Adaptive Reuse: Toledo's Portside Marketplace

[thelakelander]

Some look at the Jacksonville Landing as a failure that's past its prime and believe that taxpayers should pay to demolish the complex, evicting several businesses from the downtown core without the serious consideration of adaptive reuse. When creativity and vision is allowed to enter the redevelopment discussion, structurally sound buildings from failed concepts can become viable destinations of activity. With this in mind, today we take a look at Toledo's former Portside Festival Marketplace.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/adaptive-reuse-toledos-portside-marketplace/

[Captain Zissou]

So you're saying not everyone tears their buildings down?

[marcuscnelson]

So you're saying not everyone tears their buildings down?

Ah-ha! So Jacksonville can be "unique" and "distinctive" by tearing everything down! On my way to the mayor's office to tell him he's doing great, and to keep going!

[thelakelander]

Pretty much! Even Flint, MI turned their closed Water Street Pavilion festival marketplace into a downtown branch campus for the University of Michigan. Most cities really don't use tax money to outright destroy perfectly fine buildings. Jax's approach to downtown redevelopment, like JTA's approach to the Skyway, is really an unorthodox one. The only Rouse center I can find that was outright demolished is Richmond's 6th Street Marketplace. That city turned it into a street. Such a solution appears to be right down Jax's alley.

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ That's not quite what happened with 6th St. Marketplace.  It was sort of a hybrid of a traditional mall and a festival marketplace, and was built to 1) bridge the space between Richmond's two downtown department stores and 2) to connect to the convention center/coliseum complex a few blocks north.  The city closed several blocks of 6th Street and built the shopping center in its place.  A sky bridge over Broad St. connected the section between the department stores to the remainder of the shopping center, and was also considered a symbolic act of racial healing, since Broad St. was considered a line of demarcation between the races in Richmond. 

The center failed because the spaces were too small for traditional in-line mall stores and the downtown area had an unfair reputation for being unsafe.  Once the parent companies of Thalhimers and Miller & Rhoads closed the department stores, very little inside the Marketplace thrived, other than a couple of restaurants and snack bars on the north end by the convention center and Coliseum.

Richmond has done a great job of downtown revitalization and historic preservation, and the two old department stores have been reborn as a performing arts center and a hotel that respectively pay tribute to the history of the buildings.  Tearing out 6th St. was part of a plan to restore the traditional walkable street fabric, not an act of mindless demolition like Jacksonville is unfortunately seeking with the Landing.

[thelakelander]

Thanks for the detailed background! That's the only example I can find of a Rouse festival marketplace being razed after its failure. However, even with this example, it appears portions of the marketplace (in this case, the flagship department stores), were reused and the mall promenade itself was razed. So Jax is in the process of being a one and only for whatever that's worth.

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ Yep, that's exactly right.  Only the promenade, which was built over the historic footprint of 6th St., was razed.

At the same time, Richmond attempted some sort of festival marketplace (non-Rouse) and outlet mall hybrid in the beautiful Main Street Station, which thankfully has returned to passenger rail service.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Was Shops at Port Royal in Augusta, later Fort Discovery science museum, a Rouse project?  It's been partially demolished.

[thelakelander]

No, that $36 million development was financed by French companies in 1991. I believe Rouse had already stopped developing festival marketplaces by 1990.

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ Thanks!

[Kerry]

Is this what Jax has become - looking to Toledo for urbanization examples?

[thelakelander]

Yes. It gets worse. Tomorrow, it will be Flint. No need to disrespect first tier cities with comparisons these days.

[Tacachale]

I've been doing some more digging to see if any other of the Rouse festival marketplaces (or any others) have been demolished and not replaced. Other than Richmond, the closest I'm seeing is New York's South Street Seaport. However, that was badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy and the parts that were demolished have been replaced with new buildings. Anyone else know of others?

[thelakelander]

I've spent a few days researching this.

South Street Seaport is being rebuilt: http://concreteislandista.com/2018/08/26/renovated-and-revived-south-street-seaport/

EDIT: It's open now: https://www.pier17ny.com/

It took five years to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.

The only unconfirmed one that I still need to pull up historic aerials to confirm one way or the other is a smaller festival marketplace that Rouse flopped on in Battle Creek, MI.

[Tacachale]

I've spent a few days researching this.

South Street Seaport is being rebuilt: http://concreteislandista.com/2018/08/26/renovated-and-revived-south-street-seaport/

EDIT: It's open now: https://www.pier17ny.com/

It took five years to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.

The only unconfirmed one that I still need to pull up historic aerials to confirm one way or the other is a smaller festival marketplace that Rouse flopped on in Battle Creek, MI.

LOL, McCamley Place? It's still there.