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PLEASANT GROVE -- Calling all restaurants! Pleasant Grove, Utah, wants to hear from you.
It seems the Utah County community has a shortage of places to eat and is offering financial incentives to entice eateries to locate there.
It may seem an unusual request, but it's not a unique plea. On a state level, the Governor's Office of Economic Development has offered millions in incentives for companies to locate or expand in Utah -- and has been successful. The film commission does the same thing with movie companies to shoot in the state.
Still, this is a much smaller scale, with the bottom line to help the Pleasant Grove economy and keep residents from going elsewhere to eat.
Downtown Pleasant Grove has its share of typical businesses: There's a dentist office, electronics store, dog groomer and barber shop, among others.
But as Pleasant Grove Economic Development Director Richard Bradford says, "We're desperate for restaurants. There's nothing here for miles."
Pleasant Grove currently has a population of about 31,000. Fast food aside, where are residents going if they want to eat out?
"Well, they're going north and they're going south," Bradford said. "They're going everywhere but here."
This past week, the Pleasant Grove City Council decided to put the word out to real estate brokers, offering a $10,000 cash bonus to bring some restaurants to town.
There's plenty of space on which to build. There are large vacant lots in an 800-acre business center near I-15, and there are other empty buildings on Main Street downtown.
Offering incentives to attract businesses certainly isn't new, but this narrow-focused, restaurant-specific approach is -- and it's already getting attention.
"My phone has been ringing off the wall," Bradford said. "So far we've had serious inquiries from a Mexican restaurant, an Italian restaurant and a steakhouse. So we think we're really on to something here."
Pleasant Grove is poised for future growth. Hundreds of employees already work in the business park; a hotel and convention center is in the works. People using those facilities need to eat, and city officials want them to do their dining here.
Regarding that $10,000 incentive for real estate brokers, the city will pay that fee for each restaurant that a broker brings in -- bring in five, get $50,000.
E-mail: kmccord@ksl.com
