The Joplin (Mo.) Globe reports an upswing in developer interest in Seventh Street, a prominent alignment of historic Route 66.
In the past three years, the city has issued 38 commercial building permits for work on Seventh Street — for a total of more than $6 million in new construction and renovation of existing structures. […]
Sandra Robertson, owner of the new business Three Turtles: An Eclectic Marketplace, chose to start her venture on Seventh Street, just east of Maiden Lane, because she saw the location’s potential.
“It really was taking a chance,” Robertson said. “This building looked pretty rough, but it was a Route 66 building with good bones.”
The building that houses Three Turtles was constructed in the 1940s. During Seventh Street’s glory years, it served as a gas station, a barbershop, a liquor store, a used furniture shop and a used appliance store. Regardless of how the building looked when she bought it, Robertson said all she had to do was stand in the doorway and count the number of cars that passed by each hour to remind herself why it was worth a shot.
I admit I’m a little startled that developers were slow to see the potential of Seventh Street in Joplin. I guess entrepreneurs and corporate bigwigs are so obsessed with locating right on top of interstate highways, they tended to overlook main arteries like Seventh. It’s as short-sighted as ignoring Central Avenue in Albuquerque or Foothill Boulevard in the Los Angeles area.