Sakowitz Building Conversion To Retail & Garage At 1111 Main St.

[Luminare]

I don't know about this. Urbannizer is amongst the most reliable & highly regarded sources on this board but that link has some outdated information, coupled with an old rendering from the old Amarican Apparel renovation that didn't happen. (No offense, Urbannizer, I hope you're right on this too)

I hope some big retailer makes this design happen. Not just 1 floor, the whole building. Do the edifice justice. We lost Macy's but we could still regain that throwback Downtown Department store Macy's was (with a better design) if Sakowitz is done right. If a Dallas St Shopping District is to happen, it's starts with Sakowitz.

 

Your not going to get the full building in one go. Not when there is still need for so much parking. But an intervention type move like this where you get the full first floor is a good start.

 

I would also modify your shopping district statement to say that should all start with main street and not just Sakowitz. The one same in losing macy's was losing an entire block that could have been the a great location to drop a large retail anchor store, but as a city we just aren't there yet to attract major chains away from malls and back to downtown. The next best opportunity to do so is further down dallas street near the surface lots outside GreenStreet.

[Moore713]

They should not focus so hard on Big Box just yet..Downtown is a weak shopping market...I still believe their best bet right now is to focus on small scale shops and try and line the street with those..example: The shoe store Tipping Point (that use to be on main, Those mobile clothing stores that park outside green street...places like that can build a niche customer base Downtown first...people like urban izzy that sells hard to find vintage clothing( although she partner with the other two mobile clothing owner and now rents a space in city centre.

[Luminare]

They should not focus so hard on Big Box just yet..Downtown is a weak shopping market...I still believe their best bet right now is to focus on small scale shops and try and line the street with those..example: The shoe store Tipping Point (that use to be on main, Those mobile clothing stores that park outside green street...places like that can build a niche customer base Downtown first...people like urban izzy that sells hard to find vintage clothing( although she partner with the other two mobile clothing owner and now rents a space in city centre.

 

You know you have this in reverse right? You always try to secure a big tenant, whether its for a commercial building, mall, strip centers, or a general shopping area/district, because it's the store which will bring the biggest draw. Small stores then latch onto those bigger stores to try capitalize on the traffic that is brought in by a bigger brand store. You see the true impact of large brands when they leave the various examples I gave above. Many malls are dying because those big brand stores are moving to new areas or focusing more towards online shopping. Northwest Mall was the first victim of this as well as Greenspoint Mall. Each for their own reasons. Retail flows where people go. This is why you see so many businesses on highways. One because of easy access to car traffic and two because it's where the most people are moving through. The trend is to moving back to the center of town, however. My generation and millennial's are moving to the inner city in mass. This is the market trend of the future even if it is still a little slow and we are the extreme case because we had both a dead downtown and hyper low density as a city.

 

A short rebuttal to what you said is:

 

I disagree, Big store tenants are essential to anchoring a major shopping destination.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Luminare

[mollusk]

True, Luminaire.  It goes both ways.

 

When we lived in an area then described as East San Antonio (Katy at West Belt) in the '60s, at first the closest Foley's/Joske's/Sears/whatever was either downtown or at the then new Sharpstown Center - and there were some subdivisions that had already been there for five years or more.  Mom was glad when Sears opened, preceding Memorial City by a year or two.