PROVO -- Not all businesses are falling victim to what's now considered the worst recession since the Great Depression.

At least two businesses, AmeriTech College of Provo and Pizza Pie Cafe, an Idaho pizza buffet operator, are expanding into Parkway Village, giving new life to what used to be a strip mall that was pockmarked with empty retail spaces along University Parkway and Riverside Avenue in Provo.

AmeriTech, a vocational nursing college, is relocating its campus in January to a 13,692-square-foot building at 2255 N. University Parkway, behind 24-Hour Fitness in Provo, and will eventually take up another 1,619 square feet of administrative office space near the Albertson's grocery store.

In addition, several other tenants are considering locations at the strip mall. These include a testing center called Princeton Review, a dry cleaner and a cellphone repair store. A cupcake bakery is also looking at the former Provo Fro-yo space. Founded in 1979, AmeriTech, formerly known as the American Institute of Medical and Dental Technology, is expanding to a larger campus because it has outgrown its existing 11,000-square-foot campus at 1675 N. Freedom Blvd., thanks to a 70 percent increase in student enrollment in one-year programs such as medical and dental assisting, surgical technology and medical office management over the past year.

"Because of the recession, people are looking to upgrade their skills in more secure trades or jobs that are in demand, like health care," Ryan Sagars, AmeriTech's regional vice president of campus operations. "We normally get a five percent to seven percent increase in enrollment in a normal year."

The 20-worker college may hire another five to 10 staff and faculty over the next two years depending on its student enrollment rate, he said. When the new campus opens, it will accommodate 250 students during the day, and another 250 at night.

Attracting new tenants

Commerce CRG partner Jon Anderson, who took over as leasing agent for the strip mall two years ago when it was purchased by a California developer, said it now has a 90 percent occupancy, up from 65 percent occupancy in 2007.

Over the past two years, several new businesses moved into the strip mall such as Versus Gaming, Shape Up Provo, Agi's Raw Foods, Grill Mex (site of the former Las Tarascas) and the U.S. Census Bureau.

What helps is what Anderson described as a "willingness of the landlord to look outside the box to lease space, and being creative in how they restructure space within the strip mall."

"For instance, we gave AmeriTech a break on their front end rent rate, starting at $13 a square foot for the first year, and then increasing the rate by a $1 each year for five years, and then up 3 percent a year after that. In good years, the rental rate is about $17 a square foot," he said.

In addition to lowering lease rates, Anderson said the 13,692-square-foot building, which used to be home to the Board of Provo, Hollywood Juice Cafe, Munchies Deli, State Farm Insurance and Zoom Communications, was converted to office space from retail space. It is currently home to the U.S. Census Bureau, which opened its Provo office in August.

"We decided it wasn't a good retail site because the building, which is behind 24-Hour Fitness and Blockbuster Video, lacked visibility," Anderson said.

But the building serves as a good office location for AmeriTech, which will take up 6,800 square feet of space initially, and eventually take over the rest of the building when the U.S. Census Bureau vacates next August.

"The new building will give us more visibility," Sagars said. "We're looking to upgrade to a bigger newer facility. The existing building isn't adequate to support our anticipated growth and our educational needs."

Pizza Pie Cafe expands

Founded in 2003, Pizza Pie Cafe, a popular college hangout in Idaho, opened earlier this week at a 7,800 square foot space at 2235 N. University Parkway, which was home to Papa's Southern BBQ, and before that, Tony Roma's Ribs Seafood Steak.

"Our Rexburg restaurant is next to BYU-Idaho, and we've been very successful there. We're hoping to duplicate that success with the two colleges and the number of families here," said Matt Smith, who co-owns Pizza Pie Cafe with partner Scott Gneiting.

The first Craigo's Pizza opened in Rexburg, Idaho in 2003 and soon added two other restaurants in Idaho Falls and Pocatello. But the restaurant operator began looking at expanding into Utah because of the relatively stronger economy here, and after its strategy -- offering unlimited pizza and salad buffet at low prices at its Idaho restaurants -- paid dividends.

"In January, our sales were extremely slow and our food costs, especially for flour and cheese were almost four times the usual prices. But we decided to still lower our prices for the buffet, and sales went up. Then food prices began dropping in April, and we saw profits again. That's when we decided to expand to Utah because we believe our low-price upscale buffet concept fits Utah well, and we can have multiple stores here," Smith said.

The restaurant, which features a selection of at least 40 pizzas at its 35-foot pizza bar, a massive salad and pasta bar, as well as conference room space for parties, offers its buffet lunch at $6.49 and dinner at $6.99.

"Plus it's cheaper to expand now because lease rates are more affordable, or realistic," Smith said. "And investors are looking to invest in areas other than the stock market."

In addition to the 45-worker Provo store, Smith is looking to open a second store in Highland in February, as well as an outlet store called the Pizza Pie Express at Alpine Village in Provo in late November. The 4,000 square foot Highland store will hire between 30 and 50 workers, while the outlet store will have 15 workers.

"The outlet store will offer one-topping large pizzas for $5 each. We are offering a choice of three sauces, and nine toppings," he said.

He hopes to open up to 10 stores statewide including one in Saratoga Springs over the next three years.

"We'd eventually like to expand into suburban areas and with the Highland store, we're testing to see how it goes with hiring and traffic," Smith said. "In a few years, we plan to franchise our concept."

In Idaho, the restaurant operator plans to eventually drop the Craigo's name over the next few years. But first, to slowly acclimate its customers to the name change, the restaurant will change its name to Craigo's Pizza Pie next year.

"We're using the intermediate name, Craigo's Pizza Pie, to help our customers make the link between the two names," he said.

In addition to advertising in newspapers, and direct mail fliers, the restaurant has also found success with viral marketing tactics, Smith said.

"We have 800 kids in Utah on our text-special program, and offered a $5 buffet after eight" on Wednesday night. "Two hundred and twenty people came in after eight o'clock," he said. "In Idaho, where we have 3,700 people in our text-special program, 600 kids showed up after 7 p.m. on May 26, the day after Memorial Day because we were offering a $3.99 dinner buffet. We did it to see what reaction will be to a difference in price. And even with the discounts, we made about $6,000 for a typical quiet Tuesday, about three times the revenue for a normal Tuesday."