Lack of shopping at Renaissance Center Wintergarden

[eastland]

Retail growth on Woodward and elsewhere in actual street-level downtown is far more important for the area's and the city's future than what happens insider the Ren Cen. And I would much rather see the focus placed there. Anyway, retail has always been a tough go at Ren Cen, for a number of reasons, not the least being its isolation from the city around it, and I see no realistic reason to think that will change.

The isolation was intended. The RenCen was designed as a fortress -- remember the concrete berms in front with a narrow opening at the foot of Brush -- to keep the public out.

[EastsideAl]

The isolation was intended. The RenCen was designed as a fortress -- remember the concrete berms in front with a narrow opening at the foot of Brush -- to keep the public out.

It sure was. I remember the berms well. They sent a pretty clear message. GM did a good thing taking those out, but the place still feels like a fortress, and isolated from the rest of the city. Inside, even after a couple of renovations, it feels like a particularly confusing section of suburbia. As if someone designed a mall specifically so that you can't find anything in it, and can't find your way in or out of it.

In other words, it has just about nothing going for it as a retail destination, aside from the captive population inside. And, other than lunchtime, that really isn't the source of a lot of business either. My guess is that most of the people who work there don't shop or dally around the Ren Cen after work. They simply get back in their cars at the end of their working day and drive back out to the suburbs to shop, eat, etc. at whatever big box stores and malls are near where they live.