Back to basics: MetroCenter emerges from bankruptcy with sharper focus. (MetroCenter Properties) (Real Estate)

Back to Basics

MetroCenter Emerges from Bankruptcy with Sharper Focus

Bankruptcy is never pleasant. But it sure has a way of putting things into perspective.

For MetroCenter Properties, emerging from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy last March not only granted new life, it also resulted in a sharper focus, a return to basics, according to Randall Parham, the firm's vice president.

"MetroCenter is primarily a land-sale company. It always has been and will continue to be. What got MetroCenter into financial trouble was straying away from its primary business. What hurt us was a good idea executed poorly," explains Parham.

That "good idea" he refers to is, of course, Fountain Square, the much-beleaguered retail development which has never found its place in the local market. "We spent too much money to build Fountain Square, and the return was never sufficient to handle the debt service it created."

As envisioned by its original developer, MetroCenter was to be the planned development of the future. Sitting on 850 flat acres of land, with proximity to downtown and interstate access, the original master plan called for a true mixed development, incorporating office, showroom, distribution/warehouse, retail and residential components.