By Tim Christie
The Register-Guard
Joe Hawes is not opening a restaurant in his office building in the Gateway district because he’s a frustrated chef.
He’s opening the new Mookie’s Northwest Grill because the building, Hawes Financial Center, is surrounded by other businesses employing about 6,000 workers who don’t have a nearby spot to grab lunch or a drink after work.
And he’s getting into the restaurant business because the 80,000-square-foot building at 400 International Way was designed to have retail on the first floor, and no other restaurant operators had stepped up to lease space in the middle of the recession.
“I didn’t want empty storefronts,” he said Wednesday as contractors, kitchen staff and wait staff rushed to get the restaurant ready in time for an after-hours event for the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.
While Hawes was not intending to get into the restaurant business, the economy forced his hand.
He bought the land on which to build a headquarters for his businesses in 2006. At the time, Liberty Bank and Far West Steel also were planning to build headquarters buildings in the area, and Shorewood Packaging was a going concern on International Way. But when the recession hit, Liberty and Far West backed off their building plans and Shorewood went out of business.
Hawes pressed ahead with the $20 million project, and moved his businesses into the office part of the building last December. Hawes’ main business is Professional Credit Service, a debt collection agency, but he also owns Health First, a receivable management firm for health care businesses, and McKenzie Leasing, an equipment leasing business.
He hired Marty Boozer, former manager of the Downtown Athletic Club, to be operations manager and find tenants for the 20,000-square-feet of retail space on the building’s first floor.
Hawes and Boozer were having lunch at the old Mookie’s Northwest Grill on Mohawk Road when the chef and owner, Randy Hollister, came out and said he was thinking of closing because the landlord was going to knock the building down for a parking lot.
“We said you can’t just close Mookie’s,” Hawes said. “They got the best food in town.”
So Hawes bought the restaurant and hired Hollister to be executive chef of the new Mookie’s in the Hawes building. Hawes said constructing and equipping the restaurant cost nearly $1 million.
The 2,500-square-foot restaurant will have its grand opening on Friday. Hawes also has opened a coffee stand in the building’s atrium.
He’s counting on business from the people who work for large employers on International Way, including Symantec, PacificSource Health Plans, Royal Caribbean and PeaceHealth Laboratories, as well as Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend down the road.
The building has room for six retail establishments, each about 1,900 square feet. Hawes and Boozer said possible tenants include a hair salon, a dry cleaner, a small fitness center, a bank and a sushi restaurant. Hawes also said he’d like to see a sports bar go in, but city officials so far have resisted that idea.
Hawes said he’s taking the long view with retail establishments in his building. He sees the neighborhood continuing to grow, which will drive demand for retail businesses. He said he’s not too concerned that it’s off the beaten path.
“This is downtown RiverBend,” he said.
