Old main library project awaits one big tenant

[Stephanie Kellum]

I want a Trader Joe's

I second that!

[reednavy]

We'll be waiting a while for Trader Joe's as no other city in FLorida has one. The nearest location is in Midtown Atlanta.

[fsu813]

i have it from a good source that an old navy outlet has thier eye on it......

[reednavy]

outlet?

Well, better than nothing.

[fsu813]

I was kidding.

But this is from today:

RANTS & RAVES: Downtown needs Macy's, Ikea and good food

The fastest way to make downtown grow again is to bring in a Macy's, an Ikea, a Crate & Barrel, and a good cafeteria. Centrally locate them near Hemming [Plaza] and clear some nearby property for free or reasonably priced parking. There are a lot of empty buildings downtown so property should be cheap. Downtown workers would be so grateful to have some nice places to shop and these three stores would give people from all the suburbs a reason to go downtown again. There are thousands of people in town who could get to downtown much faster than they can get to the Town Center. Right now, they have no reason to go downtown.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-02-20/story/rants_raves_downtown_needs_macys_ikea_and_good_food

[uptowngirl]

Well those are all better than Old Navy (ICK!). I disagree about the parking though, let's not lose any more buildings downtown, and certainly not for parking. Do like other DT areas, first half hour free....

[Wacca Pilatka]

I'm glad that the St. James was restored into City Hall, and in a way that was respectful to Klutho's design, but how nice it would have been to see that as a functioning department store.

[Ocklawaha]

Wanna REALLY introduce a foreign population to the joys of urbanity?

BASS PRO!


OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

Folks...we're not going to get a downtown department store anytime soon (especially with open plots at STJC and an open buildings at Avenues and Regency)....and Bass Pro Shops has never built in a downtown (at least to my knowledge)....personally, I have no problem with an Old Navy and think it would actually fit in quite well.

[samiam]

There is a Bass Pro Shop across the bridge from downtown Mobile Al and boy is it amazing

[tufsu1]

There is a Bass Pro Shop across the bridge from downtown Mobile Al and boy is it amazing

not exactly "downtown"...its right off I-10 and the bridge is over 5 miles long.

[thelakelander]

One trick ponies and gimmicks won't work for revitalizing DT.  DT needs to become a self sustaining community that is fully integrated with the surrounding urban core neighborhoods.  COJ will save itself a ton of money and time by focusing on these issues instead of throwing money on things the DT market can't support in an attempt to lure in suburbanites.

[Ocklawaha]

Folks...we're not going to get a downtown department store anytime soon (especially with open plots at STJC and an open buildings at Avenues and Regency)....and Bass Pro Shops has never built in a downtown (at least to my knowledge)....personally, I have no problem with an Old Navy and think it would actually fit in quite well.

Okay y'all, Bass Pro is right smack dab in the center of BRICKTOWN, in downtown Oklahoma City, and it doesn't get more "downtown" then that, in fact this gimmick anchors the whole of the redeveloped tourism district of Central Oklahoma.  Both Bass Pro and Ikea have proved that they will work with cities on urban stores, redevelopments, anchors, etc... Sure it's a gimmick, but who in their right mind would sneeze at that kind of traffic going into a downtown store? If XXXXXX persons daily were passing by, how long would it take for a restaurant to locate nearby? How about a haberdashery? Fedora hattery? and??

I have no problem promoting downtown to large speciality retail outlets any more then to small mom and pop businesses and/or franchises. ANY RETAIL moving in is POSITIVE RETAIL and I don't think downtown is in a position to say, we don't want it because we need more __________________ .

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

I see a huge problem with it, if that gimmick destroys several blocks of the urban pedestrian friendly street grid by replacing it with a mega block suburban box.  Since Bricktown is not in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City and Bass Pro is on the far outer edge of Bricktown, this suburban box is really more of a big box anchor next to an interstate than an urban anchor in the core of the city.  For a suburbanite to get there they really don't have to drive into the heart of downtown at all.





I love what OKC has done with Bricktown but the Bass Pro area is anything but urban or pedestrian friendly.  Outside of sticking something like this at the stadium or in Tallyrand (which won't draw suburbanites into DT..the stadium and Metropolitan Park don't now), one would have to wipe of several blocks of our urban core to accommodate what is essentially a non-urban Walmart.

[thelakelander]

Btw, that Bass Pro box would be like taking out the Annie Lytle and every existing building bounded by I-95, Forest and Park Streets and replacing them with a typical Walmart box and acres of parking to serve it.  It would certainly pull people off the interstate to shop and even be worth driving/biking to for residents from surrounding urban core areas.  However, that traffic would not make it into DT and it would be anything but pedestrian scale.