City Development Director Vince DeJoy goes over details of the city’s Residential Rental Property Registry program with the city council during its April 8, 2019 meeting

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown will have a new Director of Development when a new administration takes over in January.

The Jamestown Post-Journal is reporting that current City Development Director Vince DeJoy is retiring from his position with today being his final day at the position.

In what could also be viewed as a resignation rather than a retirement, DeJoy is leaving the director’s position so he could accept a position with Safelite AutoGlass repair and replacement company.

DeJoy has served as director or development for nearly seven years, having been appointed to the position by Mayor Sam Teresi in February 2013 to replace then out-going development director Steve Centi. Prior to that he has served on the Jamestown City Council, representing Ward 4 since January 2008.

DeJoy’s term as development director was set to expire at the end of this year and there was no guarantee on if mayor elect Eddie Sundquist (D) had planned to keep him on board as part of the new administration, or if he would be going in a different direction. Sundquist is currently putting together a transition team as he prepares to be sworn in on January 1.

Highlighting DeJoy’s tenure as development Director is the city receiving a $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative Grant from New York State. He’s also worked to streamline the reporting process for housing violations in order to better address neighborhood blight while also making it a focus to identify condemned homes, demolishing over 125 of them during the past five years. He oversaw several other development projects as well, including the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk.

While serving as development director, earlier this year DeJoy also worked to open a restaurant at the former Friendly’s location on S. Main Street. At the time Teresi noted that there would be no conflict of interest between DeJoy running a business operation in town while also serving as Development Director. Despite using his own capital along with investments from his family, along with a $50,000 grant from the county IDA, Jimmy’s Family Restaurant closed within three months of its early August opening due to unanticipated costs associated with running the business.

Jamestown Principal Planner Crystal Surdyk will coordinate the development department until Sundquist takes over and appoints a permanent new director of development.

A conceptional photo rendering of what the new Jimmy’s Family Restaurant will look like.

JAMESTOWN – Jimmy’s Family Restaurant in Brooklyn Square is closed for business.

That’s according to a post from the business’s Facebook page, which announced over the weekend that the restaurant was closing immediately.

The restaurant, which was opened at the start of August at the former Friendly’s restaurant location on S. Main Street, wasn’t even opened for three whole months before making the decision to close.

The business was owned by city resident and current Jamestown Development Director Vince DeJoy, who said in July that he decided to open the business after meeting and talking with the former Friendly’s manager Marcy Parenti. The two said they wanted to focus on opening a business that had similar menu options as Friendly’s.

DeJoy invested much of his own capital into reopening the business. He also took out a 7-year, $55,000 loan from the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency’s Revolving Loan Fund in June.

In it’s message on Facebook, the restaurant said it appreciated the patronage it had received from customers and also grateful to the staff.

“We are sorry to announce that Jimmy’s is closing effective immediately. We appreciate the patronage we have received from so many great customers. We are also so grateful to our staff who worked so hard. We gave it a shot,” the restaurant stated in its final Facebook post. 

The restaurant had worked out a deal with the property owner to rent the space on a monthly basis, meaning the property never changed hands when transitioning from Friendly’s to Jimmy’s.

The Jamestown Friendly’s was closed without warning, along with 23 others in five states, earlier this year.

The Ruby Tuesday restaurant announced on Tuesday that it had closed down its operation at its Lakewood location next to the Chautauqua Mall.

A sign was posted on the door informing customers that the business had closed.

According to the Post-Journal, the local Ruby Tuesday closing follows two other Ruby Tuesday restaurants that closed down last week in the Rochester area. Another of the chain’s restaurants had also closed in the Millcreek Mall in Erie this past Spring.

The closing also continues a recent trend in the greater Jamestown area for this year. Earlier this year the Friendly’s restaurant chain announced it was closing its Jamestown business near the start of the year. Meanwhile both Alfies in West Ellicott the Craft Burgers and Brews in Lakewood each closed down earlier this summer.

Sam Teresi

JAMESTOWN – The Mayor of Jamestown recently told WRFA there wont be a conflict of interest when a new restaurant owned and operated by the city’c current director of development opens later this month.

At the start of July, Vince DeJoy – who also serves as the city development director and head of the Jamestown Local Development Corporation (JLDC) – announced in early July he and his family are putting up the capital needed to open Jimmy’s Family Restaurant. The business will be located at the former Friendly’s location along South Main Street in Brooklyn Square. While DeJoy will serve as the owner of the new business, the day-to-day operations will be overseen by Restaurant manager Marcy Parenti.

DeJoy plans to stay on as city development director even after the new restaurant opens and some in the community have questioned if that poses a conflict of interest because there will likely be future restaurant projects in the city, which could be viewed as competition with Jimmy’s Family Restaurant.

During our July interview with Jamestown mayor Sam Teresi, the mayor indicated that DeJoy will be precluded from being involved in assisting with any restaurant development projects in the city, as well as any development efforts that are in the immediate proximity of his new business.

A conceptional photo rendering of what the new Jimmy’s Family Restaurant will look like.

