{"id":26567,"date":"2017-11-30T01:11:45","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T01:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26567"},"modified":"2017-11-30T01:11:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-30T01:11:45","slug":"build-the-ballpark-the-stores-will-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26567","title":{"rendered":"Build the ballpark, the stores will come"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

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

I got a glimpse of a headline on Amarillo.com that reveals how the retail space in the newly built parking garage on Buchanan Street in downtown Amarillo likely will remain empty for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t read the whole story because the pay wall popped up; since I don’t subscribe to the Amarillo Globe-News, I couldn’t read it.<\/p>\n

The retail spots are going to remain empty until the ballpark gets closer to completion, which is about all I could see of the story.<\/p>\n

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

I am reminded of the line from “A Field of Dreams,” where the Kevin Costner character is told, “If you build it, they will come.”<\/p>\n

So it well could be when they break ground on the multipurpose event venue, aka The Ballpark. The MPEV is taking shape as a sort of “field of dreams” for city, business and civic leaders who consider the project to be the gateway to a brighter future for Amarillo.<\/p>\n

I happen to agree with that view.<\/p>\n

Thus, it doesn’t worry me in the least that the garage’s ground floor row of retail space will remain empty for the time being. It makes sense.<\/p>\n

Why install an establishment that won’t reap the reward until after the MPEV is open for business and attracting crowds into the downtown business\/entertainment district?<\/p>\n

If that’s the prevailing theory, then it makes perfect sense to yours truly.<\/p>\n

I remain optimistic — and you can remove the “cautiously”<\/em> qualifier from that description — about the future of the MPEV and its impact on Amarillo.<\/p>\n

The Local Government Corp. has negotiated a deal to bring a AA minor-league baseball franchise to the city. They’ll break ground soon on the MPEV. It will open no later than April 2019, just in time for some hardball to be played.<\/p>\n

The MPEV will be built. I remain quite confident that the retailers will come.<\/p>\n\n

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

I got a glimpse of a headline on Amarillo.com that reveals how the retail space in the newly built parking garage on Buchanan Street in downtown Amarillo likely will remain empty for the foreseeable future. I couldn’t read the whole story because the pay wall popped up; since I don’t subscribe to the Amarillo Globe-News, … Continue reading Build the ballpark, the stores will come<\/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":[3,9,17],"tags":[179,7442,1436,5638,3153],"class_list":["post-26567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment-news","category-local-news","category-sports-news","tag-agn-media","tag-amarillo-com","tag-downtown-amarillo","tag-lgc","tag-mpev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26567","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=26567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26569,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26567\/revisions\/26569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}