Types of Downtown Retail

[SmellyCat]

How about a late night IHOP in the middle of downtown.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd prefer a signature late night diner to a chain restaurant.

[skysdalimit]

Isn't Matt's Diner going to do that? When does that open anyways? I know he has an account on this forum.

[f0xym0p]

I'll be happy with anything late night, other than what we already have. I was going to go to Brixx downtown on Saturday night after a concert and it was like a dance club in there. I went to the one in Dilworth instead.

[DigitalSky]

Ottawa, yes!  What a great city, I never knew until I went there a couple of weeks ago.  I actually have some pics from Ottawa to share, although they are kinda low-quality.  But I think Charlotte could learn so many good things from that city.  I hope that the Brevard Street corridor follows a plan like DT Ottawa with it's 10-20 story buildings and maybe a plaza similar to a central walkway plaza type thing in Ottawa.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I went to Ottawa a few years ago, it is an awesome city

[dubone]

there are now some major retail projects planned in and just outside of downtown:

- Epicentre 265k sf

- Grubb Elizabeth Ave District 250k sf of retail

- Pappas Midtown 216k-500k sf of retail

- Levine's First Ward District 400k sf of retail

- Lowe's South End

- Street retail on almost every new residential project

- Wilkinson Walmart

That is millions of square feet of retail currently planned within a couple miles radius of Trade and Tryon.

My question is, are we at risk, now, of having too much retail in the next 5-10 years?

i think some projects, especially Midtown, will be regional draws, and will possibly pull in many suburban shoppers who would otherwise drive out to 485 areas, so the market is not just the 10-15k people projected to live within the 277 loop.

Does anyone think that with all the retail planned that some projects will not grow to be as large as originally expected? perhaps we can instantly remove levine from the list, since he is in no hurry... but could all this retail space potentially curtail some of grubb's plans? could it potentially slow epicentre? Or is this a reasonable amount of retail space for our current market size?

[atlrvr]

Well I think you can remove Lowe's, and Target from you list simply because of their regional draw....I assume they both need 80k-100k for a market area, so they are definetly pulling from outside the downtown/midtown population.....also, the EXPO is supposed to be a regional draw of about 100 miles, and Best Buy serves about 150,000 people.

Also, consider that the Epicentre will be very entertainment heavy with a bowling alley and move theatre consuming a large portion of the 265k. Also consider that almost every bit of retail downtown is prepared food, including the all the tenants so far announced for EpiCentre (other than the two previously mentioned) and for Grubb's project.

To be honest, the only spot I see in Uptown for a true retail experience is along Brevard if Levine ever gets his act together, and certainly some of Elizabeth Ave.....so no, I think in 5 years, we will still be wondering when we are going to have a thriving intown retail environment.

[A2]

How about a late night IHOP in the middle of downtown.

how's about an Urban Blockbuster ???

A2

[dubone]

To be honest, the only spot I see in Uptown for a true retail experience is along Brevard if Levine ever gets his act together, and certainly some of Elizabeth Ave.....so no, I think in 5 years, we will still be wondering when we are going to have a thriving intown retail environment.

so it almost seems that we'll have big national retailers just outside of downtown in midtown and on south blvd. then tons and tons of entertainment and dining retail inside the loop. in the context of how much space is planned for midtown... levine's 400ksf number seems HUGE. I am just not sure how he will be able to fill up that much space with any national mall-type stores almost certainly going to midtown.

how's about an Urban Blockbuster ???

no... i don't think we'll get a blockbuster closer in than the east blvd/kenilworth location. i think blockbuster's business overall is taking a hit from ondemand movies from cable and from netflixx... and i'd bet that urban populations are even more behind those trends than the average suburbanite.

[atlrvr]

There could be a few key shopping strips....I certainly think that kings across from the Greenway between Indy and Morehead will eventually be redeveloped into much higher uses with groundfloor retail.

I think that Grubb will in fact get some retail, but it won't be as retail heavy as many believe (or even he believed 3 years ago)....we may see a gap, a bookstore, and some more locally owned boutiques.

