a retro feel, and a retail space for artists in the front of the building.
“It’s going to have a chill, speakeasy, lounge-type vibe,” Mr. Szczublewski said this week. “We want to create a place for the people in the neighborhood and others to come together. It will be a top-notch establishment that Maumee will be proud of.”
The couple, who live in uptown Maumee, believe the investments the city is making support the approximately $500,000 investment they are putting into their new business venture.
“I think once all of these businesses get in and settled Maumee is going to be a neat little town,” he said.
A new Culver’s Restaurant is also being planned at Gibbs Street and the Anthony Wayne Trail on the property where Dino’s Family Restaurant is currently located. Owners Leslie and Jack Atkinson of Perrysburg said this week that plans are currently in the “infancy, due diligence” stage and that current economic restraints and increasing costs could delay the project two years.
“Economically, we have to figure out a way that makes sense for us,” Mr. Atkinson said.
Cognizant of traffic congestion concerns, the couple say that their restaurant would include a double lane and order waiting parking stalls to keep cars “moving ahead.”
“We’ve had a lot of discussions between ourselves, Patrick [Burtch] and the civil engineer that is taking care of this and it hasn’t been easy to come up with a plan,” Mr. Atkinson said. “It’s a lot of giving and taking.”
Although they would not disclose the amount of money they plan to invest, the couple want to invest in Maumee where 50 percent of their customer base is dine-in, and the restaurant has the type of “Midwest values” that fit well with the local community.
“We like the prospect of going to Maumee,” Mrs. Atkinson said. “It’s a big investment, and we’re excited to make the investment because we believe in this brand, and we do believe in the area. We really like to be invested in the community.”
New businesses, Arrowhead Park
Proximity to the highway made the land off of U.S. 23 and the Dussel interchange appealing to developer Ken Hicks who said that a new Chick-fil-A and Sheetz will open next year where the former Max and Erma’s restaurant is at 1391 Arrowhead Dr.
Sheetz is a convenience store gas station concept featuring a coffee shop and made-to-order food.
Mr. Hicks also plans to develop an additional 12 acres into a mixed-use space called the Pointe, featuring hotels, restaurants, office and retail space, and possible multi-family residential units.
“Regionally, it’s just a great piece of real estate,” Mr. Hicks recently said. “We’re excited. You can’t find a better piece of ground in northwest Ohio.”
Last year real estate investor Kraig Mackett purchased the property at 1355 Arrowhead Dr., where construction stopped several years ago, leaving only the shell of a structure that was slated to be Noah’s Event Venue, a company that went belly up in 2020.
Mr. Mackett plans to invest $2 million to develop the property into a yet-to-be-named wedding and event center. He is currently working with architects to get new updated designs submitted to Maumee officials in the hope of getting the project out to bid this year with a building completed next year.
“Our goal is to make it the most desirable or nicest wedding and event venue available in northwest Ohio, make it as nice as we possibly can,” Mr. Mackett said.
In addition to the proposed project, Mr. Mackett owns other businesses, including Living Space Sunrooms, Porch Conversions, and Conwed, which are all Maumee-based companies.
He said that although Maumee has transitioned to a “more restrictive, more guided” business climate that is more challenging, Mr. Mackett believes that the disparity between what was and what is has led to the perception that things are worse than they actually are.
“Maumee for a long time was a spot where you could go in, have a casual conversation, a coffee and a handshake and be able to get stuff done. That was the legacy of Maumee,” Mr. Mackett said. “I don’t think that Maumee is any more difficult to deal with than [other] areas in northwest Ohio like Perrysburg. But Perryburg has been that way longer and has been more consistent in that.”
In terms of stricter guidelines, Mr. Mackett said that northwest Ohio is still “extremely friendly” when compared to other metro areas, especially when it comes to cost of entry, ease of putting a project together, and cost and quality of construction.
“I think it’s a rare hidden gem by comparison to other communities around the country,” he said. “Is it harder to do business here than it was before? Yeah, [but] is it harder to do business here than it is in the Atlanta metro area? Not at all.”
When Ground Penetrating Radar Systems LLC needed more space for its fast-growing company, the Sylvania Township-based firm looked at Maumee. Last fall, the company invested $2 million to purchase the former Paramount Health Care building at 1901 Indian Wood Circle in Arrowhead Park.
With the help of contractor Rudolph Libbe, the company spent another $4 million to transform the 60,000 square-foot space into its new headquarters, where 120 Maumee-based employees now work. The new office is triple the size of the company’s former space.
“It could not have turned out any better,” founder and CEO Matt Aston said recently. “We found Maumee to be very accommodating and eager. They were ready and willing to help.”
The company uses radar or other technology services to detect underground utilities to scan concrete structures where digging is needed in the construction industry.
Since its inception in 2001, the company has realized rapid growth, boasting 800 employees today with a presence in 53 cities around the United States. In addition, only 1 percent of the company’s customers are in the northwest Ohio region while a large portion are in southern California.
“We absolutely love the space, and we will be here for years to come,” Mr. Aston said.
First Published September 24, 2023, 2:00 p.m.