Is anyone else as disappointed in Atkinson's ability to run a development as I am? Every time I drive by the Uptown Center these days, I'm a little more annoyed with how things have turned out. Every time a decision is made, it seems that they go further down the toilet rather than the other way.
Phase 1 of the remodel was a great change, although I still feel like razing the entire center would have made more sense at this point. Not just leaving the roof intact...the old building design required too many columns and has low ceiling height. But anyway.... Lease rates have kept the thing from attracting ANY tenants though 5 years later. There are fewer tenants now than before the remodel and Journal Record is still 100% empty.
Phase 2 was a little bit of a let-down, but still a quality turnaround with the changes they made. The 7-11 lot actually helped do more to complete the turnaround of this area than anything. That is except for the fact that they left the building on Wilson Dr. intact so there's a random inside wall that now is an outside wall. Can't really blame North Star on this one though.
Phase 3 was a complete joke. A crappy paintjob...really? And in the section that actually HAD tenants. And now, they managed to run off the institution that was the café, and when they jacked up prices, the largest tenant (Michael's) closes because they're so fed up with it. They didn't even move...just closed. And this supposed change with Langston's and Old Navy....yeah where'd that go?
And when I've asked them about why the projects are in the state they are, no response comes back. This section of 15th was identic with MWC, or at least as much as 29th was. We're not seeing anything good coming out of Uptown though. At this point, I wish there was someone that could come in and doze both sides of the road on Midwest/15th and start from scratch....and it NOT be North Star. All I can say is the current Atkinsons are most definitely NOT the real estate developers the patriarch was.
