Great Lakes Crossing - Early Years and Construction Memories

**noise** · July-23-13, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner

Bham is correct. Even 'successful high dollar downtowns' don't compete with the malls and big boxes anymore.

Retail is defined as the selling of goods. Diners and Pubs provide a service and are not retail establishments. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/retail

So the goal of the discussion is to compare two incomparable things? Yeah, good luck with that.

**mtburb** · July-23-13, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by noise

So the goal of the discussion is to compare two incomparable things? Yeah, good luck with that.

Plus, if we continue to discuss that topic, it would have to be within it's own thread.

Anyways, we have to, once again, return on-topic. Does anyone have any newspaper articles about GLX's construction? I only have two papers from 1998 in my collection, both from September and both Free Presses.

**antongast** · July-23-13, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by mtburb

Plus, if we continue to discuss that topic, it would have to be within it's own thread.

Anyways, we have to, once again, return on-topic. Does anyone have any newspaper articles about GLX's construction? I only have two papers from 1998 in my collection, both from September and both Free Presses.

Sorry, I'm still confused. Is this where you want us to post about downtown retail?

I think the focus on retail is a bit misguided. Mainstream day-to-day retailing is increasingly shifting to online stores, and the brick-and-mortar stuff is gravitating toward niches. The mix of bars and restaurants and little independent boutiques found in places like Birmingham is pretty much the future of downtown areas. Some big boxes will continue to exist, but many of them will be repurposed into either non-retail uses like medical offices, or things like grocery stores that don't compete as directly with online stores. Malls will either be revamped into pseudo-downtowns with bars and restaurants and little independent boutiques, or torn down and redeveloped. This won't happen all at once, but I think that's the trend.