I do think that if any big mall retailers want to compete intown they will go inside the loop....I'm just basing this on a hunch.....that's where I would expect Banana Republic, Guess, J. Crew, Sephora, Godiva, Victoria Secret, etc. to go....and I think that Brevard is the most logical corridor...though also N. College north of 7th in the future may have opportunities.

I think the next question is, if we start getting high-end trendy boutiques....will the go to SP or Uptown? This would be Diesel, D&G, Versace.....

[Rufus]

It would be nice to see something like a Versace and maybe a Barney's co-op, and then medium-class retail near. Elizabeth looks like a great place to hold retail and become a pedestrian environment.

[UrbanCharlotte]

Anyone for a Nike store?

[dubone]

Anyone for a Nike store?

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...ndpost&p=131201

[appatone]

how's about an Urban Blockbuster ???

Visart said in a recent article that they are doing quite well right now due to the large selection they offer over blockbuster and cable movies. The manager said in the article that another center city location wouldn't be out of the question. Visart kicks the crap out of Blockbuster anyway. If you live in the center city definitely take your business their instead of Blockbuster. The selection is great and the customer service is through the roof.

Atlrvr mentioned Godiva uptown. I think Elizabeth Ave. would be a great location for a chocolate store since the hospital is right there and people would probably stop in for a quick "get well soon" gift of chocolates. The Hospital has brought several florists to the area as well so I would imagine quite a few folks head that way on Valentines and other "flower occasions" it seems like a chocolate joint could piggy back off of that business on Elizabeth. I would like to see that new chocolate lab at Johnson and Wells produce a great local chocolate entrepreneur for the area as opposed to going with a generic Godiva though.

[fulcrumsf]

In order for Charlotte to have a viable Uptown retail district, it needs many components. Deffently needs the best of both worlds. Even cities like New York and San Francisco have highend to lowend and everything in between. I feel Charlotte needs more residential (which is on it's way), some more attractions to bring in tourism (Nascar HOF, Imagion, Bobcats, and Aquarium) and some more Highend type Hotels (Ritz, W, Dunhill type botuique hotels) before stores like Ralph Laruen, Gucci, Louis Vutton come in. However we could definetly use mid to lowend stores imediatly. Like Virgin Megastore, Sonystyle, Borders, Macy's, etc..

[Temeteron]

I can definately see a Borders or Barnes & Nobles uptown......i can also see Gap, Banana Republic, Williams Sonoma(lord knows there are hundreds of Johnson & Wales students who will shop there since they live at City View apartments off trade st), H&M which doesnt have a location in the Carolinas or Georgia yet, a 24 hour IHOP would be so awesome.....there is one in Columbia on Assembly St downtown...it's always packed late at night.......a music store would be really nice particularly Virgin Mega...if Salt Lake City can have one i dont see why Charlotte can't! Sprint store or any phone store for that matter, Cold Stone or Ben & Jerry's, where is the dollar store uptown? They seem to be everywhere else in the city; I'm kinda mad that Office Depot built that store on South Blvd. it wouldve looked so much better uptown.....nevertheless a Staples or Office Max would do very well uptown, let's not forget the Hard Rock Cafe, Rainforest Cafe, and an uptown McDonalds with patio seating, please God bring these retailers to uptown Charlotte!!!

[DigitalSky]

I know H&M is in high demand here.. I was at Kohl's the other day and one cashier was telling the other how she wishes that Chrlotte had an H&M. Staple's would be nice too

[appatone]

H&M still asserts that it is not expanding out of the North East right now. However it has technically made its way into the mid-west and as far down as VA so I don't think it will be that long until it arrives. I would like to see more of the type of retail you see in downtown Asheville make it's way into the center city. Be it Uptown or wherever. I would love to see Footsloggers out of Boone come into SouthEnd near Black Sheep and Lucky Cycles. There store in Boone takes up several old downtown structures and even has a courtyard with a 35 ft. climbing wall. Asheville has a great downtown bookstore. That bookstore was packed on Friday and Saturday nights for author signings. I would like to see the city help these great NC businesses expand to our area. Perhaps provide a little incentive, and I would much rather have these guys than another hum-drum Borders. I think the Bookstore was Malaprop's. Perhaps we should even look in our own city, perhaps Park Road Books would build a larger center city store if the right development deal came along. You never know. But I think the key is to attain memorable retailers.

