Main Gate area to get new look

By D. Shayne Christie
Arizona Summer Wildcat
June 26, 1996

Leyla Knight
Arizona Daily Wildcat

A customer finds empty space where Zip's Music and Video used to be at 946 E. University Blvd.

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Businesses have been closing their doors for good in the area around North Park Avenue and East University Boulevard known as "University Square," several of them in just the last year.

Although the closings would seem to suggest University Square business is beyond saving, the area is about to get a $45 million shot in the arm.

The Marshall Foundation, in alliance with a profit-sharing trust for J.L. Investments Inc., and the University of Arizona have big plans for the area between University Boulevard and East Second Street between North Euclid and Park avenues. The Marshall Foundation is a non-profit organization that owns much of the property in the University Square area.

The UA has already completed a parking garage and an administrative office building near Euclid Avenue and Second Street. Now, the Marshall Foundation and J.L. Investments plan to bring major national retail stores to the area, as well as renovate the existing University Square store fronts with new sidewalks and landscaping.

John Malloy, president of the Marshall Foundation, said construction of the new "West Main Gate Center" will start in 30 days. He said the 33,000-square-foot center will house national businesses.

Tom Warne, a consultant for the Marshall Foundation, said seven national businesses will be moving into the area, including The Gap, Coffee Plantation, la Madeleine Restaurant and Bath and Body Works. The other four businesses are still negotiating with the foundation.

The overall cost of the entire development will cost $42 million to $45 million, Warne said.

Tower Records is also being pursued by the Marshall Foundation to fill the building where the UA Arid Land Studies office used to be on Park Avenue and Second Street, Malloy said.

Gentle Ben's new multilevel restaurant and brewery at University and North Tyndall Avenue is nearing completion and should be open by early August, Warne said.

The new, nine-story Marriott University Park Hotel and Convention Center being constructed at 880 E. Second St., at the corner of North Tyndall Avenue and Second Street, is to open in December, Warne said.

The idea behind the development process is to move gradually south from where the hotel is being built to make the renovation process the "least disruptive," Warne said.

The area now known as University Square will be renamed "Main Gate Square," and renovations are to begin in late fall to early winter, Warne said. He estimated the cost of renovations at $4 million or $5 million and added that the businesses would be accessible during the process.

The entire project is slated for completion by summer 1998.

Discount Records, 922 E. University Blvd., which closed its doors just last week, was not leasing its property from the Marshall Foundation. Discount Records was owned by Musicland Stores Corp., which decided to close the store because it was not meeting the company's standards, said Brent Skogrel, spokesman for Musicland.

"We have been holding stores to higher standards of profitability," said Skogrel, who added that the company's focus in 1996 has shifted towards raising performance levels of existing stores, and away from pursuing new stores. Musicland has 1,400 stores nationwide.

Charlotte Jaffe, manager of Lighthouse Book Store, 909 E. University Blvd., said, "It looks sad for it to be deserted." But, she added, "There has not been a marked decrease in sales as far as I can see."

Alex Orman, an employee at Captain Spiffy's Super Hero Emporium, 944 E. University Blvd., said business has gone down one-third to one-half since Zip's Music and Video, 946 E. University Blvd., moved away.

"We had a good rapport with the guys at Zip's," Orman said. He said Zip's would send customers to Captain Spiffy's and vice versa. Orman said there are now two-hour periods without business.

"At least a half a dozen people the last three days have come in and asked me where a CD store is around here," said Jim Carnes, manager of Flicks On Campus, 910 E. University Blvd.

"Traffic is definitely down around here, because there is no place to shop," Carnes said.

Malloy said Zip's will return to University Square in about 30 days.

Warne said the West Main Gate development was decided on because business was on the decline in the area, and because there was no real commercial center near campus available to UA students or those visiting the University.

"We want to bring this area up to the level of the UA," Warne said.

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