Pretty soon Deery will move to their new dealership out there by the river and the old Benson Motors will be empty. And that K-Mart is such a waste of decent commercial space. I wish they would move out and put in something of value.
Ames considering Menards and dinosaur museum
- Thread starter Buster28
- Start date
Menard's is not about customer service or helping people find what they want in the gigantic cavernous box building. Its lower prices and low-market materials for contractors. They will seriously chase you down by car and wrestle you to the ground if you steal a pencil from their lumber yard, no joke.
Its funny. Growing up in central Iowa, so many cities look drastically different than they did in the 80s and 90s (Ankeny, Altoona, Waukee). And then there is Ames...
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Yes I do. I spent/spend a significant amount of money in Ames and I will talk as a please. Anything with dinosaurs in Ames is dumb.
I should have clarrified, inside service is ok, its the lumberyard. When I was doing some things to my house, I went several times to Menards and did not see one employee outside.
You wouldn't know it by surveying shoppers because I don't think anyone goes there. But they have a huge retail store. Lots of positives... Good traffic flow on weekends because of the movie theater. Along major road in Ames. Close to Hwy 30. Easy access via 16th.
Surely there is something that could make better use of that space. Instead, we have K-Mart.
you want more crappy strip malls? those nasty apts on the west side not doing it for you?
Something like this...absolutely. Have shopping/restaurants below and nice apartment/condo living
Probably the same guy that sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook
I remember when I first started attending ISU the proposed mall was the hot debate. After completing my undergraduate and graduate degree and left town they were still debating the new mall. I'm assuming that's long dead now.
What Coralville has done to that empty lot off interstate 80, was nicely done. Nice Marriott, restaurants, Von Maur, coffee shop and condo living.
Something like this...absolutely. Have shopping/restaurants below and nice apartment/condo living
everybody wants that but they keep building this. welcome to ames.
I agree that is a terrible idea. Those strip malls seem to attract crappy nail/salon, chinese buffet,etc... There is a good architectural design school next door, might want to use of those grads to help develop some of these locations.
no, that might cost more money. it's funny because the consistently best rated neighborhoods in america were all built before urban planning existed in the way it does today. we want nice but end up with this.
In the city documents it says they will work with Iowa State, Iowa, KU, and some institution in Pennsylvania to create the robotic life-size dinosaurs and other aspects of the museum. This could really jump start growth in the SE entryway area of town. I'm not all that concerned about the flood impacts, like the Deery project they will have to meet a no-rise as determined by the DNR. If you look at the site layout you can see the area in the floodway is will be dug out for a retention pond and will be much lower elevation than the rest of the site. Of course adding impervious pavement will increase run-off which isn't good, however farmland and farming practices (ex: not planting cover-crops, tiling, etc) is a bigger issue in terms of increased runoff in Iowa imo.
document detailing the project: http://www.cityofames.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=15918
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