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Downtown Rockford Retail


GRDadof3

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I keep going back to the fact that I'm not interested in waiting 10 - 20 years. There are downtowns that have decent retail, with NOT a lot of residential (Holland, Rockford, Greenville SC, etc.) Can we at least get a decent retail scene while we're waiting for the mother lode? (which who knows how long it will be before there are enough downtown residents) I think so. :)
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I agree. I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldn't like to see a more lively downtown on a Saturday afternoon. But the pesky laws of supply and demand are what will really drive life into downtown retail no matter how Veruca Salt we want to get about it. The arena came, people wanted to eat / have a drink before or after a concert or event, so restaurants arrived to fill the void. Not to be a buzzkill, but Riverbank Books was a cool place and I purchased several books there. However, it cratered. :cry: Aside from events at Van Andel, Devos Hall or Devos Place or bringing my kids to the Children's Museum, there isn't much that could go into downtown that I can't find at a shop within a mile or two of my house (and I'm excluding big box national retailers) and I won't have to negotiate one-way streets and pay for parking to do it. If I want quaintness and such, Grand Rapids is going to have to get in line behind Saugatuck/Douglas, Holland, Grand Haven, Spring Lake, Rockford, and Lowell to name a few and they've all got big head starts.

I think of it this way... I've got a great idea for a small retail shop. I'm trying to decide where I want to locate it. Where do I see other small retail shops being successful? Where do I see city governements that seem to welcome small shops like the one I envision? Where are there other shops that attract the types of people I see as my target market? At this point, unless you have connections and are building something big, the city of Grand Rapids does not give the appearance that it is rolling out the red carpet.

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Our retail task force is meeting again next Wednesday. Who knows if we will make any changes, but we're going to try. If you're interested in coming along, send me a PM with your email address. There are people on it more passionate about this than me! :lol: They feel that just because there are competing interests out there is no reason to throw in the towel.
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Suydam, I think I've found our alter ego metro area: Greenville - Mauldin - Easely, SC.

Greenvillenightskyline.jpg

Here's why:

- CSA is about 960,000

- MSA is about 650,000 (about 100,000 short of ours, but close enough)

- Their city population is only 56,000, but only because the city incorporated boundaries are smaller than GR's. Their urbanized area is similar and density is about 2000 people/sq mi (very similar to GR's)

- They are a mid-sized city trying to stand out against powerhouse neighbors of Atlanta and Charlotte, Google Map, like our Detroit and Chicago (except Atlanta and Charlotte are growing like wildflower).

- Their downtown is more of a "boutique" downtown like GR's. A couple of nice hotels, a couple of fairly new condominium projects, several historical districts

- They have two power retail/mall areas now

- No large university downtown, but Clemson Univ. is in the greater metro, and several other smaller colleges, mainly suburban

- They are coincidentally being looked at for a massive lifestyle center/Cabela's development off of I-485.

- Their downtown Main Street (it's actually called Main Street) is more like Hollands than ours. In fact, they used the Main Street program that Holland did and won a national award in 2003.

- They suffered an economic downturn in 2002/03: BLS Jobs Data

- Even more bizarre is that the Greenville subforum is also in the top 5 busiest on UrbanPlanet.

- Big difference obviously is climate and geography (they're more mountainous), but recreation is similar. Their growth is also a little faster than GR's.

- They have a fairly new convention center and a fairly new 16,000 seat arena downtown, all minor league teams. They have a minor league ballpark that was moved from Columbia to downtown Greenville in 2006.

- They have a massive $2.4 Billion "mystery development" being proposed right now. :blink:

More links:

Population growth stats

Greenville Wiki

UrbanPlanet - Greenville

Greenville Daily Photo (great idea!)

Greenville Visitors Site

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I think of it this way... I've got a great idea for a small retail shop. I'm trying to decide where I want to locate it. Where do I see other small retail shops being successful? Where do I see city governements that seem to welcome small shops like the one I envision? Where are there other shops that attract the types of people I see as my target market? At this point, unless you have connections and are building something big, the city of Grand Rapids does not give the appearance that it is rolling out the red carpet.
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That is downright eerie! Talk about similarities.

Nice find!

So they've used Main Street America grants to solidify their retail sector downtown? That's great news and proof positive (in my mind) that GR should be trying the same thing.

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