![]() Remembering the storm: Guitar Center employee recounts when the storm hitĪssessing the damage: Tornado update: Businesses assessing damageīut in about a year's time, a CareerSource Escarosa will move into that space. The labor and workforce development board provides employment and training resources for job seekers and employers in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. ![]() Months after the storms, ITT Technical Institute went bankrupt and abruptly shut down, leaving a 19,250-square-foot hole in the heart of the plaza. That caused significant difference to what we call 'Eastgate Main,' that left-side building."Įight days later, the second tornado struck in the opposite direction and ripped the roof off of the Ninth Avenue Winn Dixie. "The tornadoes themselves actually hit the center in like an 'X' shape, so the first one came through and ripped off the roof of the Guitar Center all the way down to ( Pensacola Fitness) down there. 23, it was unprecedented," Montalvo said Wednesday. Steven Montalvo, Validus director of real estate, was with the company in 2016 when the tornadoes forced the plaza's occupancy to dip from about 80% to 85% down to about 50%. Validus Group Properties owns the buildings that make up the 184,729-square-foot retail shopping center that includes the new Guitar Center. "We actually encourage all parents to come sit in on our lesson."īJ's coming to town: Pensacola BJ's Wholesale Club development project estimates early 2020 completion dateįive Below on the way: Five Below five-dollar discount store coming to Pensacola "So any parent that's uncomfortable can see what's going on at any minute," Porter said. New Guitar Center mandates require instructors to have clean backgrounds and college degrees, Porter said, and at least one new security measure includes cameras in every lesson room. Kind of the fun of becoming a musician, rather than just that place where the pros go." We want everybody to come experience just what music is as a whole. "We do lessons, rentals and repairs as services in the building now. "It used to be people looked at Guitar Center as pros went there and that was kind of it," said store manager Kenny Porter. The brand new Pensacola Guitar Center will incorporate piano, voice and guitar lesson programs for beginners, as well as rental services for equipment like public address systems. The store, which was previously open from 2005 to 2016, had to be gutted and rebuilt from the inside out when the plaza was ravaged by successive tornadoes in February 2016.ĭuring its more than three-year hiatus, Guitar Center has undergone company-wide shifts, both in its interior layout and its business focus. The Eastgate Plaza shopping center on North Ninth Avenue will take a huge step toward revitalization today when a Guitar Center music store officially reopens there at its original address at 6927 N. View Gallery: Photos: Pensacola Guitar Center set to reopen in East Gate Plaza
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