Downtown Retail
I didn’t live here when the Rockettes roller skated down Nicollet Mall for the grand opening of City Center. Frankly, I haven’t spent much time at City Center. I’d been to TGI Fridays a few times before it closed, and I still have free appetizer coupons for Copeland’s in a drawer somewhere. I think I stopped in City Center to grab office supplies for work once.
The place hasn’t been doing too good lately. It stands 54% unoccupied and business prospects to fill vacancies don’t look to optomistic. Although they did some remodeling, whcih I haven’t seen yet.
Also, I haven’t spent a whole lot of time on Nicollet Mall for that matter. Frankly, the only reason I go downtown is to get drunk and go dancing, or maybe hit a show at one of the theatres. Do folks who work downtown use City Center or downtown retail generally? In a metro area with the biggest mall of them all, does our downtown need the retail? And is the light rail connection from downtown to the Big F*ckin’ Mall a drain on downtown retail?
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Being a downtown worker, I definitely patronize the retail sector there. I typically stick to Marshalls, Marshall Fields and Target. It wouldn’t work for me to “train” my way down to MOA because my lunch break doesn’t give me that much time…I don’t know anyone else who does that, including coworkers who also live downtown. I’m one of the only people I know who likes the BigFatMall!
I think the issue has a lot to do with rents downtown being especially high for big space needs. These businesses need to perform better to make up the difference. I might mention, St. Paul’s downtown retail mall spaces have a very similar problem.
So why don’t they succeed? Is it that these businesses have access to shoppers only during lunch break? Do people shop in their own ‘burbs on evenings and weekends? That might be part of the issue.
I also think you need to have the RIGHT businesses in place - strong performers. Target, for example, appears to be making money; Marshall Fields, a more questionable example, is dumping a bunch of cash into a remodeling project downtown (which tells me they’re either doing well or trying to do better).
On a personal note, I’d like to see an Apple Store and a DSW downtown;)
As a resident of the downtown area I try to do my shopping downtown, but it seems like we’re missing variety and a local color. When Block E was built, the retailers and restaurants chosen were secure, national chains. This could be because these are the companies that could pay the rent, but it doesn’t help the draw to the downtown area. Why leave your suburb to shop in an indoor mall downtown when you can find the same stores and indoor mall in the suburb?
It still trips me out how the skyway runs through the middle of Marshall Field’s. Craziness.
If I lived or worked downtown, I’d definitely shop there. But I don’t. I’m not usually looking to hop on my bike and be willing to carry whatever I buy home on my back. Why bike 15 minutes into downtown and have to do that, when I can drive 5 or 10 minutes in any other direction from my place in Uptown?
Although, if there were more options, I could definitely see making a weekend afternoon out of it. Have some lunch, hit up a few stores, and then go on back home. But as of right now there’s not enough down there that I’d want to visit.
Starting today I bike through downtown… so… uh maybe I’ll start frequenting.
yes, retail downtown is super important. it keeps the downtown vibrant, gives those condo-livers someplace to walk to and hopefully, it’ll be a local place too — i actually saw a boutique-y place down on nicolette mall the other day….weird.
retail + affordable living + metro transit = downtowns that work (chicago, minneapolis, seattle)
no retail + no living + crappy transit = downtowns that suck (sacramento, phoenix)