After several setbacks including a complete design change, Let's Spoon Frozen Yogurt owner said the shop will be opening in the Village within weeks.
Owner Trake Carpenter decided to rework the layout of the shop. He also had problems obtaining the proper permits because it was transition time in the local government. Construction began at the end of November, but the holiday season hindered progress.
“A bunch of different things went into delaying everything from what was originally planned,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter said the original planned opening was fall 2014.
Lexi Althouse, a sophomore exercise science major who lives in the Village Promenade, said she was disappointed that some of the new Village businesses were not open yet.
“I was actually upset about this. I was paying for things promised to me that were not even built yet," Althouse said. “I do understand that the workers could not work so swift, but I don’t think the Promenade should have made so many guarantees.”
Property manager for the Village Promenade Anna Kelsey said they gave rent compensation because of the delayed construction on the apartments themselves. She said the Promenade was never given concrete opening dates by any of the businesses and had never told residents when a business would definitely open.
Althouse said many Promenade residents she talked to felt cheated. She said she had expected the empty spaces in the Village to have been filled by now, and is hoping for a greater variety of businesses to open.
“I enjoy the [White Rabbit Books], Scotty’s [Brewhouse], Insomnia [Cookies], and Greeks [Pizzeria], but there are quite a few bars which I cannot benefit from yet,” Althouse said. “I would like to see others businesses sprout.”
For Let's Spoon, Carpenter said he has all the equipment and furniture he needs to open the restaurant, and that the only remaining work is painting the walls, hanging the ceilings and putting down the final flooring.
“Pretty much the only construction stuff we have left is aesthetic stuff,” Carpenter said. “Everything that needs to make it go is in there, it’s just kind of finishing it up and putting the details on everything.”
He has also finished hiring employees for now, but hopes in the future to have enough customers to hire more. Many of his employees are Ball State students who used to work at the Let’s Spoon locations in South Bend. Carpenter hopes that having former Let’s Spoon employees on his roster will make opening his first store easier.
“I think [the Village] is the most beneficial place in Muncie right now,” Carpenter said. “Obviously with around 20,000 kids it’s a good market, you know kind of what’s going to be here every year at what times of the year.”
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