Why retail CAN work Downtown?

[Gistok]

The Target was located in a large stip mall located on the site of the former Bel Air Drive-In Movie on the south side of 8 Mile between Van Dyke and Hoover. It was west of the large [[acreage) Detrot Water & Sewage Dept. plant.

It had a promising beginning, and even Eminem had his World Premier of "8 Mile" in the Cineplex in that "U" shaped large strip mall.

Unfortunately one by one the businesses went under.

I remember about 6 years ago going to a Detroit Edison Office in the location of a former store... and thought... then that this strip mall was going down the tubes fast.

The irony is that although it was close to bus service [[8 Mile) there was no foot traffic in the area, since there were no close residences. But within a 3 mile radius there are thousands of residents.

[casscorridor]

There will be a Target store opening somewhere along the Woodward line. All we can do is guess where it will be. Hudson's Block? Monroe Block?

[gthomas]

That can work on the Hudson's Block...I can see that. With being the anchor and several other small retail, it would draw nice foot traffic on Woodward.

There will be a Target store opening somewhere along the Woodward line. All we can do is guess where it will be. Hudson's Block? Monroe Block?

[gthomas]

I can see this on the Hudson's Block

http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/data...ept_18_006.jpg

[gthomas]

This can be Woodward between Campus Martius Park and Grand Circus Park.

http://www.columbusunderground.com/t...eeing-downtown

[stinkytofu]

I can see this on the Hudson's Block

http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery/data...ept_18_006.jpg

If implimented into a larger and taller project, fine. But just a Target on that site? Hell no.

[gthomas]

Lol, Yes I agree! It has to implimented into a larger and taller structure. It already has underground parking too.

If implimented into a larger and taller project, fine. But just a Target on that site? Hell no.

[rhythmc]

I liked the Target close to downtown Chicago. Good parking for a large trip, but it's in an area where the development was needed. Target would be more of a car-centric retailer. Could you imagine 10 people waiting on a bus [[or light rail) with large boxes of cheapo furniture. The model for Target in DC is something I would like to see in Detroit.

[erikd]

The same reason Kroger hasn't, their other Detroit locations failed epically.

The national big-box chains have failed in their Detroit experiments because they locate and operate their stores based on criteria that has proven successful in suburban markets, but fails to account for the very different market dynamics found in large cities. This is not unique to Detroit, but rather the norm. Wal-Mart is the largest company on earth, but they are virtually non-existent in large cities. A quick Google search shows that just like Detroit, there are no Wal-Mart stores located in New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami, Seattle, Boston, San Diego, and many other large American cities. Wal-Mart does have one store in Chicago, one in LA, and two in Philadelphia. A quick look at the store locations for Kroger, Meijer, Target, etc. will show very similar results.

When you consider the fact that the national big-box chains have completely failed to penetrate urban markets across America, it becomes obvious that the problem is not Detroit, but rather the inability of big-box chains to figure out how to make their business model work in a large city. If Detroit was simply a poor market, then we would not be able to support the numerous national retailers such as Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS, which all operate many successful locations within the city of Detroit.

The top reasons for the inability of big-box chain stores to succeed in Detroit are:

1. An over-reliance on demographic numbers within a pre-defined radius, which negates a large section of the most desirable areas of Detroit. When a big-box store with hundreds or thousands of locations has statistical evidence that the majority of their single-store sales come from customers who live within a three-mile radius of the store, otherwise desirable Detroit locations near the river don't make the cut, because half of that three mile radius is either in the river, or in a different country. In addition to the radius criterion, the national big-box retailers also desire locations on surface streets with heavy automobile traffic, which are less common in the city core, due to the combination of an older, and more narrow, surface street designs, coupled with a plethora of below-grade freeways specifically designed to funnel auto traffic off of the surface streets.

2. The cost and difficulty of assembling large, contiguous parcels of land in the densest and most desirable areas of the city. A big-box store requires an immense amount of land, on the scale of MGM Grand Detroit, Ford Field, or Comerica Park. If you are familiar with the cost and complexities that were associated with assembling the land for these landmark projects, it is obvious why this amount of effort and money would make it financially impossible to build a big-box store anywhere near downtown.

3. Complete ignorance of the social and economic complexities of the region. When Target puts a store at 8 mile and Van Dyke, and Kroger builds a store on Gratiot, just south of 8 mile, it is obvious that they have no clue how the Detroit retail market works. The population radius and high auto traffic volume along 8 mile may look good to a number cruncher in Minnesota or Ohio, but anybody who actually lives in metro Detroit knows that those store locations were bound to fail. Neither one of these locations are near the middle and upper income neighborhoods in the city, and there is no way that the suburban residents of Warren will ever cross 8 mile to shop at a chain big-box store in the city.

[artds]

94% occupancy rate? Is that number valid? Just last year I read that it was in the 60s. Plus, if it were really that high, one would expect new construction to be going up all over downtown and midtown, and that isn't happening.

[corktownyuppie]

94% occupancy rate? Is that number valid? Just last year I read that it was in the 60s. Plus, if it were really that high, one would expect new construction to be going up all over downtown and midtown, and that isn't happening.

There are waitlist at almost all the new developments. Vacancy rates are very low. What's stopping construction and development isn't demand. It's supply of financing and capital, still struggling from Lehman Bros. collapse a few years ago.

[gthomas]

Go try and find a place to live in Downtown or Midtown!? You might be lucky..The banks aren't lending.

94% occupancy rate? Is that number valid? Just last year I read that it was in the 60s. Plus, if it were really that high, one would expect new construction to be going up all over downtown and midtown, and that isn't happening.