Why it's not a good idea to

[roadman]

name a street after a store until that store is actually in business:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2014/08/26/somerville-false-ikea-way-sign-more/XmrgifUzQ6YAYsp51TVoOK/story.html

Ikea was supposed to be one of the anchor stores for the new Assembly Row project in Somerville, but pulled out about two years ago because the City kept dragging their feet on approvals and permits and th elike.

It's also worth noting that the roadway improvements for this project were completed in under a year, but the new transit station still isn't opened yet.

[1995hoo]

It's not the greatest move even if the store is in business. There's a "Hechinger Drive" a few miles from where I live. Back in the 1970s/1980s there was a Hechinger hardware store at the end of the street, hence the name. The chain went out of business in the 1990s (the space is now an Hispanic grocery store). One could argue, I suppose, that the chain was named for its founder (John Hechinger) and thus the road was named for him, but that's a bit of a stretch.

I'm sure there are plenty of other examples of roads named for businesses that are no longer there or that changed their names (whether due to a takeover or the like).

[Laura]

There is a Ritz Way in Beltsville, MD (just south of where the ICC will intersect US 1) where a Ritz Camera Store used to be.

[TheStranger]

Some NorCal examples that occurred to me:

"Zhone Way" in Oakland, the west part of 66th Avenue past Interstate 880.  The building there that was originally occupied by Zhone Technologies has been vacant for a while.

"Tandy Drive" in the Natomas area of Sacramento, which once led to an Incredible Universe location (a Tandy retail project) that is now Fry's Electronics.

"Cadillac Drive" in Sacramento, in front of a Cadillac dealership that moved a few miles away back in 2012.

[agentsteel53]

it's not a good idea to name a street "Walmart Drive" because it's fucking tacky.

[briantroutman]

As someone who's spent countless hours putting their furniture together, the fact that this IKEA was to be part of Assembly Square gave me a decent laugh.

This happens often with hotels–I can't count the number of times I've seen a run down Days Inn or Quality Inn on "Sheraton Drive"  or "Holiday Lane" . Lets you know what these dumps were in their sunnier days.

[Scott5114]

Businesses are always moving, changing names, merging, and going under. That's why they're a terrible thing to make a toponym after.

This is why I oppose selling facility naming rights to businesses. In the life span of a stadium or arena, it might go through a dozen names as businesses change and contracts expire. An example of that is the Bricktown Ballpark in OKC, which was built as part of the MAPS projects of the late 1990s. It started life as the Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark, which became the SBC Bricktown Ballpark, which became the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark, then the naming rights were sold to the Chickasaw Nation, and it was briefly the Newcastle Bricktown Ballpark (after the casino), which was changed to the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark when it was pointed out that it made no sense for a ballpark not in Newcastle to be named Newcastle.

[Pete from Boston]

As someone who's spent countless hours putting their furniture together, the fact that this IKEA was to be part of Assembly Square gave me a decent laugh.

Assembly Square is the home of a big-box shopping center that was, about three incarnations previous, a Ford assembly plant.  The failure of the Edsel led to its closure.

I posted about the lingering IKEA Way signs a while back, and will repeat here the further confusing point that IKEA Way (now Grand Union Blvd – funny to me because it used to have a Finast warehouse on it) was previously called Assembly Square Drive, but countless maps and addresses still used its even older name Sturtevant Street.

I'm sure they didn't revert to Assembly Square Drive because a) they are trying to rebrand the whole "square" with the shopping complex's name "Assembly Row," and b) Mayor Joe Curtatone likes to leave the impression that everything in Somerville sprung whole and new from his very loin.   

In any case, it's the most overhyped development in a generation, an uninspired recreation of the dull chain-strip Station Landing complex right across the river.

[SidS1045]

Stew Leonard Drive...exit 6A of the New York Thruway in Yonkers.

[Pete from Boston]

Stew Leonard Drive...exit 6A of the New York Thruway in Yonkers.

Did Stew Leonard's close there?

[Roadrunner75]

it's not a good idea to name a street "Walmart Drive" because it's fucking tacky.