“He has already divorced himself from anything dealing with businesses that could be competitors of Jimmy’s Family Restaurant to projects that may be happening in our around that area of the city that could somehow be viewed to benefit his business, either directly or indirectly. All those things will be handed off to other city employees or other agents of the city to handle those issue,” Teresi said.

Teresi said the other city employees would be those who already work in the city development office. He also noted that it is not unprecedented for a city employee to have a private business interest in the same community where they serve as a public employee.

“There’s situations here in Jamestown and other communities where you have city employees that may have other business interests outside of their employment,” Teresi said. “For instance, lawyers that work for the city that have a private law practice may, from time to time, have clients of their own or clients within their firm that are either doing business with or against the city. The attorney needs to recuse him or herself from both ends of the deal and stay completely out of it. There may be instances where other city employees have businesses that they operate on the side. They make sure that they separate themselves from any conflicts and don’t do business with the city.”

No specific date has been announced for when Jimmy’s Family Restaurant will open, but DeJoy had said he’d like to see it open for business sometime in August.

JAMESTOWN – The owners of the soon-to-be-opened Jimmy’s Family Restaurant came forward Monday afternoon to offer more details about their plan to take over the former Friendly’s location at 10 S. Main St. in Jamestown.

Owner Vince DeJoy, who also serves as the current Development Director for the city of Jamestown, said he and his family are putting up the capital needed to open the Restaurant and will have Marcy Parenti serve as Restaurant Manager, dealing with the day-to-day operations.

The investors and management of Jimmy’s Family Restaurant – Vince DeJoy Sr., Marcy Parenti, and Vince DeJoy Jr.

DeJoy said the restaurant will be run though the JTOWN DJF Limited Liability Corporation, with the DJF an abbreviation for “DeJoy Family.” DeJoy added that the owner of the property, Amfil, had received some feelers from other developers but nothing had come forward.

“This is one of the most iconic places in Jamestown. It’s been a family restaurant. Friendly’s did a great job here serving families, seniors, a Saturday morning radio show. So we had to act and act fast,” DeJoy said. “Amfil had a number of feelers that they put out to various large franchise restaurant chains. There was some inquiries but there really wasn’t much followup – from what I understand – afte initial inquiries.”

DeJoy based on a lack of initial interest following the closing, he talked it over with his family and developed a business plan for the restaurant shortly before Memorial Day weekend. He presented the plan to Amfil and an agreement was worked out for TJOWN DJF to lease and take over the location.

It was less than two months between the announced closing and DeJoy coming forward to make an offer on using the property. But despite that short turnaround, he said there was no conflict of interest because no one else had approached his office about possibly using the property.

“[The Department of Development] phone didn’t ring once,” DeJoy said. “We made efforts but, you know what, we’re not commercial brokers in the department of development. As you know I wear a number of hats – whether I’m doing demolition, code enforcement, seeking grant money. We’re not commercial brokers. We don’t have that type of capacity. We’ll make inquiries, we’ll do some research and we do the best we can, but that’s where it is.”

“I could not stand to see this place closed for as long as it was. It was probably the most often asked question in the last three months. It was ‘When are going to find somebody for Friendly’s?'” DeJoy explained.

Other than a $55,000 loan from the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency approved last week, DeJoy said all other investments for the restaurant will come from his and his family’s personal finances.

Parenti said the restaurant will maintain similar hours to what Friendly’s had operated under (7am to 10pm), and will also have a similar, family-style menu. She added that much of the staff from Friendly’s will be able to return. In all the restaurant will employ about 35 people.
Friendly’s closed the Jamestown location without warning in early April 2019 as part nearly two dozen closures in several states, including New York.

If all goes according to plan, the restaurant should be opened by early August, in time for the 2019 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival.

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Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi stops by the WRFA studio for his June interview and talks about economic development in the city, including his reaction to a local company – Stannard Group – moving out of the city, offering the latest update on the Friendly’s Restaurant location as well as an update on some DRI Projects. Plus he discusses to recently announced projects involving McCrea Point Park: The Chautauqua Belle and a new Kayak launch area.

Sam Teresi

Former Friendly’s location in Jamestown. Image from Google Map

SYRACUSE – Senator Charles Schumer has provided an update into his investigation into the Friendly’s restaurant chain and whether or not it violated federal law by closing down several locations – including one in Jamestown – without properly notifying employees ahead of time.

On Monday Schumer visited the closed Friendly’s restaurant in Dewitt, NY, just east of Syracuse, where he announced his plan to introduce new legislation in the Senate that will strengthen the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and increase the circumstances under which employers must give two months’ notice to their employees of imminent and large-scale layoffs.

“This issue is not just about Friendly’s, it’s about big companies treating their workers with some honor and some decency,” he said.

Schumer detailed a gaping loophole in the WARN Act that permitted the Friendly’s Corporation to shut down 15 locations overnight and lay-off hundreds of employees without so much as a day’s notice.

