Mother Bear’s Pizza has experienced a variety of challenges as it works to open new location in NexusPark in Columbus, with the restaurant’s co-owner saying that he now expects the restaurant to open its doors in early September.
Veritas Realty announced last August that the Bloomington-based pizzeria would open a new 9,015-square-foot location in NexusPark, occupying three entire retail spaces from the former mall.
Initially, restaurant officials had hoped to open the new location in March, but later moved that target back to May and now early September.
Over the past several months, restaurant officials said they have experienced an array of challenges, ranging from negotiating with utilities and moving walls around to having to dig the floor up and install piping.
“The whole experience has been a huge challenge brought on by multiple challenges, but we’re getting it,” said co-owner Ray McConn. “We’re probably looking at early September. I really can’t give you an exact date because there are too many irons that have to be pulled out of the fire yet.”
“There are a variety of things that have to be done yet, but they’re all on the schedule,” McConn added. “…“Since we’ve signed the lease, it’s been almost 15 months, and that is just an extraordinary amount of time to get a restaurant going.”
One challenge that McConn described involved Duke Energy.
The restaurant occupies three former retail spaces, each with their own meter. Restaurant officials wound up needing to negotiate with Duke Energy for about a month to reach an agreement on the number of electrical panels the restaurant could use.
McConn described the project as “ground zero” as the space was not formerly used to house a restaurant.
“It’s really different than walking into a place that has been utilized as a restaurant and they already have the hoods up, they already have the fire suppression, they have everything there already,” McConn said. “Whether it’s what you want or not, they still have it there. …Here, we’re going from ground zero and having to dig the floor up and put piping in the floors, just everything.”
“But I think when it gets open, it’s going to be very gratifying,” McConn added.
NexusPark is a joint venture between the city of Columbus and Columbus Regional Health to transform the former FairOaks Mall into a health, wellness and recreation center.
