Retail Design Option for Hudson site or Foxtown District

[Shollin]

You know as well as I do that the City of Detroit has rigged the game against small property owners. Time after time, they and the DEGC show themselves to be in bed with folks like Mike Ilitch, on whom they shovel lavish subsidies. Ilitch can get public money to build Comerica Park, "maintain" Tiger Stadium, and demolish the Madison-Lenox. Where, I ask you, is a small business loan program???

To be fair Illitch paid for 68% of Comerica and the rest was financed through a hotel tax and Illitch paid some 12 million out of his own pocket to renovate Comerica.

[rex]

region doesn't need more shopping. Plenty of malls in the suburbs that are struggling and closing. Think about it. Hudsons couldn't hold on and there were maybe a million and a quarter residents and a lot more money in the city. Now there is close to half that. Downtown could use some more family oriented stuff. Something like an aquarium.

[stasu1213]

region doesn't need more shopping. Plenty of malls in the suburbs that are struggling and closing. Think about it. Hudsons couldn't hold on and there were maybe a million and a quarter residents and a lot more money in the city. Now there is close to half that. Downtown could use some more family oriented stuff. Something like an aquarium.

I disagree with you. Downtown is a retail desert. It need more shopping. Not in a mall type setting but the old fashion storefront to storefront setting. There are no shops for women in the downtown area. Many tourists who come to Detroit wonder where are the stores for they to shop at. The shops that lined the strips in Birmingham, Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak, Dearborn Heights, and Ann Arbor are still doing well. I think that a structure that is a minituare size of the Hudson building would do good in that spot. It could have a modern flare to it but go along with the design of the older buildings that line merchants row.

[canuck]

Sure Detroit needs retail in a mix of smaller mall settings mixed in with your usual streetfront businesses.

I think a clever mix of both are needed, and a sense of scale that is more intimate than a lot of downtown malls in other cities because the fact is, you can't plop a megaproject type mall and expect it to work, and by the same token not extinguish other businesses around it. It is tricky but it can be done.

If you look at Greektown as a sort of a foodcourt setting, a similar setup to other urban ethnic enclaves in other cities, restaurants can compete in a healthy way. There is plenty of opportunity in Detroit because of the higher quality, ready-built environment that has a great variety of scale and visual interest. Planning is essential because there has to be some degree of conceptualization to balance things out. You can't plop a mall down without taking a keen look at the possible effects on the city. But you know, you could say the same of countless other pieces of equipment like multistorey parkades that were built over the years.

I think that the new arenas, stadiums, casinos, and malls should be designed to accomodate sheltered transit loops for light rail. Sort of a mini station setting that would shelter folks in bad weather. Some will say, yeah, that sure uses up a lot of space, but then take a look at the massive parking lots that dot downtown and what a difference a concentrated effort at transit loops installed at major buildings could accomplish.

[Detroitnerd]

Hrm. So, in a downtown with a very high vacancy rate for Class A commercial structures, we're proposing ... building staggering amounts of Class A office space.

Wow. That's almost like when they built the Ren Cen. Great thinking ...

[jpbollma]

Well, what about the set up in Birch Run? Burch Run has a gigantic outlet mall, and you have to walk outdoors to each store. Why not take a street downtown and put 7-8 outlet stores? Tourists love the less expensive outlet stores and the items would be less expensive for residents in Detroit. Also, Birch Run is constantly FILLED with Canadians looking for good deals. If you had a lot of these stores in Detroit there is Canada right across the river........

[Detroitnerd]

It's not rocket science. How do you get retail downtown? You put in light rail. You get residents who like living downtown and being able to travel without a car. You get more foot traffic. Then people open more retail in the existing buildings.

I swear. Detroiters will look to every out-there design idea thinking that THIS IS THE SILVER BULLET THAT WILL SAVE DOWNTOWN. You know what saves a downtown? Providing services that every other downtown in the United States has.

[DetroitPlanner]

Well, what about the set up in Birch Run? Burch Run has a gigantic outlet mall, and you have to walk outdoors to each store. Why not take a street downtown and put 7-8 outlet stores? Tourists love the less expensive outlet stores and the items would be less expensive for residents in Detroit. Also, Birch Run is constantly FILLED with Canadians looking for good deals. If you had a lot of these stores in Detroit there is Canada right across the river........

Its pretty bad when you are benchmarking against a more-than-half-empty outlet mall. At least Birch Run is in better shape than the Monroe Marketplace outlet mall.

[ghettopalmetto]

Well, what about the set up in Birch Run? Burch Run has a gigantic outlet mall, and you have to walk outdoors to each store. Why not take a street downtown and put 7-8 outlet stores? Tourists love the less expensive outlet stores and the items would be less expensive for residents in Detroit. Also, Birch Run is constantly FILLED with Canadians looking for good deals. If you had a lot of these stores in Detroit there is Canada right across the river........

Since when is it the City's responsibility to play real estate developer?

[canuck]

Since when is it the City's responsibility to play real estate developer?

Tchroo. But not so much a developer, though in certain cases it is when it has the ability to do so, in which case Detroit may not be the ideal investor. But as an urban planning executive, it has the responsibility to ponder and choose wisely. That is where Detroit may be also not able to choose and plan according to its diminished size [[downtown included) relative to budgets and expertise it had developed in the past.

A metro government, a metro transit administration, and a planning board for the whole region with talent and means would make a difference no matter where and when it starts. The bickering and hardball are all part of the game and in the end, something positive will happen if there is enough goodwill to do so.

Whatever happened to the Kresge Foundation's plan for the city? It seems like they had put a lot of money in reviewing the potential for redevelopment and now all is quiet on the midwestern front.