You would think Mr. Lewis would take note of the already numerous empty storefronts on Prospect Road before building the brand new large and empty "Heritage Square" strip mall in Peoria Heights.
The development has been complete since late summer. The shopping center's sign has a slew of "Pending" notices but in reality, only Heritage Bank has signed on as a tenant (leaving yet one more vacant building in The Heights).
In today's PJ Star article, Developer Lewis says that he is just lacking an anchor. As soon as one signs on, more businesses are sure to hop on board. Uh-huh. Kind of like saying, "The minute I win the lottery, I will pay that money I owe you."
Hopefully the developers of the Heights' other new strip mall (or as Bob Manning likes to call it, Community Center) now underway on the corner of Prospect and War Memorial will take note of the brand new, beautiful and vacant Heritage Square located just a few blocks North.
I know. Fat chance.
5 comments:
Actually, Polly, most of those other "empty" storefronts along Prospect in the Heights have already been filled... in fact, I can't think of a single one now, since the old Ben Franklin is undergoing transformation into a restaurant even as I type. Those storefronts don't stay open long, because the pricing is right, and the exposure is great.
As for the Heritage Square, Mr. Lewis should have gotten at least 25% of the stores filled before he even started building, but he's a big boy, so he did what he wanted to do. It's tough to fill up a place when you're charging as much as they're charging at Grand Prairie, and the units are only bare bones steel studs. In other words, the tenant is going to have to come up with $50,000 plus to finish the unit off BEFORE the rent even kicks in. I don't find that really brilliant.
If the new Meineke Mall offers finished units at a decent price, it will fill up. In the meantime, I think they already have a few tenants signed up, something Mr. Lewis apparently didn't bother to do.
I think it's too bad that former Mayor Carter had such an itch in his pants to get this property plopped over to Lewis. They need parking bad in the Heights, and that would have been a great location for some of it. But, maybe that's why Carter no longer is mayor.
Oh, and one more thing. The new Meineke Mall is COMPLETELY in Peoria. Not even one single inch of it is in Peoria Heights. Just for your info, Polly.
I'm guessing that Carter isn't mayor for a whole bunch of reasons. Like not listening to neighbors, doing under the table deals, having his private road blacktopped with public funds, not pounding down on ordinances, a whole bunch of things. I also heard that he virtually blackmailed the library and the school district into taking half of the value of the block so that Lewis could get his Square into there. The list goes on and on. Gonna be interesting to see what happens with his blacktopping exercise, don't ya think? Maybe Mr. Lyons might make his own "Lyn Howard" statement with him.
And, yeah, those storefronts on Prospect are being re-fitted right now, Ms. Peoria. Maybe you haven't gone by there lately, but the Ben Franklin building sold in a matter of hours, for a good deal of money I hear, and the Balda Driving School building sold in virtually the same amount of time. I think it's just Mr. Lewis' problem, not the Heights' problem.
Also, when am I going to get a Bridget Fonda photo or two?
Yes, Anon, as I wrote that Peoria City Councilman Bob Manning fought for the new Meinke stripmall/community center, I was in fact aware it was in Peoria. The point is that there is plenty of empty space in the nearby area. No empty shops in the Heights? What about the empty former Big Apple Bagles, The shop next to Big Apple, Heritage Bank, The retail property/house two doors down from Cafe Latte, to name a few. The Meinke stripmall will add to vacant buildings in the region as one of the tenants is MAB paints (now located on WWM).
Big Apple is presently being turned into a lawyer's office, I think. I'm not aware of any empty building next to Big Apples. There's an insurance agent next to it, as far as I know. The old Heritage Bank, I'll drive by that one too. I think it's a pretty minor problem, if a problem exists at all. I drive down Prospect every day and it's bustling.
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