Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Money and mix revamp Mission

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Tuesday, May 29, 2001
Money and mix revamp Mission
Old, new tenants hoping face-lift, location attract consumers
Naomi Snyder
Caller-Times

George Gongora/Caller-Times

Several new tenants, among them Melrose, Dollar Zone and Furniture Factory Warehouse, have set up shop at the updated Mission Plaza Shopping Center. Property manager GulfTex Properties has been working to vary the center’s retail mix.

When Juan Ordoñez transferred to Corpus Christi for a management job six months ago with Peter Piper Pizza, his new workplace looked to him as if mortar shells had damaged it.
   The Mission Plaza Shopping Center, at Ayers and the Crosstown Expressway, where the restaurant is located was under construction to remedy the almost 30-year-old center's potholes, concrete walls and crumbling roof.
   "It needed a lot of fixing and it was in bad shape,'' said Ordoñez, the general manager at Peter Piper.
   Since then, Peter Piper and plenty of other shopping center tenants have done millions of dollars worth of renovations. New tenants have moved in, partly because a lot of work was done to improve the retail center in the moderate-income neighborhood.
   Demographic concerns
   Alabama-based Furniture Factory Warehouse opened its first store in Corpus Christi this month at the shopping center. The 60,000-square-foot furniture store probably wouldn't have opened in Mission without the renovation work, said store manager Art Robles.
   "Actually, it was an eyesore,'' Robles said.
   The furniture store was attracted to the moderate-income demographics of the neighborhood. The median household income within 1 mile is $24,442, according to statistics provided by the shopping center's property manager, GulfTex Properties.
   The furniture store targets low- and moderate-income customers.
   But despite the demographic match, Robles believes that customers probably wouldn't have come if they couldn't maneuver their cars through the potholed parking lot.
   "You don't want to lose your transmission,'' Robles said.
   Some of his employees said the potholes were as large as some of the dining room tables Furniture Factory sells.
   Adding to the mix
   It wasn't just the shopping center's appearance that needed help, said Burris McRee of GulfTex Properties. GulfTex also worked to improve the retail mix.
   "It wasn't really empty, but it was not what you want in a shopping center,'' McRee said.
   After carving out new windows in one section of the shopping center, Mission replaced a sizeable flea market with three new tenants within the past month: Furniture Factory, Dollar Zone, and Melrose. Melrose, a 10,000-square-foot clothing store, is based in San Antonio and owned by United Fashions of Texas. The store steers its clothing line to girls and women between the ages of 14 and 24.
   Dollar Zone has 20,000 square feet of merchandise that costs just what the name says - $1. Its addition gives the shopping center two such stores; there already is a Dollar General in the 160,000-square-foot shopping center.
   McRee said the retail mix, with its two dollar stores, Rent-A-Center, and Weiner's, among other stores, matches the neighborhood's demographics. Other establishments include Hot Shots Billiards, El Mercado Bingo and Entertainment, Harbor Freight Tools and a Vick's Famous Hamburgers.
   But another key attracting new tenants to the shopping center is the location. The spot marks the crossing of State Highway 358 (South Padre Island Drive), State Highway 286 (Crosstown Expressway) and Ayers Street.
   "If you're coming from Rockport, you'll see us,'' Robles said. "If you're coming from Alice, you'll see us. Initially, that's important. We've got a plus with the location because people will stumble on us.''
   But to keep people from just passing by, the renovations were needed, he said.
   Bright and Dykemas Architects Inc. of Corpus Christi handled the designs and Southwest Construction Management of Houston handled the work. They transformed the center with a new, bright blue mansard tile roof that was placed over what had been a flat wall. New lighting in the parking lot and under the awnings made the center a bit more visible. And a new white stucco look replaced a drab concrete exterior.
   Peter Piper general manager Ordoñez said the new look seems to be helping business. It's better than during the construction period, when the restaurant went a couple of months without a sign, said.
   "I saw it before and the way it is now,'' he said. "It's 100 percent improvement.''


Contact business writer Naomi Snyder at 886-4316 or snydern@caller.com

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