The Mystery of the Disappearing Shopping Center

    When Page 3 Game Zone, my local comic book shop, got devastated by the February floods, I almost volunteered my store as a possible pick-up point for them. I could have set up something for people to pick up their regular orders and possibly have some of other products as well.  If not that, then maybe set up some temporary storefront at my shopping center. We had a lot of empty units, with another one opening up soon after.  I shot this idea down, as I feared it would come off as selfish and greedy. Still, I mentioned that my store could help out in a comment on their Facebook page.  [In some respects, maybe I should have went down in that direction. In the past five months, I have had to go through four different stores, in three different states, just to get all but three of my books up through June. I'm still trying to get the sixteen titles for July through one online store, but I'm having problems contacting them about confirming my order. Hopefully, Page 3 will start their comic book shipments back soon before I have to start ordering too many from my August pull.]

    Strangely enough, no one ever came to rent any units at the shopping center, even though it had some of the few spots available in the area.  What was even stranger is that the center took down all of the 'for rent' signs down sometime, and I never noticed.  I walked by some of them every day, but I guess I just took them for granted and missed when they were taken down. We heard that at least one possible tenant called about renting, but they were told that the units were going to be remodeled. This was odd, as the renters were usually the ones who did the remodeling.  Even when major changes had to be made, such as removing asbestos, it was the renters who did it, not the center. Some people thought that the center was leaving units empty as a tax benefit. The center would get a bigger tax break from empty units, rather than from renting them out. Maybe, but it sounded off. We even asked to take some leftover fixtures that were left behind some of the units, but the center has yet to have someone come to help us out with this. 

    Well, last month, the regional manager for the center came by with a photographer to take pictures of the units. I immediately was against them doing this, but I got overruled. They took pictures of at least a part of each unit.  (They may have bypassed the church, as there was a visitation/funeral going on.  Yes, there is a church in the center.  For those who know, it took over the dialysis clinic's spot.) At least a few people believed/were told it was for 'insurance' purposes. However, one renter knew the photographer from one of the local realty companies. Sure enough, I helped compare pics of him, and it did look like the photographer. Now, an insurance company would most likely use their own people for this sort of task, not a realtor. Something seemed up.

    The rumors had been running for well over a year that the center was going to be put up for sale, most likely to the local hospital or university. There was no clear reason why either would want a shopping center, especially one so far away from downtown where most of their properties were located. Now, the current owner of the center is not the same one who built it. The current owner is the parent company behind Food City.  They bought the center about the same time that Food City took over the Piggly Wiggly that was originally here. The original store was torn down and rebuilt to the current building, now home to the company's discount grocery chain, Food Center Super Dollar (a combination of their original store and a second one they bought out).  While it is unlikely the main store would be sold, nothing else is out of the question, including the church. Both potential buyers have shown that nothing like that would stop them, if they really wanted to go that far.

    This October 7 will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of my store, Booknotes. Now, there is a chance that I will have to move or even close if these rumors turn out to be true. I might not even make it to October, but that is a long shot.  Of course, I could be exaggerating the facts due to a lack of knowledge, but one has to plan for the worse case scenario. I only got this location due to the cheap rent and large amount of parking. I wasn't even planning on keeping the store open for more than a few years, but the 2003 flood messed up all of my plans, and I still haven't been able to fully recover. I hate not knowing enough to know what to do, but something is going to happen soon. I just can't figure out what.