dimebag1980

Oh man, no doubt. When I saw that original site plan (did you post that, or did I see it somewhere else??) I could tell right away that the development accompanying Whole Foods was going to be very nice. It reminds me SO much of the Classen Curve development in Oklahoma City. Aubrey McClendon, co-founder and recently ousted CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corporation, developed the very nice, high-end Classen Curve development right across the street from the huge and gorgeous Chesapeake Energy corporate campus. Not long before he was ousted from the company by the Board of Directors over his extreme spending, he lured Whole Foods to the Classen Curve development, and let me tell you, it's a very nice store. Classen Curve was high-end before Whole Foods, but Whole Foods really added to it. Yes, our case is different, but that E.70th @ Fern area is actually much nicer than the rest of that part of town. That part of town is packed with national chain eateries and retailers, but over near Fern most of the businesses are more local and very easy on the eye. Even the Designer's Showcase across the street from the future site of Whole Foods recently changed their exterior color scheme, and they look like an entirely new business now. I'm looking forward to the transformation of that area. Also, down Fern, toward Bert Kouns, a rather large apartment is under construction. It's called The Boulders AT Fern or The Boulders ON Fern or something like that. Not really sure about that... lol... I don't know of any boulders in the Fern area!

It's under 30 here right now, with freezing rain occurring. I walked out back about a half hour ago, and a little bush outside my back door had icicles hanging off its leaves. When my wife and I went out Christmas shopping earlier, there was a light dusting of snow on the Industrial Drive and Old Minden Road overpasses in Bossier City. That was as far as we went on I-20, so I'm sure it was probably the same all the way down I-20 for a while. The precipitation has been spotty all day, but is starting to fill in now. Now this is the crap I like. I don't like it when it's cold and it rains and we get nothing out of it. I'm not a fan of freezing rain, which we're getting at the moment and my wife just went out in, but I love the hell out of snow. That's my jam.

Some of you might recall a year or two ago, some development group proposed a rather large shopping center on Airline Drive, between Wal-Mart and Home Depot, and with Kroger as one of the anchor tenants. As far as I knew, that fell through. On the TV news, they mentioned that Kroger said they had no current plans to renovate or relocate any of their Shreveport-Bossier stores. I know I don't have to tell you what a complete dump their Benton Road store is. Well, I hadn't been down that stretch of Airline in a while, so I don't know when this occurred, but when I drove down that stretch today, something immediately caught my eye. I noticed that this same large tract, which when I was a child was part of a rather large cow pasture and the old SHARKS airfield, had been mowed and staked off. And now I wonder... By the way, there's something I find funny about the old SHARKS airfield. Way back when that airfield was there, up until the late 80s or very early 90s, when Wal-Mart decided to close their Haughton store and build this area's first Wal-Mart super-center in northeast Bossier, the SHARKS moved their location to their current spot out Highway 71 north, between Shreveport and Dixie. But it looks like progress might be catching up to them, as the new northern stretch of I-49 is traversing through northern Caddo Parish. If any development occurs up that way, within a few years the SHARKS could find themselves having to move once again.

Nice. I'm interested in seeing future tenant announcements.

I'm not claiming to know it all, I'm trying to make sense of it myself. I was making the only arguments I could think of as to their strategy. But there has to be a reason why DART would approach Shreveport officials. Shreveport officials had been in talks with Amtrak for years, and DART wasn't even in the picture until 2 or 3 years ago. And yes, Oklahoma has more casinos but they're spread all over the state. There are only two casinos in Oklahoma that draw a lot of visitors from DFW, although one of those casinos is Winstar, which is currently the second-largest casino on Earth and is single-handedly responsible for taking away a good percentage of the DFW gambling crowd. That's the main reason Paul Alanis teamed up with Jimmy Buffett for SBC's most recent casino venture... which, while very nice, still doesn't touch Winstar. Winstar is amazing... beyond belief. That place is so freaking huge. Nothing in Las Vegas can touch it. The only casino in the world that is currently larger than it is Foxwood's in Connecticut, which is the largest casino on Earth. So yeah, I'm with you on sitting back and watching where this goes... or doesn't go. It's just very easy for me to get too caught up in it and be hopeful, which is a big deal for me because I'm naturally a pessimist.