Schumer said he plans to introduce new legislation in the Senate that will strengthen the WARN Act by closing the “single employment site” loophole and consequently increase the circumstances under which employers must give two months’ notice to their employees of imminent and large-scale layoffs.

Schumer said that this sort of mass layoff shouldn’t happen to workers without fair notice and urged his colleagues to pass his WARN Act-strengthening legislation immediately upon its introduction.

Image from Google Map

WASHINGTON – On the heels of abrupt closures of 14 Friendly’s restaurants across Upstate New York, Senator Charles Schumer is urging the federal Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate the manner by which New York workers were let go by the Friendly’s Corporation.

According to reports, workers were in the dark and arrived at their jobs only to be told to shut the doors—for good.

Schumer said this swath of abrupt corporate-ordered closures demands answers from Friendly’s—and from the feds. Schumer also said the circumstance of these abrupt layoffs raises critical questions around the rights of New York service workers who are employed by larger corporations.

“No matter how you look at it, the way these abrupt closures and sudden firings went down was anything but friendly to Upstate workers,” said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer. “As a major corporation, Friendly’s must adhere to federal laws that provide their employees with necessary updates when their employment is in imminent danger, but it doesn’t look like that happened here. Or maybe there was a way to skirt those rules?”

Schumer said the Friendly’s restaurant closures across Upstate New York were a shock to both employees and customers, and cited numerous media reports across Upstate documenting the situation. Schumer urged the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to investigate if any WARN laws were skirted and to determine whether or not service workers in corporate service employment need better protections.

“Bottom line, people have a lot of questions, including me, and the feds should provide some answers. This kind of unannounced, mass layoff shouldn’t happen to any worker without fair notice, so it is up to the feds to investigate the manner by which Upstate workers were notified of layoffs and determine if better employee protections are needed within the service industry. If the latter is true, I will be the first to pursue a legislative fix in Congress.”

Schumer said that if an investigation determines service worker protections in corporate structures require reforms, he will be the first to raise the issue in Congress. Schumer said it does not appear Friendly’s Corporation filed any notices with the federal government, but that given the aggregate number of workers impacted, they likely should have notified the feds.

A total of 14 restaurants where closed this week in New York, including the one in Jamestown.

Image from Google

UPDATED TUESDAY, APRIL 9

JAMESTOWN – The Friendly’s restaurant chain has all but vanished from Western New York, following a wave of abrupt closings.

The Massachusetts-based chain shut four restaurants in Erie and Chautauqua County – including the one in Jamestown. They were among 23 corporate-owned locations Friendly’s closed in the Northeast and New England.

Employees reportedly received personal notification and the company is working to support them with opportunities at other locations or severance payments and other assistance.

Although the restaurant in Jamestown closed, the one in Olean in nearby Cattaraugus County appears to remain open.

The Restaurant chain has faced its share of challenges over the past couple of decades.

In 2000 it closed 80 “under-performing” restaurants. Since 2007 Friendly’s chain has been owned by Sun Capital Partners, a Florida-based private equity firm. The chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 and emerged in early 2012.

George Michel, the CEO of Friendly’s, said in a media release the latest closings reflect the company’s push to respond to “shifting demographics and consumer preferences, increased competition, and rising costs.”

Following the latest closings, Friendly’s will have 77 corporate-owned restaurants and 97 franchisee-owned restaurants.

ORIGINAL POST 

WRFA has learned the Friendly’s restaurants in Jamestown has closed.

Restaurants in Hamburg, Amherst, Lancaster, Elmira, and Syracuse have also closed.

Like other locations in the region, the restaurant was abruptly closed with no forewarning and no statement from the owner of the local franchise.

In the Buffalo area, the only thing that involved a statement regarding the closings was a note posted on the entrance of one of the restaurants that that says, “We apologize for disappointing you on this visit, but this location is now closed for business.”

Friendly’s corporate office, in a statement to a Buffalo TV Station, apologizes for having no other restaurants in the area but encourages patrons to visit other locations when traveling.

Organizers will be collecting donations from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the parking lot at the corner of Main St. and Harrison St. in Brooklyn Square.

Jamestown Public Schools has loaned a bus and the Jamestown Fire Department has allowed us the use of a fire truck to be used for our fundraiser.

Axeman member and retired city firefighter Keith Ecklund recently told the Jamestown City Council the goal is to make sure local children have the school supplies they need at the start of the year.

“Our club is a charity organization and we reach out to the public to help out however we can,” Ecklund said. “Our big thing we do is an annual school supply drive for Jamestown and Falconer Public Schools. Right now we’re talking with Cummins Engine and we’re doing outreach work to other districts such as Panama, Clymer, Frewsburg, Fredonia, Dunkirk so we can reach the whole county.”

This is the fifth year for the Fill the Bus fundraiser. Collection points include all banks and credit unions in the Jamestown and Falconer area, along with several local businesses and churches.

The group mostly collects school supplies, but will also accept cash donations.

The Axemen will be also collecting school supply donations at the annual Jamestown Red Raider Home Coming Game On Oct. 5 and at the Falconer High School Home Coming Game on Oct. 12.