CJHajda said:
Latest update from Economic Development Director for College Station
It's interesting but skip the first five minutes, it's all a waste of time.
"As you can see, there are new stores at the Gateway shopping center...and the old Linens N Things is under construction, but I can't tell you what you want to know because of non-disclosure agreements...Pappadeaux's is still dragging their feet. I can't tell you when they will open...Developers still want to do the actual retail component behind Blue Baker and Abuelo's, which was mentioned in site plans for the last 10 years. There is interest, but nothing's signed yet..."
Finally, around Chimney Hill (about five and a half minutes in), she does cover new information not previously mentioned. The new Chimney Hill will be a strip center again (though she dances around actually calling it that) and mentions that the Republic will relocate out front, presumably to the old Chamber of Commerce site. The old Albertsons site is discussed...it's a little inaccurate to say exactly how much H-E-B bought in 2011 (there were three stores, not sites all over the state) but basically what we know before--H-E-B still has a lease there and between them and the building owner, they cockblock any new ideas the city has for usage. Still wonder why the city's rolling over and playing dead on this, a previous city council might've actually been proactive enough to try to buy the building back and market it to put an actual business on the tax rolls.
Another actual interesting point is that the strip center next to Embassy (where they tore down Lovan Animal Clinic) is that Dunkin' Donuts dropped plans to build there.
Other than that, nothing actually new, like Century Square's retail tenants discussed on TexAgs (the interviewer surprises Ruiz with hiring for Hopdoddy already, which Ruiz was unaware of), new high rises in Northgate (no information otherwise, so if you were hoping for more information on the ground-floor retail at the old BB&T, then forget it), University Square/Legacy Point (turns out they have no idea what they want to do, surprise, surprise), the new H-E-B at Wellborn/2818 (a restaurant inside, which isn't a huge surprise if you know H-E-B, what with it being a 100k square foot and all--and besides, the Bryan H-E-Bs both have eateries, Chinese food AND that grilled chicken place, depending on the location), Tower Point (again, nothing that we don't know before), the building behind Corner Store on Rock Prairie (all they can talk about is a smoothie shop with a drive-through...another Smoothie King?), the new auto dealership between 2818 and Rock Prairie (old news), Providence Park (no news), old Academy (no news), Gander Mountain (yes, it will reopen as the new store), Altitude Trampoline Park (again, known already), In-N-Out Burger (still looking at locations).
They mention that the property at the SE corner of 40 and 6 is ready to be sold, but they don't know what's there. If it is a Target (zero evidence for that) what makes them think that it won't replace the Target on Texas Avenue? They mention "national grocery chains" but as for large tenants AND national grocery chains, that really limits options, and far and away the most realistic choice there would be a Kroger Marketplace.
All in all, it was okay.
