These buildings aren't technically "new," per se, because I haven't gotten around to talking about this the past, uh, few years. But they were new back then -- trust me!
The "new" I'm talking about are the new buildings that I saw a few (OK, maybe several) years ago that were cropping up. First was a Walgreen's, a brand new one of which was built on a highway kind of close to us. I didn't think this highway was a burgeoning area for business. Nonetheless it was very jarring, in a positive way, to see this beautiful (or at least new) edifice cropping up in a place where nothing new would grow.
But then it was gone. Poof! I think I may have seen a closing sign, but maybe a year after all this foofooraw over it opening, it closed up shop. Seriously, they tore down the signage not too long after they shut 'er down.
Don't know why, but something else happened that might explain a part of this situation. I think that a little after that Walgreen's opened, a brand-new CVS opened further down the highway. Except that, after the Walgreen's closed, the CVS magically converted to a Walgreen's. Or at least I think that's what happened; looking at it nowadays, the architecture of the building looks like that of a CVS, but it's a Walgreen's. So I'm guessing that shortly after Walgreen's built and opened a store and CVS opened their store, Walgreen's agreed to take over the CVS and abandon their old place. So the question then becomes why did CVS build up a building and then leave.
The other building I'm talking about is a Shell gas station somewhat close to me also, north of the closest mall from home. There was a lot of hoopla surrounding its grand opening, as I recall; we got fliers through the mail with coupons, so I made a visit or two. If it's the gas station I remember, it was, as far as gas stations go, very well-appointed and even opulent. It was big, it had a huge bakery case, it may have even had a sushi bar. (OK, it didn't have a sushi bar. But it could have sold sushi.) I also remember that its parking lot had a spot with an electrical charge station, which I thought was very progressive, since this business' main product is gasoline.
But then it was gone, too. Poof! I was driving home from working out and I saw it totally abandoned as well. Don't know why. Didn't think it was losing business. Did Shell decide it was so bad of a location that it cut its losses? If that's the case, though, then why in the heck did it build a brand-new building from scratch? Kind of like with CVS, they poured all this money into creating a spanking new edifice only to pull up stakes and leave. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
With it being torn down to its brick shell, graffiti artists have tagged it in the several years since it died. Sad, and it might attract worse crime if that isn't cleaned up (although hopefully it already has). But I can't think it makes good business sense to create something entirely new and then just give up within, like, a year of its opening. Don't know if it's internal business plans or external economic pressures, but really, I can't think of a logical excuse for that. It's extremely strange to me.
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