Let’s stop blaming development for every small business closing in South End

Phat Burrito is a Charlotte institution with a 19-year history in the neighborhood that’s worthy of respect and celebration at the end of its run.

Lines forming down the block in the restaurant’s final days were a fitting tribute to the funky burrito joint that forged the way for the neighborhood as we know it. But South End still has a pulse without Phat Burrito.

Owner Stephen Justice cited loss of parking at the construction site across the street as his reason for having to close his beloved burrito joint. But in the city’s densest, most walkable neighborhood outside Uptown, I find it hard to believe a business would fail on lack of parking alone.

Sorting Yelp comments with the most recent at the top creates a telling timeline of Phat Burrito’s recent decline.

Reviewers complained about bad service, bland food, botched orders and the general sense that a restaurant they once loved was no longer the same.

One reviewer summed it up in November of last year with this simple line, “The love is gone.”

So with parking limitations entirely aside, if the thousands of residents in the apartments that built up around the restaurant weren’t willing to walk a couple blocks for a burrito, the burrito wasn’t good enough.

Still, it’s true that parking is getting worse in South End.

Construction at the DFA site across the street from Phat Burrito has permanently wiped out a shared parking lot and temporarily shut down public street parking on the west side of Camden.

But it seems counterintuitive that the same people mourning the loss of their once eclectic, gritty, artsy, urban heart of South End would also demand comfortable parking. Save that for the suburbs.

Businesses and patrons alike will have to adapt to the changing face of South End. And they will.

Where one owner sees a dead end due to development, another will see great potential in the exact same building.

Because, contrary to popular belief, there are no immediate plans to bulldoze Phat Burrito’s building.

We saw a similar situation last summer when Amos’ Southend owner John Ellison pointed to development as his reason for closing his music venue after 27 years.

“The expansion of the business and retail corridor in Southend is presenting many new challenges to successfully run a music venue and I feel we will not be able to continue to operate efficiently and properly serve our customers moving forward,” he said in a statement on Facebook last August.

Outrage! Fire! Pitchforks!

People were furious and blamed development for the tragic loss of another piece of South End’s soul that would surely be replaced by another behemoth apartment building.

But that’s not the case.

I don’t know why Amos’ saw no hope or future in South End but the building’s ultimate fate was not be to be bulldozed to make room for another apartment complex or parking deck. Instead, as we learned last week, Amos’ friendly neighbor and fellow nightlife destination The Gin Mill has decided to move in and, from the looks of it, make the space even better.

Despite a string of recent closings, several small businesses have also chosen to run towards South End.

Established Charlotte brands like Central Coffee, Bulldog Beer & Wine and Charlotte Yoga have all opened second locations in the neighborhood recently.

Gin Mill is expanding. Sauceman’s is still there. Price’s is going strong.

Declaring South End dead dismisses the life these businesses continue to breathe into the neighborhood and directs blame at the wrong problems.

Who will see potential in the iconic yellow building in the heart of South End now that Phat Burrito is gone?

Something tells me Sabor would kill it right there.

I hate to see businesses close and, unlike many people who reviewed it recently, really still liked Phat Burrito. But I don’t buy it that the blame for its untimely end rests solely on the neighborhood’s development.

It’s one thing when established small businesses are directly ousted by increasing rent or incoming construction projects, as was the case with Common Market, Black Sheep and other businesses whose buildings were leveled to clear the site for the DFA project.

But it’s quite another thing when indirectly affected businesses blame nearby development for their inability to thrive in a booming neighborhood.