Tony Jaber, area owner of Firehouse Grill & Pub eateries, has bought the landmark former Bumpas Drug & Emporium building on busy Tallmadge Circle and adjacent property for more than $1.1 million.
Jaber plans to put three food operations — a Firehouse Grill, an Italian restaurant and a banquet facility — in the building, which been vacant for about two years. Most recently, it housed the Grotto restaurant.
“It’s great to be on the Circle. Thousands of cars go around the Circle daily,” Jaber said while standing outside the building, talking loudly over the sound of traffic.
“You don’t find this kind of exposure in too many places in Ohio.”
More than 45,000 cars, on average, pass through the Circle each day, Tallmadge officials have said.
Jaber’s investment might sound risky, especially amid the weak economy.
But Jaber said it makes sense for his small Firehouse Grill chain, which touts low-priced items, including $1 burgers: “As the economy got bad here, it helped our growth. People are looking for value.”
Jaber, family members and friends have quietly built the chain of Akron-Canton eateries over the last 25 years. There are now 12 of the sports bar-themed restaurants, with six opening in the past five years or so.
Jaber said the Firehouse Grill in Tallmadge, now at 76 West Ave., would move to the Bumpas building and would continue to be operated by his sister, Suzie Baglia.
Baglia said she’s hoping for a March opening.
Jaber declined to reveal details about the Italian eatery.
The banquet facility, Jaber said, could be open in March. He said he hopes to begin accepting bookings late this month. for the hall, which can seat 350 to 400 people.
Jaber and his sister also have plans for vacant space in the mini-strip plaza connected to the Bumpas building. They envision a gelato shop and patio with seating, as well as a resale shop, called Trends on the Circle, that would sell used clothing, including children’s apparel and formal wear.
The strip currently has one tenant — Famous Hair — that will remain.
Jaber had eyed the Bumpas property since around the time the Grotto —a fine-dining restaurant — closed in early 2010, less than two years after it had opened.
He attended the sheriff’s sale last spring, when a Texas company bought the building and adjacent parcels. The company held mortgages on the property and was able to use the more than $1 million debt it was owed to make the purchase. At the time, the property was appraised at $1.92 million for tax purposes.
Jaber figures the $1.1 million he is paying represents a good deal.
“The whole building was revamped,” he said, referring to work that John Barber, who owned the Grotto, did to transform the former pharmacy into a restaurant and banquet hall.
Jaber also noted the property includes a 250-space parking lot.
Barber has said he put $4 million into buying and fixing up the property. That was in late 2008, when the Grotto restaurant and banquet facility opened.
Barber bought the former Bumpas — which had been on the Circle since the late 1950s — in 2003.
‘Present’ for Tallmadge
Dennis Loughry, economic development director for Tallmadge, said city officials are relieved the high-profile piece of property has been purchased.
“We could not have gotten a better Christmas present or start to the new year,’’ Loughry said.
The city is still watching the 1.3-acre site of the former Bob’s Big Boy, on the north side of the Circle, that also is vacant.
This is not the first time Jaber has bought what he calls “distressed properties.” He bought the historic Zoar Tavern in a bankruptcy auction in 2006 and turned it into a Firehouse Grill & Pub.
Jaber started in the restaurant business when he was a teen, working at Eli’s Steak House on East Market Street in Akron, owned by his mother, Juanita, and father, Eli, who died in 1996.
Eli’s Steak House — Tony Jaber described it as “an old blue-collar steakhouse” — became the first Firehouse Grill in the mid-1990s.
“The times had changed,” Jaber said. “We knew the new trend was sports bars.”
Jaber and his wife, Lori, now have business ties to all 12 of the Firehouse Grills, and they are owners of some of them.