Entrepreneur tries to revive downtown Elizabethtown

Kim Moreland's story has all the makings of a sitcom -- or worse, a horror flick.

An MBA from the University of Chicago, Moreland, a Harrisburg native, was working as an operations manager at National Airport in Washington, D.C.

In 1997, she got a call from a cousin telling her a 19th century hotel in Elizabethtown was up for sale. She soon found herself walking through the hotel. It was cold, dark and dusty. Vacant storefronts nearby on Market Street didn't bode well.

Other would-be entrepreneurs might have been spooked. But Moreland, looking for a challenge, bought the property and dubbed it the Elizabethtown Inn.

To meet the mortgage on the three-story building at 28-32 S. Market St., she started running six businesses at once inside the inn-- a coffee shop, a bed and breakfast, a restaurant, cafe, bar, and a nightclub in the basement, called Inn Deep.

Since then. she's been wearing many hats. She makes beds. She books bands. She decides menus. She places ads.

And she often sleeps no more than two or three hours a night -- sometimes not at all.

"You have to be there all the time," she said. "At least in the toddler years."

Mike McGovern of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association in Harrisburg, agreed. "I think our industry is very labor intensive and owner-demanding."

Case in point: The average retail employee generates $948,000 in revenues per year, while the average restaurant employee generates $56,000. So, restaurant owners often find themselves doing a little bit of everything to keep payroll in check.

Six months after going into business with her father and partner, Blaine, Moreland is still glad she did.

Sure, some bogeymen have popped out of the closets. "Any time you get to that point that the light is starting to flicker at the end of the tunnel, something always happens ... It's constant problem solving."

But it's easier when your employees feel a sense of ownership, she said. Her employees started working at the inn, cleaning and restoring it, before it even opened.

Also, it's vital to set up your accounting and inventory systems before you begin, she said. If you wait until after you've opened your doors, it's too late.

Moreland declined to state her revenues. "Let's put it this way: We're paying the bills."

And Elizabethtown's empty stores have potential, she said, noting that 22,000 cars drive along Market Street (Route 230) each day. "The whole challenge is getting a percentage of them to stop."

Joe Ulrich, co-owner of Preferred Realty Group Inc. of Elizabethtown, said since many Elizabethtown residents work elsewhere during the day, a theater and more restaurants like Moreland's could help bring those residents downtown at night.