by Danila Crespin
Daily Lobo
Students will have another coffee shop and pizza place to choose from at the beginning of the summer.
Satellite Coffee and Red Brick Pizza are under construction at the corner of Central Avenue and Harvard Drive. They are scheduled to open in June.
"The district has made renovations to better serve the taste and budget of the University area," said Robin Biller, marketing director of EB Enterprise, one of the construction companies involved in the project.
The building has been under development for two years.
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Student Paul Swegel buys coffee at Winning Coffee Co., a coffee shop across the street. He said he doesn't look forward to Satellite opening.
"I think it's stupid," he said. "Satellite gets enough business already."
But student Nicole Duke said she's happy about it.
"I'm really excited that Satellite coffee house is opening because it's near The Center for the Arts, and that's where I'm at in the morning," Duke said.
There have been other changes in the area, including the relocation of ECS Copy Center to the corner of Silver Avenue and Yale Boulevard. Rex's Hamburgers is closing.
Abe Silva, owner of Pepperjack Monterey's, set out to open a restaurant by the time he was 30, and with the restaurant's opening on Feb. 10, his goal was met. His restaurant replaced Rex's Hamburgers.
"I wanted to open it here so I could deal with UNM," he said. "I kept my prices low to help out UNM students. It's not anything fancy as far as price, but I wanted to make a nice atmosphere."
After a year of remodeling, Schlotsky's reopened one door down Harvard from its previous location.
Theresa Roy, an employee at Schlotsky's, said the last year of renovations took business away from the deli.
"People thought we were closed since there was so much going on," she said. "It's a good thing that we moved though. We get more business now than we used to, now that the renovation isn't slowing us down."
A final contractor is needed to complete the pizza shop.
Biller said the restaurants will make a tremendous difference in the area.
"We are putting out some quality restaurants that are affordable," she said.
