What was once considered a Blackhawk community staple featuring a 250,000 square foot shopping center, hasn’t seen a customer for as long as anyone can remember.
As noticed on comments all over the local web, Danville residents have been noticing the deterioration of Blackhawk Plaza since as early as 2013. Somehow, the Plaza has managed to stay afloat, but recent events could be the final nail in the coffin. “No one goes there anymore,” said Alexander Gu, a freshman who is familiar with the area.
Most recently, Blackhawk Plaza is facing foreclosure, which is when a lender, in this case Preferred Bank, seizes and sells one’s property. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s been taking a look at Blackhawk Plaza. For years, residents have been complaining that the prices at Draeger’s market are too high, and the variety in the shops are disappointing. Many shops in the plaza come and go in record time. Years ago, Blackhawk Plaza used to have a shop called FJ’s Blackhawk Market, which left and was replaced by Saks Fifth Avenue, followed by Gottschalks, and finally Draegers Market, which was one of the main attractions of Blackhawk Plaza before it too left due to the lack of customers.
The departure of Draeger’s Market was the last straw for many of the shops in the Plaza. A group of shop owners, as well as the Blackhawk Automotive and Cultural Museum, have filed a lawsuit against the Ramanujan group, who owns Blackhawk Plaza. The shops claim that the Ramanujan Group is not properly maintaining the plaza, which is evident for anyone who has recently visited the area. The water features are infested with moss, clouds of flies hang over the pathways, signs are old and tattered, and bird poop seems to be everywhere. Any passerby would think the plaza is closed.
But Blackhawk Plaza wasn’t always this way. It used to be described as a high-end shopping center with dazzling waterworks and open air design. Families used to go there all the time to feed ducks and admire the ambiance. Now, the main issue lies in the fact that so many of the shops in Blackhawk Plaza are too expensive to compete with the much more affordable options across the street. In an increasingly expensive world, one would be hard pressed to find someone who is willing to spend $30 for groceries versus $20 especially when both stores are about one minute apart. “There’s not much to do there,” said Vibhav Ayilavarapu, a freshman who has visited the area.
The most prevalent concern is that consumers feel that the Plaza doesn’t have many shops that anybody would want to go to. There are a few spas, an eyebrow center, restaurants, and a museum, but none are well known or good enough to get Blackhawk Plaza to thrive. Over the years, the Ramanujan group hasn’t seemed to be trying to get any real crowd bringers to the Plaza. The closest they’ve gotten so far was to get a company called Apple Cinemas to take up the Century Theatres building, but even they backed off when they saw the state of Blackhawk Plaza.
Blackhawk Plaza sits in prime real estate. Many students are dropped off by the Traffix bus here, and because the Plaza is surrounded by houses on all sides, children and adults alike would love to spend their evenings at Blackhawk Plaza. However, the owners of the Plaza have proven that they are unable to break into the veritable treasure trove of customers they have there, and if they don’t figure it out soon, their closure is inevitable.