Or Walmart's "Always" slogan as shown here:
https://www.google.com/maps?ll=39.978738,-74.765629&spn=0.000004,0.00327&t=m&z=19&layer=c&cbll=39.978701,-74.76601&panoid=HF2SCMEt3MLnqQDDN7p2jg&cbp=12,290.31,,0,2.76

[spooky]

There is a Caldor Road in Framingham, MA.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Caldor+Rd,+Framingham,+MA+01701/@42.300759,-71.4005503,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e3888c00856e1b:0xc23f8e4c691aab43

There is a WalMart there today on the site of a former Caldor store. I recall a Walmart Way street name sign replacing the former Caldor Rd sign, but the GSV doesn't show either sign as of Aug 2013.

The street name is irrelevant anyway, since all businesses along the road have either a Worcester Road (Route 9) or Cochituate Road (Route 30) address.

Then there's the story of two local sports stadiums. The Bruins and Celtics replaced the old Boston Garden with the Shawmut Center in 1995, except Shawmut Bank was bought out by Fleet Bank before the building opened. Signage and the color scheme of the building were changed before either team played a game in the new Fleet Center.

The Patriots replaced the old Foxboro Stadium with CMGI Field in 2002. CMGI went bust along with the entire dot com world, and by the time the Patriots opened their season the stadium was called Gillette Stadium. Foxboro Stadium was actually a pioneer in naming rights - the original name when the stadium opened in 1971 was Schaefer Stadium, named after the beer.

[SteveG1988]

Lumberton NJ has a Wal*Mart on "Always Drive" It is the only store on said drive, and said drive deadends at a field. it has barricades to prevent truck parking on the stub.

[Pete from Boston]

The Patriots replaced the old Foxboro Stadium with CMGI Field in 2002. CMGI went bust along with the entire dot com world, and by the time the Patriots opened their season the stadium was called Gillette Stadium.

My only ticket from that building, from its second event, a USA-Netherland soccer game in 2002, reads "CMGI Field."

Lumberton NJ has a Wal*Mart on "Always Drive" It is the only store on said drive, and said drive deadends at a field. it has barricades to prevent truck parking on the stub.

I thought this was going to be about the town name.  Up here we have countless hamlets and towns still named for defunct companies and their owners (Whitinsville, Talcotville, Fiskdale, Grosvenordale, etc.).   

[roadman]

When the signs for the current Foxboro Stadium first went up, they read "Stadium" with the CMGI logo.  When the name was changed to Gilette Stadium, the logos were changed.  As the "Stadium" text was redundant, it was removed in favor of larger logos.

After the Patriot Place shopping complex was opened, the logos were modificed to include "At Patriot Place" (you can see it if you look very closely at the current signs).

[PHLBOS]

Then there's the story of two local sports stadiums. The Bruins and Celtics replaced the old Boston Garden with the Shawmut Center in 1995, except Shawmut Bank was bought out by Fleet Bank before the building opened. Signage and the color scheme of the building were changed before either team played a game in the new Fleet Center.

Isn't it now called the TD (Bank) Garden?

A similar thing happened in South Philadelphia.  In 1992, a new home for the Flyers & 76ers opened as the Core-States Center.  Due to various bank mergers & aquisitions that took place over a period within 20 years, the facility was renamed:

1.  First Union Center (where it picked up the infamous, to locals, F-U Center moniker)
2.  Wachovia Center
3.  Wells Fargo Center (its current name)

Even more mind-blowing (at least to a layman), and this was probably covered in the Mass Transit section of this forum at the time such happened, was when the Pattison (Ave.) station for SEPTA's Broad Street line at the Sports Complex was renamed AT&T station.  There's nothing AT&T anywhere in the immediate vicinity.  In an nutshell, the station was renamed strictly for avertising (for AT&T) & revenue (for SEPTA) purposes.

[roadman]

Then there's the story of two local sports stadiums. The Bruins and Celtics replaced the old Boston Garden with the Shawmut Center in 1995, except Shawmut Bank was bought out by Fleet Bank before the building opened. Signage and the color scheme of the building were changed before either team played a game in the new Fleet Center.

