French, owner of Comforts of Home, 508-510 S. Washington St., is working toward remodeling the building at 124 E. Fifth St., between Adams and Washington streets.
The former United Telephone building will make room for five stores that will cater to home decorators and shoppers.
"French hopes the stores will bring in more visitors, opening up the downtown district as a shopping destination."Try to imagine a single building in Anderson's downtown which could serve the same commercial function. (Or for those from Muncie, think about the same thing for Muncie). I cannot. I firmly believe that our commercial center lies on Scatterfield between I-69 and 19th Street. But, the essential that one business can be used to cross-sell other businesses is a sound one. For our downtown, that is The Paramount Theater. On a broader view, what would attract people to Anderson? I think the race track ought to serve this function but I cannot see that it has attracted anyone further than its gates.
Commercially, the Edgewood Plaza might serve as possible attraction for out of towners. The Herald-Bulletin reports that the Plaza has been sold but no one has any idea of to whom (see Edgewood Plaza sold, but to whom?). Accomplishing anything with Edgewood Plaza will need some imagination, determination and lots of capital.
Meanwhile, we better understand that we have advantages in Anderson but only a small window of time for taking advantage of those advantages. Muncie's Star-Press published Blight in Muncie 'overwhelming' in today's newspaper. From my reading of the article, I say that Kevin Smith has been more active than his Muncie counterpart in attacking the problem of abandoned buildings. I noticed last week that the ABC rail building appears to be almost gone. From what we have seen of Kris Ockomon, I doubt we will see the same level of energy.
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