Downtown Retail Market

[Marcus Allen]

I would like developers and retailers alike to get on board and take a chance by converting an entire block into a retail Mecca for DT. I would say go practical before trying to cater to the DT elite. Having said that, I would create a four or five story building that has a large courtyard in the middle which contains a food court on the second level. It would be open to the sky with suspended walkways between the four major retailers located on each corner. Those retailers would be a Target superstore ( at least two levels like several in LA); an HEB Flagship with restaurant; a Best Buy; and some clothing/ accessories retailer like TJ Maxx, Kohls, or Marshalls. Smaller retail venues could be Starbucks, some sort of ice cream/ yogurt place, like Cold Stone, an Apple store, Sephora or something comparable. Then ever so slowly add higher end locales like Harry and David, sur le Table, etc., which would appeal to the demographic AND attract those living outside of DT. Perhaps, have cooking classes every Sat. For a lower cost at some foodie type store. Anyway, you can tell I have thought a lot about this one. I am considering moving DT just for the experience, but would definitely need some retail incentives to do so.

[bachanon]

I would like developers and retailers alike to get on board and take a chance by converting an entire block into a retail Mecca for DT. I would say go practical before trying to cater to the DT elite. Having said that, I would create a four or five story building that has a large courtyard in the middle which contains a food court on the second level. It would be open to the sky with suspended walkways between the four major retailers located on each corner. Those retailers would be a Target superstore ( at least two levels like several in LA); an HEB Flagship with restaurant; a Best Buy; and some clothing/ accessories retailer like TJ Maxx, Kohls, or Marshalls. Smaller retail venues could be Starbucks, some sort of ice cream/ yogurt place, like Cold Stone, an Apple store, Sephora or something comparable. Then ever so slowly add higher end locales like Harry and David, sur le Table, etc., which would appeal to the demographic AND attract those living outside of DT. Perhaps, have cooking classes every Sat. For a lower cost at some foodie type store. Anyway, you can tell I have thought a lot about this one. I am considering moving DT just for the experience, but would definitely need some retail incentives to do so.

 

as much as i like your idea, i think houston pavilions would have taken off if downtown could support a "retail mecca"; the demand just isn't there yet.

 

with the hotel at green street, other hotels, new office space, and more residents downtown, the fickle retail space that already exists might get some motion.  (add to that almost 300,000 jobs coming to the houston area in the next 3 years.....http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2014/06/27/houston-we-have-a-plan-to-fill-300-000-blue-collar.html) only when we see the existing space disappearing could we have our retail fantasies realized.

[brian0123]

Malls and retail centers are becoming less popular every day as more people shop online (especially the type of person that would live in a lux apt complex Downtown). I think you just need a couple key neighborhood hangouts (bars/restaurants/coffee/etc.), but forget all this talk about retail meccas. Grow the Galleria for shopping, grow Downtown for living and working.

[cloud713]

I would like developers and retailers alike to get on board and take a chance by converting an entire block into a retail Mecca for DT. I would say go practical before trying to cater to the DT elite. Having said that, I would create a four or five story building that has a large courtyard in the middle which contains a food court on the second level. It would be open to the sky with suspended walkways between the four major retailers located on each corner. Those retailers would be a Target superstore ( at least two levels like several in LA); an HEB Flagship with restaurant; a Best Buy; and some clothing/ accessories retailer like TJ Maxx, Kohls, or Marshalls. Smaller retail venues could be Starbucks, some sort of ice cream/ yogurt place, like Cold Stone, an Apple store, Sephora or something comparable. Then ever so slowly add higher end locales like Harry and David, sur le Table, etc., which would appeal to the demographic AND attract those living outside of DT. Perhaps, have cooking classes every Sat. For a lower cost at some foodie type store. Anyway, you can tell I have thought a lot about this one. I am considering moving DT just for the experience, but would definitely need some retail incentives to do so.

doood... were on the same level. except i spanned the GreenStreet expansion across 4 more blocks, not one additional block (yours is much more practical, but i figured why not make a full on expanded GreenStreet actually be the retail district of downtown itself, instead of the current GS being just one component of a less cohesive mumbo jumbo/mish mash of retail components along Dallas.. though i love the idea of converting the Sakowitz(?) building back into a department store. and dont mind the idea of having a second large store bookend the district on the vacant block just east of the Four Seasons/north of my expansion. it will all just have to be done in phases not to overwhelm the retail demands of the new downtown residents.

 

as much as i like your idea, i think houston pavilions would have taken off if downtown could support a "retail mecca"; the demand just isn't there yet.

