Yogurt shop continues to be closed

With last weekend's mild weather bringing a taste of things to come, University students ventured to the Locust Street Warehouse to beat the heat -- only to find the frozen yogurt favorite TCBY remained closed. TCBY owner Philip Spiegel stopped operating over winter break. At the beginning of the semester, he promised to reopen within a week. But the shop remains empty and dark in its corner location in the Warehouse. "The lawyers are still working on everything," Spiegel said yesterday. "I never planned on it being closed this long." "We were hoping things would be resolved by this point," Daniel Lai, spokesperson for the Warehouse's landlord, said yesterday. "Everyone wants it open as soon as possible." Lai added that Spiegel's attorney told him Spiegel is no longer involved in reopening a business at the Warehouse. "We were trying to work out something where he could get out of the lease," Lai said. But Spiegel said the space in the building is still his. "[But] if I don't own [the new shop], I won't be fitting into it at all," he added. Both Spiegel and Lai said it is likely the store will not reopen as a TCBY. "I don't necessarily want to stay with TCBY because I'm not thrilled with them," Spiegel said. "Basically, under TCBY it wasn't cost effective to keep it open." He said three years ago his daily earnings were $1500, but when he closed last month, that figure had fallen to $400. "If the students don't support local businesses, local businesses won't be there for the students," Spiegel said. "I can't say that it's necessarily going to be TCBY . . . [but] it won't be a drastic change," Lai said. "All the people that have expressed interest in that space are the people who would run the same kind of business." Arthur Pine, manager of the neighboring Boccie Pizzeria, said yesterday that his business has not been affected by the loss of TCBY. "A lot of customers come in and ask [about TCBY]," Pine said. "We get frequent questions about that." Pine speculated that a new business would be open by the fall semester.