Jade Garden has been a fixture on Hilltop Drive for almost three decades. But after March 31, the Chinese restaurant will be no more. Find out why — and get an update on what’s going on with the old Graphic Emporium building — in this week’s “Buzz on the Street” with David Benda.
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Dave Benda(Photo: Dave Benda)
“You better get it while it’s still here.”
That was longtime Jade Garden customer Liz Adams as I walked into the Hilltop Drive restaurant Thursday afternoon.
Jade Garden will close after business March 31, ending a 27-year run for Peter and Cindy Tran who moved from Sacramento to open the Redding restaurant in July 1991. Called Szechuan, the Trans changed the name to Jade Garden in 2001 after a remodel.
“You’re happy for them but you’re sad because they won’t be here,” said Adams, who has been coming to the restaurant since it opened.
But running a restaurant can be grueling work, long hours, few days off, and Cindy Tran said they’re tired and ready for a new chapter. She told me it’s been especially difficult the last couple of years as the area’s economy continues to struggle and their costs rise — all of it affecting business.
“The rent’s expensive, the food costs, everything is so high, it’s really hard to keep it up,” she said while taking a break from her lunchtime business.
The life for restaurants can be short, especially in a town like Redding where chains are plentiful.
So, 27 years is an impressive run.
The Trans were born in Vietnam. They both moved to Hong Kong before coming to the United States in 1981. Peter, 61, and Cindy, 55, were married in 1985. Their son, Philip, went to Liberty Christian High School and is attending pharmacy school in Las Vegas.
Cindy Tran brought up more than once during my interview the appreciation they have for their customers.
“It’s sad, so many years, just completely done,” she said. “A lot of customers are sad, too. But we are happy we worked so long.”
Angela Franklin worked at Jade Garden about 12 years ago, left, then returned about three months ago.
“When I started working here, I saw how hard they worked,” Franklin said of her most recent stint to a table of customers she was serving Thursday afternoon. “I just wanted to do something to lighten their load.”
Franklin said saying goodbye to the Trans will be bittersweet.
“I didn’t know coming into it again, it was going to be so short-lived,” Franklin said. “I think her and Peter closing, it’s a loss for this town.”
Jade Garden at 2257 Hilltop Drive is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily until April 1.
Wellgate Sports Club to close
Wellgate Sports Club will be closing in May, about two and half years after it opened.
The Eureka Way building that houses the club is for sale again, a little over a year after it sold to a San Francisco Bay Area LLC, Huntington West, for $2.3 million.
The current owners thought they had a deal in place.
“The property was in escrow and is in the process of being canceled at no fault of the seller,” Ryan Haedrich of Haedrich & Co. said in an email. “We did not represent the buyer and I am not sure what his intentions were for the building.”
Once it comes back on the market, the list price will be $1,895,000.
“It will be available for sale with the understanding that the tenant will be vacating at the end of May,” Haedrich said.
Christian Kay, the club’s general manager, said ownership told staff March 16 that Wellgate is closing.
“What happened was the person who was potentially buying the building was first looking to buy Wellgate as a business to take over the lease,” Kay said, “then ended up buying the building as well. But the buyer opted out of buying Wellgate as the building was in escrow and now he has backed out of buying the building as well.”
Kay believes a number of factors are forcing them to close.
“So it’s not so much the competition,” Kay said. “We are very unique to Redding, a real upscale place, great amenities, great equipment. Some of it was marketing and some of it was we needed more people dedicated to seeing this place grow.”
Wellgate sent letters to members Friday. Its last day is May 31.
If members have questions, Kay encouraged them to call the club at 530-768-1205.
Old Graphic Emporium building sells
If you’ve lived in Redding long enough, you remember Graphic Emporium on Pine Street downtown.
Graphic Emporium closed seven years ago this month after being in business since 1983. The antiques and collectibles side of the business remained open for a while.
The building at 1525 Pine St. has been vacant for several months.
That could change soon.
Entrepreneurs Luke Miner and Eric Hiatt are working on the building, much to the excitement of Redding Chamber of Commerce President Jake Mangas, who phoned me earlier this week about the development.
The chamber tweeted out, “What’s going on at 1525 Pine St.? That’s the building next to Wells Fargo and across from the Wildcard Brewing Company’s Tied House. It looks like more positive changes are coming to downtown Redding – feeling curious.”
Downtown Collection LLC purchased the building for $364,000. The new deed was recorded March 6.
“At this point, Eric and I are still investigating uses for this building. We will be happy to update you for the ‘Buzz’ when we have more info,” Miner said in an email on Thursday.
Miner recently repurposed the former A Second Time Around thrift shop on North Market St. into Jefferson State Adventure Hub.
Hiatt is executive director of Shasta Angels, a group of investors that has helped fund startup companies, including Limelight Health, Suture Ease and Adjoy. He also was part of a group, Equity Streams, that attempted to purchase the old Redding Police Station downtown but walked away from the deal last July.
The McConnell Foundation has since bought the old station on California Street.
“The fact that it looks out to the White Building and the Tied House tells me it may be an attraction to the startup community in some way. I say that only as a hunch,” Mangas said of a possible use for the Pine Street building.
Stay tuned.
Reporter David Benda can be reached at 225-8219 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS.
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