07/05/2026
It’s just come to my attention that a nice brick apartment building on Stadium Drive by the old Comfort Inn was purchased by the Greenleaf company ( Bill Johnson) as part of their acquisition of all the properties from there East to the Orrin B Hayes property. I’m concerned that they may also have acquired the old Boogie Records ( former Oakland Pharmacy building). What the plans for this massive site is still not public but needless to say demolition will be involved. Both the apartment building and Boogie Records buildings deserve to be redeveloped as does the house on Academy and the original Orrin B Hayes building. Big money is involved in this redevelopment so it could be really, really Good” or really, really “ Bad”. Notre Dame school of Architecture did a design Charrette and drew up plans that showed this site redeveloped with architecturally attractive, historically sensitive new buildings. This is a “ Gateway “ to our City and it should be treated as such with buildings that will stand the test of time and look as good in 50 years as they would today and not be a trendy , cheap,modernist design that will look dated the day it is built. Let’s hope that the parties involved in this development as well as that across the street by Saint Augustines have the sensitivity and creativity to do something that the Community can be proud of.
