ULI and Core to Shore: Destination Retail “is not going to happen”
Retail development will be an important element in creating vibrant new neighborhoods. Currently, there is a relatively limited supply of retail and services to support downtown employees and residents. Expansion of the resident, visitor, and employee base downtown will help to support new retail facilities in key locations that meet retailer needs and requirements.
The Core to Shore Plan calls for aggressive retail development on the blocks south of Myriad Gardens to the new Boulevard. During the interviews, the panel heard desires for a major new shopping destination with a department store anchor—dreams of a Nordstrom or a Neiman Marcus. The panel cautions that destination retail on this scale is not going to happen. Downtown lacks the density of residents, employees, and visitors to support such a major facility. Furthermore, very few department stores are being built today, and the incentive packages required to attract one to a downtown location start at $40 million or more.
Moreover, the blocks south of Myriad Gardens and north of the new Boulevard are not the best location for major retail facilities. Good retail streets have low speeds and retail on both sides of the street. Shopping along the Boulevard should be focused more on restaurants and cafés to serve downtown employees and residents, as well as shops with cards and gifts, office supplies, and sundries.
From the perspective of Oklahoma City’s regional market, more appropriate than a large department store would be smaller lifestyle-type retailers such as restaurants, a bookstore, home furnishings stores, and a few apparel retailers that do not depend on department stores to attract customers. The types of lifestyle retailers that could be attracted to create a concentration of retail space will require both pedestrian activity and auto access and parking. Such retailers would fare better if clustered in Bricktown, both as infill uses and in a center at the eastern end of Bricktown near Bass Pro Shops. This location would offer greater visibility to regional residents from I-235 and to visitors to Bass Pro Shops and Bricktown.
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Comments
It’s true that a destination department store would be unlikely, but they shouldn’t write-off big stores completely. In Minneapolis the rumor is that Target might open a new, scaled-back version of their store downtown (across from Target headquarters and down the street from a regular two-story Target). The concept sounds like some combination of a Walgreen/Target. I think one will be opening in about a year in Seattle, and they were looking at ten other big cities to host the new stores. Not really a “destination,” but something that might work well on the Boulevard.
Ed it would be nice to see that but it will never happen. The construction of the overhead track and infrastructure were quoted for another project, I ma aware of, several years ago at over 1.5 million per mile. There is NO way that kind of cost would ever be recouped or be a financial success.
I am not sure that the monorail in Vegas has ever or will ever become profitable.
There will never be successful retail downtown or in Bricktown unless there is an abundance of FREE parking. People will not pay to park to go shopping.
I like the idea of a downtown Target. Other stores that require a smaller customer base and would appeal to people living downtown and yet would also bring people downtown to shop are stores like Crate and Barrel or CB2, West Elm, etc. If would target stores that don’t already exist in the metro, to draw shoppers from outside downtown.
Another option would be to build a open air shopping center downtown that could have stores similar to other malls, but would also include some of the stores like those mentioned above. We’ve got enough land in east Bricktown, the Cotton Gin and Core to Shore to accomodate an open air shopping center, and that would be a great addition to downtown, for visitors and residents.
Marsh I so aree. FREE PARKING is one of the main reasons my friends and family rarely vernture into the downtown area and Bricktown. Also when an event is in town and the parking costs double!!!
Agree Jill, thats why I always thought the Outlet Mall (destination retail) on the outskirts of the city seemed it would have been a perfect fit for C2S (could even see it as a southern anchor)
Mike, try parking on second or third street and walking into Bricktown. At this point in time, there aren’t enough residents to utilize all the free parking there, although that may change as LEVEL is finished. But, right now, you can park just north of the Walnut bridge for free and it’s a short walk over the bridge. We live on 3rd and walk to everything downtown and in Bricktown. It would be nice if EK Gaylord already had good sidewalks, but that will change soon.
Larry, although the outlet mall would be a significant improvement over what currently exists there, the architecture would have ended up being an issue. Unless we have a developer with deep pockets and vision, however, I suspect we’re going to have to wait for more residential development in Core to Shore for anyone to consider it as a location. East Bricktown should be obvious, but in this economy, I don’t think many shopping malls or lifestyle centers are being constructed. I do think, however, with the CC, the completion of the Native American Cultural Center, the development of the river, more residential, etc, it would be easy to create a destination outdoor shopping center downtown. As I’ve said, what you need to do is go for tenants that don’t already have a presence in OKC. Urban Outfitters, Crate and Barrel, West Elm, H&M, etc., as well as some of our more interesting local stores. People would drive from farther than suburban OKC to shop at stores we don’t have here.
i can understand your architecture point if we were talking about building in Bricktown, but on the southern edge of C2S?? If it was a concern, they could have modified it, couldn’t they??
The Outlet renderings seemed like they would have fit in perfectly with the C2S renderings.
How about a monorail system to nmove people to and from other destinations, malls and events?