The Fieldhouse will be closing soon..

www.gazetteonline.com

One of Iowa City’s largest bars is struggling to make rent less than six weeks after the June 1 enactment of an Iowa City ordinance forbidding under-21 patrons after 10 p.m.

The Fieldhouse at 111 E. College St. can hold about 400, and packs them in on weekends. Even in the slower summer months, it has typically brought in gross revenue of $80,000 to $120,000, according to owner Dave Carey of Marion.

Monthly revenues plunged to about $12,000 in June of this year, when a new city ordinance barring under-21-year-olds from bars after 10 p.m.

The issue for Carey is simple. Monthly rent is over $15,000. Insurance is $6,000. Then there is the payroll, and the utilities …

“I don’t know what we’ll do yet,” said Carey, 41. “We’re hanging on until football season. If they do vote against it (repeal the ordinance), I don’t know what we’re gonna do.”

What’s happened to all the customers?

Carey says many University of Iowa students who formerly entertained friends from their hometowns on weekends are instead leaving town themselves. Come fall, he expects more drinking at house parties, and less at bars.

Leah Cohen, owner of the 21-only Bo-James, says her business enjoyed year-over-year revenue gains about every month for five years – but not in June.

Business is still good at Bo-James, Cohen says, but says more bars are competing for the same 21-over trade, and pushing specials.

“There’s a lot of layoffs,” in the downtown bar and restaurant trade, Cohen said.

Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek said it’s still too early to tell what impact the under-21 ordinance is having on Iowa City’s economy.

“I’m not much for anecdotal persuasion,” Hayek said. “I believe the ordinance is in the community’s best interest.”

The “aberrant rates” of student binge drinking at UI and alcohol-related ambulance calls to downtown Iowa City can’t be ignored, Hayek said.

Carey said The Fieldhouse doesn’t rely for profits on drink sales to under-21-year-olds, but it’s impossible without the under-21-year-olds to get enough customers of legal drinking age.

Under-21 customers pay cover charges of $10-20 on busy weekend nights, Carey said, but that revenue goes mainly to pay security guards to enforce underage drinking laws and keep order.

The under-21 ban hit The Fieldhouse just as it was recovering from a license suspension for last year by the city that was overturned on appeal by the state. Revenues plunged even though The Fieldhouse stayed open during the appeal, but Carey spent about $500,000 of his savings over a six-month period to keep it running.

“Now I have to come up with $70,000 to $80,000 a month like I did during our denial stage, and I don’t have it to spend any more,” Carey said.

Carey owns eight bars, including three others in Iowa City. The three others, The Blue Moose, DC’s, and Slippery Pete’s, are all 21-over bars.

Business at the three other bars hasn’t suffered as much as The Fieldhouse, Carey said, but he expects it to worsen as more bars go to a 21-over format.

What has Carey most alarmed is that all of his other properties are financially tied to the The Fieldhouse in Iowa City.

“If that were to close, I could lose everything, even my house,” said Carey, who coaches youth sports in his spare time. “I’m a father with four children to support. I don’t want to start over again at 41.”

The situation also has the owner of The Fieldhouse building, Gerry Ambrose, concerned. Ambrose rents property to several liquor-serving establishments. He says this is the first month any of them have been late on rent, but he knows what they’re up against.

“We have seen a tremendous slowdown in the market,” Ambrose said.

Carey predicts falling bar and restaurant revenues in Iowa City, which will spiral into lower rents when properties turn over. That will in turn lower property values and assessments, which would bring lower property taxes, Carey argues.

The Iowa City City Council received an e-mail last month from Elizabeth Kopriva, who said she lost her job at an unnamed establishment because of the under-21 ordinance.

“Now I’m struggling to pay rent, and borrowing money from my parents that they can’t really afford to give me,” the e-mail said.

Carey estimates that about 2,000 downtown bar and restaurant jobs, mostly part-time, are at risk.

The Fieldhouse will be closing soon so I suggest go while you still can. This is going to be a dominos effect..who will go next?

"I'm a father with four children to support." So that means we shouldn't have an ordinance? To all the bars: good luck surviving without underage drinkers. You know that's the only reason you've made it this far. How about they lower their prices and free cover..maybe we'll spend more. And @summitic why do I have to pay $12 for six beers in a bucket of "cold,cold" ice? It better be some top notch ice and it better not melt.