Shoppers are more likely to stop in at Friendly Shopping Center or Wendover Avenue, where new places to shop and dine seem to spring up on a daily basis. The parking is more convenient and the big-box stores offer a wider selection of merchandise.
The grand old days of big department stores are gone, but Downtown is not totally without signs of rejuvenation. Renovation of the Kress Building on South Elm Street is currently under way and could represent an example of what much of downtown could become.
The 70-year-old, former five-and-dime store currently houses Bouvier Kelly public relations/advertising agency and J. Hyatt Hammond, the architectural firm that redesigned the structure. The five-story building is being transformed for office, retail and residential use, with much of its Art Deco design fully restored.
John Lomax, the general contractor, is planning to convert the top floor into his own penthouse apartment. The first floor will be developed as retail and possibly a restaurant. Just down the block from the Kress Building work is under way on TriadStage, a new theater that will complement the Carolina Theater and the Greensboro Cultural Center. Further down the block is the old Woolworth, another five-and-dimer, that is slated to house a civil rights museum.
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