Pizza Villa may be added to Union's eateries in fall 2001

By Matt Holsapple
Summer Reporter

If things go as anticipated, one restaurant will be moving into the Purdue Memorial Union and another will be closing.

Officials at the Purdue Memorial Union are in contract negotiations to bring Pizza Villa, a national Italian-food chain restaurant, to the Union.

The University, the Board of Trustees and the Pizza Villa Corporation has approved the addition of Pizza Villa into the Union. The only uncertainty now is the specifics of contract negotiations.

"We have not signed a contract yet, but we are very confident that this will happen," said Gary Goldberg, manager of cash operations for the Union.

If the contract is signed, Pizza Villa should be completed and ready to open by the end of the summer of 2001. It will be located on the basement floor of the Union in the corner near the Stripe Shoppe. Once Pizza Villa opens, the Stripe Shoppe will be shut down.

According to Bob Mindrum, director of the Union, this is the first renovation done to the Union food operations in almost 20 years. This is also the first time that a national chain restaurant has been invited to move into the Union.

Goldberg considered this a big step. "I think the nature of Purdue has been somewhat conservative. The realization is finally here that a chain presence is what kids are used to and expecting," he said.

Goldberg also said that students have grown up with malls and the types of chain restaurants that are in them. By bringing a national chain to the Union, he said he thinks that more students will stay on campus for food instead of seeking these types of restaurants off-campus.

Pizza Villa is a young chain that currently has stores in eight countries and 38 states. The closest store to Purdue is in Chicago. The chain is starting to branch into college campuses; it is also in negotiations with Princeton, Vanderbilt and the University of Michigan.

"It's a good sign that other quality schools are signing up," said Mindrum.

Goldberg was also drawn to Pizza Villa by the look and style of the restaurant. He said that it is designed to be very bright and inviting, with lots of light wood, bright colors and Old World Italian-style pizza ovens. However, the Union store will look slightly different than other stores. "We won't neon it up so that we maintain the integrity of the building," said Goldberg.

Goldberg described Pizza Villa as a more upscale type of mall restaurant. "It's fast-food in a non-traditional sense. You can get pizza, but you can also get chicken piccata or other types of pasta dishes," he said.

The store that would come into the Union would not be a traditional franchise. The day-to-day operations of Pizza Villa would be run by the Union itself, not the Pizza Villa corporation.

According to Goldberg, the money that the restaurant raises will also stay in the Union.

At their June 1 meeting, the Board of Trustees approved $1.2 million to be spent on the restaurant. After that money has been used to build the restaurant, the Union will only pay licensing royalties to Pizza Villa. The Union is self-supporting and all other Pizza Villa profits will be used for the operations of the Union.

Goldberg said that he expects the restaurant to bring a lot of money into the Union.

Mindrum said that, unlike similar actions at other universities, their has been essentially no opposition to bring Pizza Villa to the Union.

"In my opinion we'll see more of this type of thing in the future," he said. "A lot of students respond well nationally known brand marketing."