Photo courtesy of Kim Edge.
We saw the construction happening at Lakewood Shopping Center last week and looked into it. When we did, we found out that Sweetgreen had applied for a certificate of occupancy at the former Dixie House, Sugarbacon Proper Kitchen and Kozy Kitchen space.
Neighbors familiar with the area know there’s a clock on that building, located at 6400 Gaston Ave.
It looks like construction crews are taking the clock down. But neighbor Stephanie Muckleroy, whose office is located at Lakewood Shopping Center, told us it’s just temporary while the building is renovated.
We reached out to Michael Nagy, a leasing agent at the shopping center, to verify.
“It looks like they are removing the clock,” we wrote in an email to Nagy. “Is that what’s happening?”
Radio silence from Nagy so far, but we’ll update if we receive a response.
We also called Rue, the real estate company that works with Sweetgreen, and we are waiting to hear from them, too.
In the past 10 years, the clock has been taken down twice. First, it was removed in 2013. Lincoln Property Co., which owned the shopping center at the time, was repairing it, and it wasn’t installed again for about a year and a half.
Then at the end of 2016, Sugarbacon’s owners added new neon backing, which only took about a month.
Photography by Danny Fulgencio.
When Sugarbacon decided to repair the clock, its owners contacted Ron Siebler, a residential remodeler who won five Preservation Achievement Awards in 2016 for his work to protect history.
He told us in 2017 that he thought the clock was most likely installed in 1984, when Corrigan Properties, one of three original developers of the shopping center, renovated the property, including the stucco facade and clay tile roofing.
Siebler also contacted the family that owned Sound Warehouse, which occupied the space before Dixie House moved in. Siebler said a family spokesperson didn’t remember a clock on their building, supporting his hypothesis about the clock’s original installation year.
Siebler told us in 2017 that he contacted the clock’s manufacturer to learn more about the original installation, and he found an old photo showing that the neon should be red. Sugarbacon paid for the restoration — an $8,000 project — and Siebler did the work at his shop in Lake Highlands.
We’ll keep watching progress and let you know when we hear from any of the principals about the clock’s future.