EDIT: I changed the link to Malprop's to link to an article about the store with a picture. In the article it mentioned a quote by Peter Jennings hihly praising the store. The article is a few years old but still good. They turn 25 next year, I would love to see them celebrate by opening a 2nd store in Charlotte.

[A2]

where is the dollar store uptown? They seem to be everywhere else in the city

Maybe we should call up Levine since he seems to be the "man" when it comes to those types of stores. lol. He could easily put one on his vast open space of parking lots in Uptown. I have told atlrvr, Dubone, and MC that Levine should put his corporate HQ's Uptown and have a large "$" sign on the top of his HQ building. How appropriate.

[A2]

Like beer and fried snicker bars (yes, I did say fried snicker bars). Check this out !!!

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/bus...ts/12768887.htm

A2

[HighRiseHillbilly]

I'd prefer a signature late night diner to a chain restaurant.

Everything's good when you're drunk.

[A2]

^ Well then I want a late night Taco Bell in the loop. Mmmmm Meximelt...

(BTW,if they ever did put a TB in the loop, I bet the store would do better than a lot of its Suburban siblings)

A2

[Temeteron]

I think and hope that it will be a ripple domino effect.....once a big name comes in....and then a 2nd one will come...and then so on........:::CROSSING FINGERS:::

[Noneck_08]

I rolled threw downtown Charlotte last Sunday night and there was nothing but a few bars and resterants open. I was coming back from Columbia, and if Columbia's Vista could be applied somewhat to downtown Charlotte than we would be talking. Theres a longhorn, mcdonalds and IHOP in the Vista. Charlotte does has it's points though as usually just as many people are downtown as in Columbia, but SC State helps them out with that. My main point is that mabe Charlotte can look at it's little freind down 77, for some ideas.

[A2]

I rolled threw downtown Charlotte last Sunday night and there was nothing but a few bars and resterants open. I was coming back from Columbia, and if Columbia's Vista could be applied somewhat to downtown Charlotte than we would be talking. Theres a longhorn, mcdonalds and IHOP in the Vista. Charlotte does has it's points though as usually just as many people are downtown as in Columbia, but SC State helps them out with that. My main point is that mabe Charlotte can look at it's little freind down 77, for some ideas.

You are kidding right???

Sunday Night is a dead night anywhere (outside of maybe NYC and Chicago) and Panther Game days where they play in Charlotte. I think the last statement made regarding Charlotte getting ideas from Columbia is a bit of a stretch. I think Columbia is great and has great potential, but to say CLT needs to look down the road for ideas is over the top.

Charlotte currently has over 10,000 residents within a 1.5 sq mile area inside of 277 with over 100 Restraunts and more than just a handful of Bars. Again this is in a tiny area.

The count of Uptown residents is expected to more than double in the next ten years, with Bolwing Allly's, Movie Theaters, and even more grocery stores all coming to Center City. Not two mention the opening of the arena will add a ton of trafic on Uptown streets. This is opening in less than two weeks.

I have NEVER seen Columbia's downtown have as many people on the streets as Charlotte. I don't see what you are suggesting, can you clarify no neck 08?

A2

[Noneck_08]

Yea Charlotte has 10,000 people living downtown, I know that. I've also been downtown on a Friday night and it impressed me more than Downtown Columbia. I'm just saying that those are a couple chain resterants that have poped themselves in downtown Columbia and if they can show up in Downt Cola why not Charlotte. I also understand that there are alot of resterants and bars, etc., and chain resterants might not be a good thing for those local busniesses. Of the ones I saw of, which there were just a few; where: IHOP,McDonald's and Longhorn Steak House. Im just saying to get a major chain besides Starbucks and CVS.