Well, one thing is for sure. If there aren't any others planned at this point in time, they will follow soon after. As you know, Whole Foods is a huge draw in itself. It tends to draw more high-end retailers, restaurants and such. That's why the location they chose, in my opinion, is so perfect. It reminds me a lot of their location in OKC. It's right across from the campus of Chesapeake Energy and everything in that area is high-end and sexy. I used to work for Chesapeake, and I spent a lot of time up there. Their former CEO/co-founder is a true visionary and he pretty much single handedly rebuilt that part of town. It was a pretty bad, rundown part of town. He built out the extremely beautiful, sprawling Chesapeake campus, and he developed the high-end shopping center across the street. He also partnered with Whole Foods on getting them to build i that spot... and that store is so sexy.

Oh, and on the subject of Whole Foods, that Alexandrine Place location is perfect for them. It's right there in the hottest retail area of Shreveport, and in by far the nicest development over there. I can't think of a better location for them. And by the time they would be able to build out a store there, the work on East 70th Street just west of that location would likely be finished, making for better access to Whole Foods since the road is being widened from Fern Avenue on west toward Line Avenue.

It's not about DART looking for new markets to expand into, it's about a strategic plan to expand into Shreveport and make money off the gaming industry. Our casinos receive a few million visits from DFW residents alone each year. If DART can lure a percentage of those visitors into riding their rail line, it will be profitable for them. Additionally, a lot of people from this region spend a lot of time in DFW for various reasons. They would profit off some of those people as well. If it weren't a potentially profitable situation for DART, they wouldn't even be considering stretching their line out 200 miles to reach Shreveport. In the end, someone is going to built a line between Shreveport and Dallas, whether it be DART or Amtrak. Amtrak could be up and running more quickly because they're already built out to Marshall, TX, which is about 30 miles west of Shreveport. DART isn't built out at all outside of the DFW area at this time.

You beat me. I didn't have the information you had, but I just saw this article on my Facebook page... http://www.ktbs.com/story/23898389/whole-foods-closer-to-becoming-reality-in-shreveport

Yeah the article is three years old but there was a new article in The Times yesterday. I try not to link to The Times because they suck ass. I know how to surf anonymously and never pay to read their articles, but a lot of people don't know how so they can't read them. Therefore, in order to post an article, I had to find something else. The thread has already been made? I can't dispute it, but I don't recall it. Also, I disagree that it "simply won't happen". The city and DART officials are still meeting on the subject. And I don't follow the "with the way Shreveport is headed" comment. What way would that be? The city has lost population over the past 30 years, but a lot of that population has just moved to other cities and towns in the area. The city just gained a $1 billion steel plant addition to The Port, and BPCC is currently building a new 2-story classroom building to house studies specifically for the type of engineering such a plant would require. EDIT: Here is the article from yesterday, which was the first time I'd ever heard of a venture between DART and Shreveport. I believe you were thinking of the Amtrak venture that's been thrown around for years. http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013310210030&nclick_check=1

DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) considering adding a high-speed rail line between Dallas and Shreveport. http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/DART-Looking-East-100352929.html

I don't think their Twitter account would troll, but there's not enough information there, to be honest. It seems like some tweets are missing, and all she's posting is that tweet in particular. Does that mean they're NOT coming? Not necessarily, but it doesn't mean they are either. I like to think they are, so like you, I'll continue to hold out hope. But just recently one of our local news agencies looked into it and the company told them that they had no plans for Shreveport in the near future.

It's going to be a Conn's HomeStore. They're all over Texas, especially DFW.

