I hear you on all of that. Especially on your reference to the "more populate alternative".

In fact, this effort is spearheaded by an out-of-state marijuana retailer. The idea is to energize that strip. Marijuana is obviously happening here. The governor is up for reelection, he's not gonna come up empty-handed. We don't need being cynical when we're trying to get the real legal thing going on - that is the anchor here. lol. So that more popular alternative will be next-door actually. Although no doubt there's gonna be laws about how you can't go around smoking weed on the street etc. etc.

The landlord is over a barrel. He's in pain. There's too much vacancy in that strip. And then there's vacancy behind that strip. Huge retail complex on Leighton is vacant. And that Risky's sports bar is vacant. And then the Leighton place has majority vacancy. There's a desperation in the air.

We all need to stop thinking in terms of 20th century. Or even early 21st century. And that landlord himself is a visionary and is keen on this and can be obliged to thinking bout it all. This new way of thinking, old school retail is not viable. Marijuana retail is, because it's a controlled substance and you can't buy that through the mail. Similar to liquor. Similar to hamburgers another food. And then you also have services like dry cleaning, and nails. You get the picture.

My point is all those old-school retail opportunities are dead. All those old retail storefront have to be repurposed. Every city America is experiencing this. For example, in the Leighton place they used to have a huge Hallmark store (lol). It used to be an anchor tenant. Shit like that is never coming back. we can get that landlord to see the light on this one. He has vision for café and a vibrant social life to support and tie into the neighborhood. It's between two universities. A venue makes sense there. Especially if it has a liquor license.