ALLENTOWN, Pa. - The Downtown Allentown Market is looking a little sparse, with four tenants vacating after City Center's decision to reduce hours to just breakfast and lunch.
"From the beginning, the day that we opened the market, we start collecting data and what we started noticing, is the sales are concentrated at lunch," said Jill Wheeler, a Vice President at City Center.
Wheeler attributes that shift to lunch because most of the businesses downtown are back in the office at least a few days a week. She says that apartment residents are gravitating more toward the stand-alone restaurants on Hamilton Street in the evening.
"Many of them are working various hours because of the diversity. We have folks that are Amazon delivery folks, to restaurateurs, bartenders, to day 8-5," Wheeler said.
Casa Criolla and Bar 1838 were the first to announce they were closing. Now, Randevoo Sushi Bar and La Kang Thai closed up for good over the weekend.
In a post on Facebook, La Kang said it was leaving "due to the new restricted hours."
And on Instagram, Bar 1838 said "this decision is out of our control."
The comments were filled with patrons disappointed with the news.
Some of the owners leaving told 69 News they were disappointed with the decision to reduce hours.
City Center says it's already having conversations with potential tenants for the vacant spaces.
"There's many restaurants in the region that are looking to augment their business and have a breakfast and lunch location. So, this is a great opportunity for them," Wheeler said.
All of the businesses that have left recently have other locations, so their businesses will likely survive.
However, some still had to lay their workers at the Downtown Allentown Market off.
The hours for the market are now 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