 

with the hotel at green street, other hotels, new office space, and more residents downtown, the fickle retail space that already exists might get some motion.  (add to that almost 300,000 jobs coming to the houston area in the next 3 years.....http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2014/06/27/houston-we-have-a-plan-to-fill-300-000-blue-collar.html) only when we see the existing space disappearing could we have our retail fantasies realized.

 

agreed. fortunately the demand is growing with all the new hospitality and residential projects around downtown.

 

Malls and retail centers are becoming less popular every day as more people shop online (especially the type of person that would live in a lux apt complex Downtown). I think you just need a couple key neighborhood hangouts (bars/restaurants/coffee/etc.), but forget all this talk about retail meccas. Grow the Galleria for shopping, grow Downtown for living and working.

partially agreed with the first part, but brick and mortar stores will always have their place. disagree with the second part. you expect the downtown residents should fight traffic driving across the city to theGalleria to get their shopping done every time they need something? doesnt that kind of defeat the purpose of trying to turn downtown into an urban walkable neighborhood?

so here it is Marcus Allen. my "GreenStreet 2.0" fantasy.

i would carry GreenStreet over across Caroline, onto the 4 square blocks to the southeast. i would turn the Polk/Austin intersection into a roundabout with a fountain/water feature in the middle, and the buildings set back from the roundabout with a park/green area for a hang out spot, outdoor dining at cafes, and stuff like that. the pink and yellow buildings would of course have ground floor retail lining the circle, just as the other two buildings on the circle (which are fully retail [minus the shaded area on the corner of Caroline and Dallas thats not owned by GreenStreet/are a few bars in a separate building], and the yellow building would likely have a few bars/restaurants or sports related stores facing the front entrance of Toyota Center, but the rest of the ground floor of the pink and yellow buildings, behind the circle perimeter of retail/behind the retail facing TC would be parking (and parking below, on a basement level) for residents of a condo tower (PINK), and apartment mid-rise (YELLOW).

the second floors would connect across the roads and walkways similar to how they do at the current GS.

i know, its a large project.. over twice as big as GreenStreet is now, but Midway can start preparing for the future by buying up the properties to the east for expansion when the time comes. (im not sure if the parking lot next to South Texas Law is owned by the school/earmarked for future school expansion, or if that property would be available to GreenStreet. if its owned by the school for future expansion, maybe they could work out a deal with GreenStreet to leave a space somewhere on the block for a mid or high-rise for growth of the school [might change my condo tower plans, but maybe GreenStreet can buy out the bars i mentioned on Caroline/Dallas that cut into the GS expansion, and build a condo tower on that plot?])

Edited July 1, 2014 by cloud713

[cloud713]

Well I talked to my buddy who goes to STCOL and he said the lot to the east of them is their faculty lot, so that puts a kink in my 2.0 plans, unless greenstreet were to offer them free parking out of the deal to get the lot.. Assuming they aren't saving it for future buildings/campus expansion.

So anyways I came up with a GreenStreet 2.5. It's 6 blocks instead of 7, again extending southeast 2 blocks, before turning northeast one additional block, up to OPP. The greenstreet residential/condo tower would go in the yellow spot, overlooking discovery green. The pink spot is the new hotel, and the blue is the office high-rise.

This one got a little crazier than the last design, with a mass transit people mover along the rooftops around the retail district, on the black route (I noticed the rooftop of greenstreet is about the same height as the lower level of the shops at Houston Center, which is about the same level as the garage portion of the block southeast of Sakowitz, bound by Fannin, Dallas, Lamar, and San jacinto, which is about the same level as the Sakowitz(?) department store/garage.. I'm sure the roofs vary a little but the track height could adjust for elevation changes between buildings and/or be elevated however high above the shortest structures, to keep the tracks at the same level as the tallest building.

This people mover could transfer people the half mile between the light rail station on Main, and the Toyota Center on game/event days, from Main Street to Discovery Green, and keep the condo tower connected to light rail even though it's 5 blocks away.

On the rooftops along the tracks of each building could be "street" vendors/mom and pop style pop up shops and what not in a make shift open air market place, where rents could be insanely cheap, since the spaces weren't being utilized to begin with, and average joes could afford to operate a business in downtown.

I realize the rooftop people moved would take pedestrian activity away from the street level, but if greenstreet were to become very successful id be inclined to say the narrow alleyways wouldn't be sufficient for large crowds of people trying to walk around.

[Houston19514]

The Downtown Retail Initiative was on the agenda for the Downtown Redevelopment Authority's June meeting.  Unfortunately, the next meeting is not until August, so we probably won't be able to see the minutes for quite a well (and of course the likelihood of any journalist having covered the meeting, understood the actions, and reported on it is very close to zero).