almost open for business
January 22, 2008
ANN ARBOR, FAR WEST SIDE. My inside source says that the Plum Market will be opening on February 7. What a fine birthday present! The signs just went up in the last couple days. They look great; it’s a terrific new look for Maple Village. Not real happy about the blinding parking lot lights, though. I’m surprised the city let them put up so many lights – it’s well over the line from safety into light pollution. Pretty sucky. But looking forward to a grocery store being close.
Ahmo’s also looks like it’s on the verge of opening. There are menus up on the wall, chairs and so on in place, and there was a big Sysco truck delivering whatever it is that Sysco delivers. My other inside source says they have great grilled cheese. I’m looking forward to another potential quick dinner take-out spot. That’ll make a nice threesome: Panda House, Little Porky’s and Ahmo’s.
Plum Market looked pretty open today (Feb 6). A mystery?
There have been mysterious notes from the AATA about how the (new?) owners of maple village don’t want a bus stop in their midst, so the pickup and dropoff spots have been moved out of their parking lot. Do you know more about that?
http://www.theride.org/MapleVillageBusStop.asp
Plum should do really well in that spot.
I don’t know what the shopping center owners think about bus stops, but I do know they *don’t* care about light pollution and energy conservation. Their new parking lot lights are horrifically bright. We live several blocks away and they light up the sky so much (woo, aiming light into the sky is really good for increasing security – if your suspected thieves are aliens, anyway) that the blinds we have in our bedroom are no longer enough to create darkness. It’s completely ridiculous. Not to mention hugely un-green and energy-wasting.
As for the bus stops, that’s completely ridiculous, too. Now people have to stand out on the road, there are no shelters, and when the bus is early and needs to wait, it blocks Maple Road. Nice move, shopping center owners. The new Plum Market is nice enough so far, but I could just throttle whoever owns the center itself.
Ok, a quick Google search turns up that the owner of record is CENTRO NP HOLDINGS 1 SPE, which seems to be some kind of LLC based in New York. (See the SEC filing)
They seem to own lots of shopping centers. Here’s how they present Maple Village.
I think I will write them a letter to ask which kinds of aliens they’re trying to attract (or hide by making the night sky completely lit up) with their ridiculous parking lot lights.