Tinley Park forks over more taxpayer dough to half-baked pizza restaurant
The village of Tinley Park has doubled-down on its investment in a privately managed restaurant within the 80th Avenue Metra station, voting this month to give $57,000 to Parmesans Station for a new pizza oven, according to the Chicago Tribune. In 2012, the village fronted a $600,000 investment for the restaurant space to complement the...
The village of Tinley Park has doubled-down on its investment in a privately managed restaurant within the 80th Avenue Metra station, voting this month to give $57,000 to Parmesans Station for a new pizza oven, according to the Chicago Tribune.
In 2012, the village fronted a $600,000 investment for the restaurant space to complement the Metra station’s $12 million renovation.
While the village’s deal with Parmesans can, in theory, earn taxpayers a return in the form of monthly rent and 2 percent of gross sales, the Tribune found the eatery’s earnings to be underwhelming, to say the least.
During its inaugural fiscal year, the restaurant earned about $18,000, or, as the Tribune points out, “just $4,800 more than the village would have received had Parmesans never sold a single cannoli.”
Furthermore, Tinley Park government was seemingly the restaurant’s biggest customer. “The village itself spent roughly $4,500 on retirement parties and catering from Parmesans during that same time.”
So not only did taxpayers fund the supply of Tinley Park train-station pizza, they bankrolled demand as well.
Local governments shouldn’t be involved in the restaurant business. There’s likely a reason why the village needed to sweeten the pot to get a vendor into the station in the first place. Business owners should flock to potentially profitable ventures, sans handouts, especially in an industry as dynamic as restauranteering. Instead, taxpayers have had the pleasure of footing the bill for deep-dish.