Farewell Winrock Center (Good or Bad?)
by Samir Kemeny Business Posted on: 07/03/05 Winrock Mall @ Louisiana & I-40 Thanks to local blogger Eileen for the image!
A question for you: Have you been to the Winrock Center lately?
Unless you're like me and live walking distance from New Mexico's third largest indoor mall, you're answer is probably "no"...or maybe "does Macaroni Grill count?"
Winrock Center is currently living its last days. With the exception of a few chain stores, and a small amount of local businesses; the mall that was is now a ghost town. And soon, what was once a bustling shopping location, with what I feel has one of the most unique architectural designs in the city, will cease to exist.
I knew something was wrong when the MVD left...
So where did the stores go? What happened to the shoppers? Hell, what happened?
For the past several years, PruWinrock LLC, the owners of Winrock Center, have been allowing leases with resident businesses to expire. This, of course, led to the max exodus of shoppers. And while many, like yours truly, believed this was to sell the Winrock Center property. That isn't the case.
I didn't believe it until I read a few articles on the subject, but the owners allowed said leases to expire so the Winrock Center can be remodeled. Actually, remodeled is a huge understatement. The Winrock Center is going away, and the Winrock Market Center is coming.
The new venue does sound pretty cool. It will include a hotel, a multi-screen theater (better than the current one, I hope), a place to "gather for a picnic" (Is that a park or grass in the parking lot?), and many other features. It appears that the developers have great plans for Albuquerque's newest shopping center, or "lifestyle venue," whatever they're calling it...
Now here's where it gets interesting, and where the developers start to lose me. The new Winrock Market Center is going to include apartments, and a lot of them. That quite possibly means, depending on the stores available, a resident of Winrock's apartments could live and work in one location. They would rarely need to leave the Louisiana and I-40 area. And while you'd save hundreds of dollars a year on gasoline, I'm not sure this is a good thing.
The idea of creating places where people can live and work in one small area is not new. Some of them even pass as "suburbs." But does this type of community really fit into Albuquerque's mold? Is it creating a society for people to become more exclusive? Or am I just tripping and this is just Albuquerque taking a step into the future?
Personally, I think the Winrock Market Center should be built as planned, without the apartments. There are plenty of quality apartment complexes on Pennsylvania Ave. that have units available, and the new venue should help their business, not hurt it.