Last fall the owners of Pineapple Eddie Southern Bistro announced plans to buy their own building, and relocate their popular restaurant to West 8th and Walnut Street.

They applied for a Diverse Erie DEI grant to help with interior renovation costs, but the flap over Erie County Executive Brenton Davis and other county council members removing DEI commission members has left that application in limbo.

Karen Thomas who owns the restaurant along with her sister Adrienne Paul walked us through the building.  They are working with an architect on plans to relocate the kitchen to the rear of the building and open things up with new windows on the Walnut Street side of the building.

Chris Groner, vice president of capital finance and lending for the Erie County Redevelopment Authority help Pineapple Eddie's owners secure two loans for the purchase of the building last October. 

At the same time the restaurant owners applied to Diverse Erie for a $500-thousand dollar second round grant, funding they agreed to match if the grant was awarded.  But they still don't know if that application has even been renewed, creating a lot of uncertainty.   "I guess what I am now in the process of is a plan b," Karen Thomas said. "Certainly you know being a business owner and being a restaurant owner, you just don't put yourself in a million dollars worth of debt without really thinking about what that means to the future of your business and to the legacy of who you leave it to. I'm very cautious in how I'm moving forward with this because I really just don't want to fail because I over extended us...so that is the concern right now."

Groner said he understands her frustration.  "Well, I mean that was the whole purpose of creating these resources so that we can help businesses that are struggling to attract capital and certainly for minority businesses to have a dedicated pot of funds that they can go after is extremely important."  He went on to say, "If you've opened up a program for applications at the very least, review those and let people know if it's a yes or no instead of this limbo that we're in."

Gary Lee chief administrative officer for Diverse Erie confirmed that the application reviews are on hold until the Diverse Erie board of directors is  reconstituted to its full 9-members. Three board members are still fighting their removal, Tiffany Lavette, Sarah Carter and Gwen White.  Lee hopes those issues will be resolved when the board meets Wednesday March 1 in the Admiral Room at Blasco Library at 6:00 p.m.