Isn't it now called the TD (Bank) Garden?

That is the correct name, although it's commonly referred to as the TD Garden (without Bank).

[PHLBOS]

Isn't it now called the TD (Bank) Garden?

That is the correct name, although it's commonly referred to as the TD Garden (without Bank).

That's the reason why I didn't have the word 'Bank' in italics & had in parenthesis. 

IIRC, TD was originally TD Banknorth when it bought out Fleet Bank until it merged with Commerce Bank (the Cherry Hill, NJ-based one not the Worcester-based one, the latter one still exists).

[spooky]

Then there's the story of two local sports stadiums. The Bruins and Celtics replaced the old Boston Garden with the Shawmut Center in 1995, except Shawmut Bank was bought out by Fleet Bank before the building opened. Signage and the color scheme of the building were changed before either team played a game in the new Fleet Center.

Isn't it now called the TD (Bank) Garden?

Yes. When Bank of America bought Fleet around 2004 or 2005, they sold the naming rights to (then) TD Banknorth. The building briefly had a "buy the naming rights for a day" gimmick where the building went through a bunch of names, then it was permanently named the TD Banknorth Garden, re-using "Garden" from the old building. The building dropped the "north" when the bank did. As roadman mentioned,

That is the correct name, although it's commonly referred to as the TD Garden (without Bank).

This allows locals to colloquially refer to it as "the Garden", like they did with the old Boston Garden.

[spooky]

Even more mind-blowing (at least to a layman), and this was probably covered in the Mass Transit section of this forum at the time such happened, was when the Pattison (Ave.) station for SEPTA's Broad Street line at the Sports Complex was renamed AT&T station.  There's nothing AT&T anywhere in the immediate vicinity.  In an nutshell, the station was renamed strictly for avertising (for AT&T) & revenue (for SEPTA) purposes.

Same thing happened in Boston with the Citizens Bank/State Street station, although I imagine there was/is a Citizens Bank branch near the station. The station reverted to State Street once the agreement expired.

I recall a more recent story of the MBTA trying to once again sell naming rights to stations, but no one met the asking price.

[1995hoo]

The issues you folks raise with naming rights and how names change is a major reason why the MTA in New York refused to use the name "Citi Field" on the nearest subway station when the Mets moved into said venue. It used to be called "Willets Point—Shea Stadium." It's now "Mets—Willets Point." I believe the MTA said if the name "Citi" were to be on there, either Citi or the Mets would have to pay for it.

Doing it that way makes sense as a hedge against the ballpark's name changing. The DC Metrorail stop near Nationals Park is now "Navy Yard—Ballpark," although nobody calls it by its full name. I suppose one could debate whether the distinction between "ballpark" (denoting baseball) and another stop called "Stadium—Armory" (located near RFK Stadium, which presently houses the soccer team) is clear to people who aren't sports fans. Similarly, the signs in the Gallery Place stop underneath DC's Verizon Center hockey arena have always just said "Arena," which proved sensible because the name changed from MCI to Verizon around 2006. The BGSs on the highways say "Nationals Park" and "Verizon Center," though–they're even used as control "cities" on a couple of signs. But BGSs and simple direction signs in a subway station are easier to change than the actual name of a subway stop, given that the latter involves reprinting system maps, altering lots of signs, and (on the new subway cars that aren't yet in service here) reprogramming the in-car electronic displays.

[Roadrunner75]

It's now "Mets—Willets Point." 

But what if the Mets change their name?

[KEVIN_224]

Stew Leonard Drive...exit 6A of the New York Thruway in Yonkers.

Did Stew Leonard's close there?

It's still there. I went by it on I-87 in Yonkers Wednesday evening.

[NJRoadfan]

There is an "A&S Drive" that feeds into the Paramus Park Mall from NJ-17. The street has outlived the store by a few decades.

[jbnv]

"Albertsons Parkway" is one of the major roads of Broussard, LA. It is named after the supermarket, which was the first major business to locate at the parkway's intersection with US 90. The intersection will be upgraded to an interchange, and the name will end up on quite a few BGSs unless fate intervenes.