Gov't Way key to Hayden's commercial growth

Connie Young knows one indisputable fact: Even while transitioning a business from one location to another, completely altering a business model to fit a global pandemic and opening up while surrounded by empty fields, people will always need pizza.

“We’ve been staying pretty consistent,” the co-owner of Flame and Cork admitted. “Thankfully, we opened up here before (the COVID-19 pandemic) happened, so we’ve had a little time to re-establish ourselves. But now that we’ve moved to this new location, things are going really well.”

That new location on Government Way in Hayden is exactly what Young was looking for: a more prominent place from her prior location behind Triple Play. So far, the decision is paying off: The pizzeria is generating enough business to expand from its Tuesday-Saturday schedule to include Mondays, a move Young said she’s looking to make in the fall.

With Flame and Cork securing its liquor license, as well, she said business is ready to boom for her customers, who consist mainly of retirees and a small-but-growing professional crowd.

“I’d say the majority of the crowd is actually a pretty older clientele,” she said. “A lot of them live close: ‘Oh, I just live down the street,’ or ‘Oh, I live in walking distance.’ But we do get the business crowd for lunch — people who work around here.”

That lunch crowd around Flame and Cork is expanding, as well, and not just from the pizza. Hayden’s slice around Government Way continues to grow, with new companies and familiar favorites filling up newly-constructed buildings in what they hope will be a prominent locale.

Residential expansion is following suit, with the city’s residential growth climbing at a steady 2.4 percent. Hayden’s growth is catching businesses’ attention, as well as the attention of the business leaders doing business with the businesses.

“On Wayne Drive, just east of Government Way, there are some new businesses going in,” said Kandi Johnson of the Hayden Chamber of Commerce. “What we’re seeing with the Chamber is a renewed interest with new businesses that want to become part of Hayden.”

Intentionally or coincidentally, Flame and Cork actually followed the Hayden Chamber’s lead. Once upon a time, the Hayden Chamber’s visitors center could be found tucked away by an insurance company on Hayden Avenue, across the street from Super 1 Foods. Now, visitors can find the chamber on Government Way, in the more upscale Hayden Creek shopping center.

While Johnson said the chamber doesn’t ordinarily see a considerable amount of walk-in traffic, the location is both more modern and more accessible. And with more room on Wayne Drive to complement an expanding handful of law offices, dental practices and chiropractors, Johnson hopes that area will one day flourish with bustling traffic.

“I think that area’s great,” she said, “as long as the city will step up to the plate and make it easy for those businesses to move in.”

Part of stepping up to the plate includes developing a plan, which the staff at the city of Hayden are in the process of finalizing. It includes a transportation plan update that Hayden’s community development director, Melissa Cleveland, said considers both cars and pedestrians in its future.

“This plan identifies improvements on major transportation corridors such as Ramsey Road, Hayden Avenue and Government Way,” Cleveland said, “and also identifies intersection improvements, most of which are also located on those major transportation corridors. The plan also identifies priorities for non-motorized facilities, such as sidewalks and shared use paths.”

Brett Boyer, city administrator, said growth around Wayne Road and Government Way are a microcosm of neighborhood opportunities well-planned growth can create.

“The Mayor and Council have made it a priority to attract commercial and industrial businesses to the city of Hayden,” Boyer said, “and we have seen growth in both of those areas.

"We have had seven new businesses open up in our downtown area in the last couple years. The businesses are in the services, medical and food areas, which increase options for services for our citizens. We have also seen continued growth in our industrial areas to the north and west towards Lancaster and around the airport."

Boyer added that CIty Hall is grateful for the businesses that call Hayden home, as the town improves its infrastructure to something more appealing to companies with wandering eyes.

“When there are new improvements and new businesses, it is contagious,” he said. “We believe others see the great opportunities here as various types of businesses come here and are successful.”

Making itself more attractive to businesses also includes making application and permit processes more palatable. Just before COVID-19 struck, Hayden implemented an automated online process to submit building permits and other development applications.

But it’s the infrastructure Young said will make the difference in developing Government Way and other business corridors to make a more sophisticated city.

“Government Way gets really busy,” she said. “I think they’re going to have to extend it to four lanes. It gets pretty bad. Sometimes it gets backed up enough so that people have a hard time getting in or out of the driveway.”

Young commented that as the empty lots on either side of her restaurant get developed along with the rest of the area, growing customer traffic will eventually require public parking.

“That’s the nice thing about Wayne (Drive),” she added. “That would be nice for us. It would be nice if Hayden had a public parking area. Sometimes people use our parking lot to park. So some kind of public parking would be nice, I think.”

Wider roads and more sidewalks are in the transportation plan and, in some places, are already being paved. Hayden Avenue, for example — along the same stretch of road where the Hayden Chamber once stood — is in the process of a makeover that should be completed in or around October. It’s part of a vision Boyer said would loosen congestion and make all of Hayden — Government Way and Wayne Avenue included — more attractive to businesses and residents alike.

“As part of the planning, the city has done modeling of our key streets and intersections and has identified areas of priority for improvement,” he said. “Projects that are being worked on for the near future are a roundabout at Honeysuckle and Ramsey, and also Ramsey Road to continue around the airport runway up to Lancaster Avenue.”

The road improvements are part of a future city officials believe will not only lead to more customers at businesses like the Flame and Cork, but will also one day lead to more businesses in Hayden.

“Transportation is one of the challenges for all in the area,” Boyer said, “but we are working on our highest priorities and looking at the needs through our transportation plan update.”