T-Mobile moves to off campus location

Company looks to service larger Lawrence community with Iowa Street store

By Patricia Pollet

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The T-Mobile store on Level 3 of the Kansas Union will close shop this month. The company is looking at opening another location more capable of servicing the entire Lawrence community.

T-Mobile posted a sign in the Union location informing customers that the store is closing Sept. 22 and that it has revised the remaining business hours. T-Mobile customers can still pay their bills or receive services by mail, phone, online or at one of the Simply Wireless locations.

Sean Finn, marketing manager for T-Mobile in Kansas City, said he is looking into leasing a space between 23rd and 31st streets on Iowa Street for its new location.

“We want to relocate on the street to provide greater service to Lawrence,” Finn said. “It also costs too much (at the union).”

Finn did not release the cost of the monthly lease.

Finn said the union was not the prime location the company wanted a few years ago, and for the company to serve Lawrence as a whole, it was ideal to move to a more convenient location for the population.

“The problem with Lawrence is finding a really good real estate location,” Finn said.

T-Mobile signed a renewal contract in February 2007 and the store was to remain in the Union until January 2008. T-Mobile gave a notice to the Union that stated it would remain until Sept. 30. The notice honored the contract’s 60-day clause that provides businesses a way to leave without penalty by providing notice.

“We are pulling out earlier (than the notice date) because the employees are needed at other locations,” said Finn.

The store has been in the Union since February 2003. Pat Beard, the Union’s director of building services, said observations would indicate a good customer base for T-Mobile. The original contract’s length of time was three years with two additional one-year contracts. T-Mobile is opting out of the first of the one-year extensions.

“They were good clients,” Beard said. “We’re sorry to see them go.”

Beard said the store’s closing affects the Union’s budget, but only on a short-term basis. The only effect on the Union is the lack of lease money until another business replaces T-Mobile. A discussion of ideas with the KU Memorial Corp. Board of Directors on Aug. 25 was the first step to find a new business to lease the space. Beard said there are several business options to fill the empty space, including an optical store, computer game center, entertainment arcade, CD/DVD sales, floral shop and a tanning salon. Beard said the board had no objections to sending out requests for proposals to these businesses. After sending out the requests, filling the empty space is a matter of waiting for the return of the proposals.

“We have been fortunate of not having much turnover,” Beard said. “Most (businesses) stay for a long period of time. Most of the time, spaces are quickly filled.”

Beard said the Union would probably not lease an additional cellular businesses in the future with the opening of the Sprint store located within the Union’s KU bookstore on Level 2. Beard said the Union is the “franchisee” of this Sprint location.

“It (re-leasing to T-Mobile) is probably not an option because we don’t want to compete with ourselves,” Beard said.

— Edited by Jeff Briscoe

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