Construction is under way on a redundant retail center at the corner of University Drive and Calhoun Road. The proposed businesses? A textbook store, a Subway restaurant, a Maui Wowi coffee and smoothie shop and a Pizza Hut.
For those college students who choose to eat something other than a sandwich or pizza, the new center is less than exciting. Subway can be found in three different locations around UH, two of which are at the University Center and the Law Center. Students can get their fill of Pizza Hut in the University Center Satellite or on Calhoun Road, and as for textbook stores, we already have three overpriced locations to choose from.
With continuous complaints from students about the lack of dining options on and near campus, one would hope that the company negotiating leases for the new retail center would pay more attention to its demographics and customers’ needs. Unfortunately, that is not the case. While one could say students will have the last laugh when the center suffers from poor business, in the bigger picture, students suffer more.
What really need to be in place are healthier and more diverse dining options or stores that offer more than books that can already be found on campus. Perhaps Lovett Commercial, the company behind this stroke of genius, should pay more attention to the businesses that already exist – in some cases less than a block away – from those they will be leasing.
It seems that the company is more interested in leasing the property to whoever offers to pay first and is less interested in how well these businesses will do in such a ridiculous location. Diverse options would fare much better in such a high-traffic area, catching the attention of students who are already fed up with seeing the same stores and restaurants on campus.
Students who live on campus without cars could benefit greatly from a shopping center that sells a variety of food, clothing or household supplies.
Lovett Commercial seems to be setting itself – and its customers – up for disappointment, and that is no way to run a business.
