Winter Adds to Pier Pressure
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The pier’s marketing manager also has no real sense of how many locals have visited the pier and how many tourists. “We are still trying to find out who our ‘real’ guest is,” says Malick. (No doubt because of his many years at Disney, Malick invariably refers to pier visitors as “guests.”) “A certain number of people go once because it’s new, and they just want to see what’s there,” says Malick, who’ll soon begin passing out surveys to collect some hard data about who’s coming to the pier, why they’re coming, and what they think of the facility.
Restaurateurs and retailers who’ve invested, along with the city and the state, in Navy Pier are watching what Malick does with great interest. “The pier is still a work in progress,” says Joe Carlucci, who opened a Charlie’s Ale House on the pier in July. Carlucci says he’s been serving as many as 300 lunches a day in recent weeks, mostly to Loop business types. Cathy Newton, the proprietor of Widow Newton’s Tavern, says “We’re getting a lot of neighborhood residents.” But the winter will undoubtedly prove more of a struggle for the eclectic mix of retailers who are selling everything from sunglasses to stuffed animals to Illinois-made handcrafts in the Family Pavilion at the entrance to the pier. Barbara’s Bookstore opened a small store on the pier this summer, and Pat Peterson, who resigned last Friday as Barbara’s general manager, says retailers there harbor no illusions about the winter ahead: “None of us came here expecting to make our profit based on business during the winter months.”
Rosemont Theatre: Same Old Song and Dance
