{"id":23030,"date":"2017-07-12T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T00:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=23030"},"modified":"2017-07-12T00:00:26","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T00:00:26","slug":"wt-making-the-turn-in-downtown-amarillo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=23030","title":{"rendered":"WT making the turn in downtown Amarillo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I surely understand that much of the attention focusing on downtown Amarillo’s revival centers on that new ballpark\/multipurpose event venue.<\/p>\n

It’s a big deal, to be clear. They’re going to start busting up concrete in a few months and by April 2018, the MPEV will be open for business as the city welcomes the AA minor-league baseball franchise set to play hardball at the venue.<\/p>\n

Oh, but wait!<\/em> Something else really big is coming along in the city’s downtown district. It’s at the corner of Eight Avenue and Tyler Street. West Texas A&M University is finishing up Phase One of its new Amarillo Center.<\/p>\n

WT purchased the old Commerce Building a couple years ago. Then Texas A&M University System regents allocated money to gut the old structure and turn it into a downtown campus.<\/p>\n

I’ll be honest: When I first heard about WT moving its Amarillo classrooms from the Chase Tower to the Commerce Building, I envisioned a fairly quick and simple turnaround. WT would tear the guts out of the building, add some new rooms, reconfigure the floor plan a bit, hook up the electronics and then open the doors for college students.<\/p>\n

Oh, no. It’s a lot more complicated than that.<\/p>\n

WT has essentially rebuilt the structure. Yes, it’s the same framework. The exterior, shall we say, bears zero resemblance to the Commerce Building. Phase Two construction is going to commence soon.<\/p>\n

Read about it here.<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a beautiful addition to the downtown district’s physical appearance.<\/p>\n

Is it a totally positive development that lacks any downside? Not exactly.<\/p>\n

You see, WT is going to vacate several floors at the 31-story Chase Tower, which already has seen a large portion of its building go dark with Excel Energy’s relocation into a new office structure on Buchanan Street. Roughly half of the Chase Tower will be vacant when WT starts classes at its Amarillo Center.<\/p>\n

That ain’t good, man.<\/p>\n

I did receive assurances, though, from Aaron Emerson, a partner in Gaut Whittenberg Emerson commercial real estate agents that they are shopping the Chase Tower aggressively for new tenants; moreover, Emerson told me he has great confidence that the building will be reoccupied.<\/p>\n

I’ll hope for the best on that matter.<\/p>\n

As for the new WT downtown Amarillo campus, I welcome the university’s increased profile in the city’s central business district.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I surely understand that much of the attention focusing on downtown Amarillo’s revival centers on that new ballpark\/multipurpose event venue. It’s a big deal, to be clear. They’re going to start busting up concrete in a few months and by April 2018, the MPEV will be open for business as the city welcomes the AA … Continue reading WT making the turn in downtown Amarillo<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6251,9],"tags":[1436,3153,5312],"class_list":["post-23030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-news","category-education-news","category-local-news","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-mpev","tag-wtamu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23030"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23032,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23030\/revisions\/23032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}