Holy crap, Whole Foods is on that tenant list. That's really interesting; very nice find! Whole Foods supposedly recently said that they have no plans for this area at this time. That said, however, Chipotle said the same thing only a week or two before announcing that they are, in fact, building a store on Youree Drive. I also read where Panera Bread is planning to also build a Bossier location next year.

Yeah and I think they have the location incorrect. I remember seeing that on their original proposal. It says EAST side of Youree Drive, but University Place is actually on the WEST side. On the east side of Youree in that area, there's already a Moe's, and a shopping center developer never allows competing businesses to open within the same center. They can open in another center across the street, or even next door, but not in the same center. So I know that's not really a big deal, but I'm very anal-retentive about things like that.

Welcome, Chris! While we all don't post very often anymore, a few of us have been around here for quite a few years and love to have some new blood on the board.

Personally, I think it's fugly. I think it was supposedly designed by some renowned architect. In my opinion, sometimes architects think TOO FAR outside of the box. I'm just glad it's down in Natchitoches and not up here in Shreveport, because I would be very disappointed to have it in my city.

I don't know why they don't have one at least on the north shore.

You know, a co-worker of mine mentioned this to me months ago. As cool as that would be, I had two responses: I think in an area this size (less than half a million people) this would be big news once someone found out about it, and with us being so close to the Great Wolf in Grapevine, TX, I just couldn't see it. But that's me! I'd love for it to be true.

Very nice view of Margaritaville. Did you take this?

The Times mentioned in an article today that UL Coleman is finally ready to move forward with its Walker Place development in south Bossier, near CenturyLink Center. This development has been years in the making, but it appears that all the legal wrangling with the city over the curb cut in the parkway has been resolved. I admit I didn't read the whole article, so I don't know how they came about a resolution. But anyway, looks like it's going to move forward. Now, perhaps with more residents moving into that area over the next few years, there will be more development around CenturyLink Center.

I don't remember for sure, but 10 or 12 stories I believe. It's been a few years so my memory isn't all that great.

I dig the Villaggio development. It's really nice that it's a walkable community. And everything is pretty close to it. You're right by a Southern Maid Donuts (yum!), a Shane's Seafood, a Counter Culture, Bossier Parish Community College, etc. It's neat to see how much that area has changed over the past 5 years or so. I grew up down the road from Villaggio in the Swan Lake neighborhood.

The company that developed Island Park, The Bryan Company of Jackson, MS, ended up filing bankruptcy during the process of building out the development. I understand that the development is currently being taken over by another company. It's such a shame about The Bryan Company, because Island Park was a very nice concept, and the location is so close to the Youree Drive shopping/dining corridor. Although our own city council is so backward, they couldn't understand the concept of high-rise condos. If not for that, the condo development, Reflections of Island Park, which is a three-story complex, would have been a beautiful high-rise complex. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens now. As far as the flats downtown, I wish I could say I knew more about them. I've seen photos of them, but that's about it. And yes, there are plans for more developments like this downtown. A number of buildings along Texas Avenue downtown have been purchased by out of town developers, and from what I understand they plan to have retail/dining on the first floors of the buildings, and living spaces on the upper floors.

The Independence Bowl Foundation and the CEO if the game's title sponsor, AdvoCare V100, announced today that the game now has a new name. The Independence Bowl we all knew is now just the AdvoCare V100 Bowl. They dropped the word Independence from the name and are planning to DOUBLE the payouts in order to bring a higher caliber match-up to the game each year. The CEO of AdvoCare is from Shreveport, so it's nice to see a hometown boy who believes enough in that game. For so many years the Indy Bowl has been known as the "Weedwhacker Bowl" due to its original title sponsor, Poulan WeedEater. The name Independence Bowl never bothered me, but the game's lack of prestige in the world of college football always did bother me. This is why I'm happy to see the bowl see a positive change for once.