 good afternoon welcome welcome to the grand opening of local Yoko it's been a long time coming but we're finally opening we're very excited for Amy thank you so much for being here on behalf of the mayor our city manager Teresa Wilson and our city council members thank you thank you for the support that you give to the small business community and thank you so much for coming out here to support our newest addition to our main street business district today the mayor is not able to be here as many of you know he is the mayor of the United States Council Conference Council of mayors and he's not able to be here because they're actually in town so he's entertaining them right now and they're in conference and he's unable to get away so on behalf of him I just want to thank you for being here and also reiterate the importance that the small businesses and the important role that a small business community play in our local economy small businesses are very very very important here in Colombia and as all of you know the mayor our city manager and our city council members are very very big advocates of making sure that our small business communities have the resources that they need to thrive and to employ local residents here so that we can continue to grow and flourish like we have been doing without any other comments on my behalf I want to actually welcome to the stage or to the podium our councilman Mr. Councilman I'm sorry Councilman McDowell how excited we are a new business in our district district to continues to grow bloom and blossom Amy I want to say thank you to you for your insight come on stand over here with me come on she has done a magnificent job in restoring this building local Yoko now it would be interesting I want you all to look on your program because there is a definition of a local Yoko look I've already read the menu there is an avocado special there that sounds real delightful and I'm sure if our mayor was here he would say perhaps and would preferably identify something that he's already that he likes on this menu thank you all for coming Amy thank you for what you've done for our city our city continues to grow and that's a blessing so Amy anything we can do on our end you let us know and after it's all over we're gonna open up you all going there and spend a little I'm sorry eat some food thank you all so much hello I am Matt kennel with the city center partnership we represent all of the property owners and businesses in downtown Columbia and work in close partnership with city council and city staff to make district two in this downtown just as good as it can be first of all I'd like to congratulate Amy I've known Amy for some time we've been talking probably for ten years about different opportunities downtown and I'm just so excited not only for Main Street and for downtown Columbia but for Amy and her staff to be opening up this this really exciting business you know it wasn't too long ago maybe I think it was in 2007 where the city of Columbia and the city center partnership together did a retail study to try to prove that we could bring retail back to downtown Columbia there were a lot of naysayers there were a lot of people that didn't believe it but many many people the city council the city center partnership and our recruiters the office of business opportunities the economic development department of the city and countless others have worked literally for years to create the environment and bring new retail back to downtown Columbia in fact the most recent study Reverend councilman that was done by colliers we have colliers representative here with us today showed that there's only a three percent vacancy right now for retail in the central business district I mean that's probably from twenty percent ten years ago to about three percent today so it's a wonderful time to be in downtown retail is marching down all the way from the state house to now the seventeen hundred block and beyond connecting into all the exciting things that are happening in North Main Street which is also blooming and blossoming I like that I like that word and we're just so excited about the energy and excitement in Columbia and that all of you can be with us to celebrate that tonight so Amy congratulations like the councilman said the city center partnerships here with you all the way to make this a great success and we're just so excited you know to have a bodega a place to buy not only that prepared food but to buy groceries in downtown Columbia who would have thought that a decade ago so thank you so much and on that Amy would like you to say a few remarks thank you that retail study that he referred to is actually a big part of this how we got this idea and we had believed that Main Street was gonna blossom and it did and it's been amazing and the welcome that we've gotten has been incredible residents businesses but the biggest thing I can't brag enough about is CDO BO city center partnership have been incredible this project would have never ever happened without them they stuck with me as everybody knows it took a long time this was a true labor of love I look like it today we're about three or four years of work on this building but they stuck with me they've supported us I can't sing their praises enough I tell everybody that will listen to see OBO talk to the city talk to city center partnership I've just never experienced that much support from government and city and city center partnership it's incredible we're very grateful that everybody hung with us we hope y'all like it we hope you'll understand this is our first day we're getting used to everything and breaking staff in absolutely please spend some money of course have to pay back all these good people but but thank y'all all so much and thank you to the city and everybody for coming out in this weather thank you so much good afternoon my name is Brett Whiting I'm the loan officer for the city Columbia office of business opportunities I just want to say that I'm extremely excited and proud of Amy and her vision and seeing this thing to fruition Amy very early on I am pretty new with the with the city very early on Melissa and I took a site visit out here and we were both fairly new to the city oh to our office and we saw this thing as a shell we didn't see what what Amy saw and what it has has become but it is a wonderful place and it's a prime example of of what the office of business opportunity has to offer the city in terms of support we are here we have programs several different programs to fit certain needs whatever that might be if if we can't ourselves do it we're here as a resource to help you with getting whatever it is that you need to get your business started and to flourish I'd like to close by saying I spoke to Amy when I when I came in this afternoon and saw it all put together and I'm not a native Colombian I I was born and raised in New York City so bodegas were not a foreign concept to be but I have to say this is the best-looking bodega I've ever been in in my entire life I'd like to again congratulate Amy and as I said on the first day that that we met we were here to support her to begin with and we're still here to support her with anything we can help with in the future thank you