Westgate businesses fighting shutdown and corresponding loss of Coyotes games

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I haven’t been to Gila River Arena or Glendale since March 2. From the sad sight of it, neither have a lot of you. Westgate businesses are either closed or operating with skeleton crews to serve a severely reduced number of guests.

“Really tough times,” said Steve Eberhart, the general manager of the Renaissance Phoenix Glendale Hotel and Spa that sits on the southwest corner of Westgate’s footprint. “There’s just not a lot of reasons for people to be staying in hotels right now.”

“We’re getting enough business to stay open. Some people are still doing business in one way or another and then some people are coming in saying, ‘We just need to get out of the house,’ but we’re at the point now where we’re at least 90 percent off our normal business.”

I live a long way from Westgate so I enlisted pal and Glendale resident Cat Silverman to do some sleuthing and she kindly obliged. Silverman enjoys running, and one of her routes includes a loop around the arena.

As expected, Westgate is a virtual ghost town.

“Whiskey Rose has a sign that they’re closed for two weeks,” Silverman reported. “Ruby Tuesday and The Lola are closed entirely. Salt and Bar Louie are open. Saddle Ranch is closed until further notice. Which Wich is closed. Everyone else is open.”

I tried calling Whiskey Rose, McFadden’s and State 48 Brewery, but the calls were not answered or returned. Calls to Whiskey Rose do not even go to a voicemail; just an automated recording that says “Hello, we are not available. Please call again. Thank you for your call. Memory full.”

A staff member at State 48’s Surprise location said the Westgate location closed a couple of weeks ago but was hoping to open again by May 1. They originally tried to do carryout, “but a sinkhole (you can’t make this stuff up) opened outside the takeout area and customers couldn’t figure out where to go so they shut everything down,” the spokesperson said.

Photo courtesy of Cat Silverman.Yard House, a favorite watering hole for certain local hockey podcasters, is still offering family takeout meals that serve up to four, available through curbside pickup, with options such as steak and salmon, Nashville hot chicken, mac and cheese, pizza, wings and salad combinations, along with individual meals available to go, including burgers, sandwiches, salads and more. At the Glendale location, guests can also order beer growlers, wine and spirits to go. To view the menu and place an order, visit YardHouse.com.While national spokesperson Meagan Bernstein said Yard House’s parent company, Darden Restaurants does not provide location-specific information, the company issued a business update on April 7 that “introduced a permanent paid sick leave program early last month, closed our dining rooms on March 20 and began to operate our restaurants in a to-go-only capacity. To support our hourly restaurant team members who have not been scheduled while our dining rooms are closed, we rolled out a three-week emergency pay program. Meanwhile, our hourly restaurant team members who are still working will receive an additional payment to help cover unexpected costs, such as transportation and childcare, incurred as a result of the current situation.”

Eberhart said the Renaissance staff has been reduced from about 260 people a month ago to “a couple handfuls of people” now.

“We can’t have the restaurants open, we can’t do banquets and the pool and fitness center had to be closed due to the mandates so we’re basically just operating rooms,” said Eberhart, who, like the other workers, is handling a variety of duties normally reserved for more specialized staff members. “It’s like we’re running a European hostel.”

Eberhart said not having Coyotes games is definitely impacting the hotel.

“A great deal,” he said. “The majority of visiting teams stay with us and we were hopeful that there was going to be a playoff appearance as well, and that would have been a nice boost to April.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen with hockey. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the NFL because the Cardinals Stadium is also right next to us. And I saw that arena football (the IFL), which Gila River Arena was going to host this fall, canceled its season. It’s nowhere near as big a hit for us as the Coyotes, but just in general, the hits keep coming. We need some wins.”

Unfortunately for Westgate’s businesses, there is no clarity on when those wins might be possible.

“I don’t think anyone would stick their neck out and say they could forecast how this is all going to end up, but obviously until people feel like they’ve got the green light to gather again, it’s not going to get much better,” Eberhart said. “This is a convention hotel so it’s going to be interesting to see what sorts of directives come out as far as large groups gathering. We’re all just waiting to see how this all plays out and when we can hope to see some sense of normalcy again.”

(Top image: The Athletic illustration)