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Downcity/Providence Retail


AriPVD

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Paolino floated the idea of an urban market on the sie of the old Police Station at LaSalle square. The idea didnt gain much momentum but as all these residential towers move in, I wouldnt be surprised to hear that again. He was talking with the owner of East Side Market.

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Well OneTen Westminster is to have a grocer, but that won't help all the residents in the Power Block (well it will, but no one in luxury condos is walking all the way over there for groceries). The old Public Safety Complex is the perfect spot for it. My pet project for that spot is a farmers/artisan market in the parking lot.

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I HATE Whole Foods and will be glad to see them go, especially if it paves the way for Trader Joes.

I wonder if the Cranston store will be one of the new kind I read about in USA Today

Some choice quotes from the article:

Whole Foods is waving goodbye to those smallish, 31,000-square-foot stores and saying hello to 50,000-square-foot versions, 58 of which will be built in the next four years. This, at a time when the rest of the industry is actually shrinking its stores to an average 34,000 square feet, the Food Marketing Institute estimates.

Each of the sections is designed with self-contained architecture that is curved inward to feel intimate

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High end boutiques, whether chains or independents is the direction that it is trying to be steered in. Think Newbury Street in Boston. The mall has good stores, but mostly Anyplace, USA type of chains, nothing terribly upscale or unique about them. The Downcity retail will have to by design, be something that people want to seek out. Because why go out in the weather and deal with the parking Downcity when you could just go to the mall? I'd like to see the Apple Store rumoured for the mall go to Westminster, that is exactly the kind of store people will go out of their way to go to.

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This is off-topic in that it is not exactly downcity, but wasn't there some talk about the large warehouse near Jefferson Place being converted to a permanent "Quincy Market" type of place? I never got the sense this was more than blue-skying but was curious if anyone had heard anything?

...and once again ArtInRuins comes through for me. The building I'm thinking of is the Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse.

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This is off-topic in that it is not exactly downcity, but wasn't there some talk about the large warehouse near Jefferson Place being converted to a permanent "Quincy Market" type of place?  I never got the sense this was more than blue-skying but was curious if anyone had heard anything?

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I posted this article from ProJo about it a while ago. It's actually not an article, more of an editorial.

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This is off-topic in that it is not exactly downcity, but wasn't there some talk about the large warehouse near Jefferson Place being converted to a permanent "Quincy Market" type of place?  I never got the sense this was more than blue-skying but was curious if anyone had heard anything?

...and once again ArtInRuins comes through for me.  The building I'm thinking of is the Providence Fruit and Produce Warehouse.

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Yes Soren, I just found the article dated 10-20-99 in which the Wasserman's were planning a marketplace with retail and entertainment. Wasserman, as you may remember, were suppose to develop parcel 9 into a building, untill a major tenent, Edwards & Angel law firm pulled out.

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Anyone have any guess as to what kind of retailers would likely be drawn to downtown? 

I could certainly see more high end restaurants opening, but as for stores its hard for me to say especially since most potential retailers will be drawn to the mall.

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Im sure every one knows about the home goods they want to put in the grant block, but i was recenly told that their trying to draw in APPLE computers aswell, and a bi-gender shoe store will go in the peirless for certin... the other are still speculation

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but i was recenly told that their trying to draw in APPLE computers aswell,

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I really hope Buff Chace can get them into Westminster instead of the mall. All the RISD students in 15 West will be there. I'll be there!

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I really hope Buff Chace can get them into Westminster instead of the mall. All the RISD students in 15 West will be there. I'll be there!

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I'll be there too!!! As a Mac obsessed computer nerd (and proud owner of an Apple tattoo) I have been waiting for an Apple store in PVD for years now.

Liam

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I really hope Buff Chace can get them into Westminster instead of the mall. All the RISD students in 15 West will be there. I'll be there!

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Keep in mind the JWU students in the design courses (me) have a need for these products. And our building is right on matthewson street...

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Stores that sell computers don't rely that much on foot traffic do they? I don't know much about this sort of thing but I can't imagine purchasing a computer is much of an impulse buy. Especially with a brand like Apple which is so sought after because of what it uniquely is. A downcity location for an Apple store would be quite successful in my opinion especially if Apple limited the number of places that sold iPods around town (which are often an impulse buy) and sold most if not all of them out of their new location.

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Another store that I think could have success in the downcity area is Tweeter. There are no good places (other than B&O if you can afford it) to purchase quality electronics. Radio shack has a couple of locations within a square mile or so and they don't really cater to the need/wants of a people who will be buying pricy condos in the downtown area. I'd rather not see a big chain like circuit city move in (and I realize tweeter is a pretty big chain too) but something like tweeter would bring a lot of people from the east side down town. I can't tell you how much money I've spent out in Seekonk because that's where all the stores are...

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Everyone write letters to Apple.  Cornish has been trying to get them for months.

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I hate to say it, but if I was Apple, I wouldn't do it. Storefront electronics/computer stores are very hard to make work financially if I recall. That's why only big box stores can pull it off, and even then Dell et al make it tough for even them to sell computers. If I remember from articles, those Apple stores have fairly narrow profit margins and I doubt even with "critical mass" a Westminster store could generate adequate traffic. I hope I'm wrong, and certainly e-mail Apple to entice them here, but if I recall, their few storefront stores in places like NYC are more like advertising/buzz generating marketing laboratories that are operated at a loss.

I also seem to remember in a recent East Side or Providence Monthly article that SDC on Angell, which I think is Providence's last home electronics store, was saying that their business is entirely dependent now on selling and installing 10 or 15,000 dollar home entertainment systems.

- Garris

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Everyone write letters to Apple.  Cornish has been trying to get them for months.

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Will do!

I hate to say it, but if I was Apple, I wouldn't do it.

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Someone make him be quiet! :angry::lol:

I'm far from a retail strategist or having any clue how these things work, but... The college crowd is going to be a very big customer for them, especially design students at RISD. Especially with the Center For Design & Business right around the corner on Weybosset, and the dorm coming online at 15 West. Brown students will come off the hill for it too, regardless of where they end up, we're likely to see the Brown Bookstore's Apple offerings shrink or dissappear.

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