A retail center that began construction this semester may offer additional food and textbook services to the campus community as early as late spring, officials said.
The two-story, 11,000 square foot structure is adjacent to parking Lot 20A and the Catholic Newman Center on the corner of University Drive and Calhoun Road.
Lovett Commercial, the real estate company that owns the property, is negotiating lease agreements with three other businesses, including a bookstore and two restaurant franchises for the five commercial spaces. Coffee and smoothie franchise Maui Wowi is the only business that has leased a part of the property, Dire said.
"We have a contract with Maui Wowi, and we’re negotiating with Subway, Pizza Hut and a college textbook store," Erin Dire, leasing associate at Lovett Commercial, said.
Students and staff said they have mixed feelings about the potential dining and shopping options, as well as the use of the property.
"It’s like the same thing over and over," exercise science and nutrition senior Krystle Bowman. "I’m not sure how well they’re going to do."
Bowman said the same chains or types of businesses are already open close by on campus, including the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, where she works.
"Maui Wowi – that’s kind of competing with Smoothie King, which we have in here, and Starbucks, which has two or three other places on campus," Bowman said. "And then Subway, there’s one literally just a block up."
Current Subway restaurant locations on or near campus include the University Center, the Law Center and the corner of Wheeler Avenue and Scott Street.
College bookstores serving the area include UH Bookstore in the University Center, the College Store on Elgin Avenue and Scott and the new Beat the Bookstore on Scott Street, which opened Nov. 1.
Dire said that she has been negotiating with a bookstore that has not named the business yet.
"I guess it would be helpful because there’d be less lines when school starts," University Studies sophomore Carlos Aponte said.
He and other students said the textbook market competition’s effect on prices and crowding is what matters.
"If they’re all mostly the same prices, then there’s no use for them," biology sophomore Maria Ochoa said.
Dire said the Pizza Hut is most likely a relocation from the location approximately one block further down Calhoun Road, but could not confirm it. Representatives of the restaurant and Yum! Brands, Inc., which owns Pizza Hut, could not comment by the date of print.
The retail center, built by Higbie Builders, isn’t the only project undergoing construction. The Calhoun Lofts housing facility is under construction across the street, next to Melcher Hall, and construction of the East Parking Garage is set to begin May 2008 in Lot 21, approximately one block north on Calhoun Road.
Ochoa said she wished a more retail stores were available for students who don’t have their own transportation.
"Maybe they could add a shopping center for people who live on campus," she said. "Like clothes and stuff, or a small grocery store."
Dire said the construction will likely be ready for turnover to tenants in mid December, and there is still one vacancy.
"There is a 2,000 square ft. space remaining on the end-cap of the building that fronts on University," she said.
