subway – Houghton STAR

With Addie’s Ice Cream now officially open for business, the limited dining opportunities available around Houghton have increased, but there’s still something missing from the campus. With hungry expectations still to be met and questions that need to be answered, people are wondering, why is the building across from Subway still empty? Where is the anticipated 3 Bums Pizza?

3 Bums At the end of last semester, students were told that 3 Bums Pizza would be open upon returning this Fall. Currently, 3 Bums is still in the process of transitioning from their previous location in Belfast, to their new building formerly occupied by the Allegany Harvest Cooperative Market. With the original projected opening date of June 1, and mid-September quickly approaching, people are wondering what is accounting for the delay.

Owner of 3 Bums Pizza, Jake Hillman, stated, “While we had hoped that 3 Bums Pizza in Houghton would open quite some time ago, several issues have delayed our move. We’ve been working on some pretty extensive renovations the last several weeks, and as the project has progressed, those renovations have become even more extensive. Ever-changing building and fire codes make turning an empty space into a restaurant quite a task.”

Director of Community Relations, Phyllis Gaerte, said, “We are very disappointed at the delay, but in Jake’s defense, they ran into a number of tricky complications with state restaurant codes. Transforming an old convenience store presents unforeseeable challenges that 3 Bums is rising to meet.”

Hillman tells locals, “The good news is that we are in the home stretch of construction and will be open in the coming weeks.”

Soon 3 Bums will open its doors to students and the surrounding area. Business Professor Ken Bates states, “I predict Houghton’s relationship with 3 Bums to be mutually beneficial. It’s hard to imagine a college town without a pizza delivery business. Turning that around, it’s hard to imagine a pizza business in a college town that doesn’t have a big upside in terms of business success.”

3 Bums will also potentially provide opportunities for students, “3 Bums has employed Houghton students part-time in the past and now that they’re in town that will make this even easier.” Bates said. “We in the business department will be delighted to work with Jake in setting up internships with our business students to whatever degree that will work with his business model. Those discussions have yet to happen, but I look forward to welcoming Jake to the Houghton RVER Group meetings and working together to help his business succeed”

In the following weeks, Houghton can expect to see 3 Bums Pizza renovated and open for business. Hillman assures customers that “No one is more disappointed than we are that our new pizza place wasn’t up and running by the time students came back for the fall semester. We are committed to Houghton for the long term and are quite confident that taking the necessary time to make sure everything is done, and done right.”

For those unfamiliar with Houghton, a tour of the town would most likely take somewhere around thirty minutes, including stops such as the Houghton Inn, China Star, Subway, the post office, and the college campus among others. This small town persona has defined Houghton for some time.

However, with the new Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex nearing completion, the college is expecting an influx of visitors coming to see events held there. With the arrival of large groups of people comes greater demand for food, housing, entertainment, etc. A question presents itself: can the small town of Houghton meet such demands?

Enter the Houghton Group, a committee currently comprised of twelve community members who are trying to prepare Houghton for the traffic it hopes to see when the Kerr-Pegula Complex is finished.

“We’re working off of the momentum provided by the Kerr-Pegula project… obviously, it’ll provide a big boost to our sports programs,” says Professor Kenneth Bates, chair of the business and economics department and one of the twelve members of the Houghton Group. “But it’s a wonderful facility in terms of providing venues and services to other people in the area. It will become the largest meeting place in the county. It’s going to be able to seat 6,000 people. We’re going to be able to host events here that we never have before.”

“Right now, there’s a couple places you can eat, a couple places you can stay,” says Ralph Kerr, another member of the Group, “But there isn’t anything else of any significance. So we asked ourselves, if we could dream a little bit, what would a new Houghton downtown look like? As we started taking about it, we put together a wish list, and we realized that we needed a group of people on this.”

What is on the wish list for a new and improved Rt. 19? Professor Bates did not give any names of the businesses being engaged, but he said that restaurants, retail shops, and an outfitters store are all on the radar. Also, improvements to the existing Leonard Park (next to Subway) as well as the creation of a whole new town park are being proposed, the latter complete with potential access to the Genesee River.

Phyllis Gaerte, Head of Community Relations for Houghton College and the chair of the Houghton Group, looks forward to the coming changes: “I believe with the hard work of this group, we are going to see a different and better Rt. 19 corridor running through the hamlet of Houghton in the very near future…. Most of all I am anxious to see what a positive impact this will have on Houghton College, our town, Allegany County and the Western New York region.”