Is a 'Tornado Corner' Shopping Center in the Plans? 

Tornado Corner in Sunset Hills at East Watson Road and Lindbergh Boulevard is looking more and more like a bulldozed construction zone.

The condemned houses have been torn down and only the foundations remain of a few others destroyed New Year's Eve Day in 150 mph winds.

Trees were ripped out or snapped off in the twister, so there is little, if any, vegetation remaining. It's a fairly busy (read noisy) intersection, stocked with a stoplight, city police station, and five-story office building.

Empty lots at Court Drive and Lindbergh Boulevard are part of the mix.

A former SBI medical building that set off a second emergency a day or two after the tornado with a potential explosion, still sits there crumbling from storm damage. It's owned by a doctor.

But at last, the crumbling houses were torn down in April, and the sites emptied of debris. It's residential, so it might be that re-zoning by the city would be necessary to rebuild anything but housing.

A resident of Court Drive said at an April 26 public meeting that one person owns a majority of the damaged buildings there, and was negotiating with buyers. 

So who thinks it would be a good commercial site? Who wants to build new housing there? Post some comments here and give Sunset Hills's movers and shakers your ideas.

As far as Patch knows, those properties are still in private hands, but could be sold any day to anyone. If you know differently, add a comment to update this.

How do you like the after THEN and NOW  photos? Do you remember it before the tornado, or was it blur of trees hiding some buildings, to you?