Sale and Lease signs around Downtown secretly vanishing.

[jw101]

Remember a few months ago when I posted a thread on Dan Gilbert's "retail renaissance?" Here's the link: http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...rget-amp-Apple No official announcements have been made yet, other than rumors. But, I recently visited downtown for the auto show. I was with my friend again. I have lived in Detroit my entire life, and I frequently remember empty storefronts and for sale/lease signs all up and down Woodward. I was shocked to find that after walking the Avenue twice, I only counted one sale/lease sign, and a man was inside talking on the phone. I also saw JC Beal posters in some windows. Remember when the city would cover up the empty storefronts with dumb pictures? We could see inside every one. Looks like Mr. Gilbert is going into stealth mode. He sure has done a great job avoiding press on these deals! From what I have heard, you should see announcements sometime this year, with stores opening in 2014 and 2015 to complement the new rail. Any questions?

[DetroitPlanner]

You will not use the rail system to get from store to store. It will be used by three groups: Students looking to get their drunk on someplace other than Circa's; Conventioneers looking to spend some time at the DIA; and those riding AMTRAK needing a connection to Downtown.

I would expect stores to follow a similar pattern of regaining Woodward as the reverse of the ones that left it. The death nail was the closing of the Kressge and Woolworths [[One of them was actually McCrorys when it went under). The closest thing to those stores in today's market are Family Dollar/Dollar General. Next will come the discount stores like T.J. Max, then finally others will join. Don't expect a grand department store like the days of old. Those simply don't exist anymore. Even the Old Marshal Fields is a shell of what it once was in terms of Sq Ft.

[wolverine]

You will not use the rail system to get from store to store. It will be used by three groups: Students looking to get their drunk on someplace other than Circa's; Conventioneers looking to spend some time at the DIA; and those riding AMTRAK needing a connection to Downtown.

I would expect stores to follow a similar pattern of regaining Woodward as the reverse of the ones that left it. The death nail was the closing of the Kressge and Woolworths [[One of them was actually McCrorys when it went under). The closest thing to those stores in today's market are Family Dollar/Dollar General. Next will come the discount stores like T.J. Max, then finally others will join. Don't expect a grand department store like the days of old. Those simply don't exist anymore. Even the Old Marshal Fields is a shell of what it once was in terms of Sq Ft.

I think Woodward could absolutely become a version of Chicago's state Street. More mid-range type of stores. DSW, Nordstrom Rack, Target, mega-Walgreens, Marshalls, etc. The city is ready for this type of development. No they can't support large department stores, but discount department stores would thrive well.

As for "shell of retail space." Hardly. The store was originally 9 floors of shopping. Today it's 9 floors of shopping. The basement was expanded and the 9th floor was reduced. 10-14 were storage, office, manufacturing, and staging. They still have all that. To me those were the coolest floors to see on a recent tour.

Detroit needs to build a decent downtown shopping area, continue to attract companies and large number of workers, and then have rail in service so that intensified residential and commercial development up Woodward to New Center makes reasonable sense.

[DetroitPlanner]

As for "shell of retail space." Hardly. The store was originally 9 floors of shopping. Today it's 9 floors of shopping. The basement was expanded and the 9th floor was reduced. 10-14 were storage, office, manufacturing, and staging. They still have all that. To me those were the coolest floors to see on a recent tour.

Sorry dude you're wrong. One of the main reasons they have that large central multi-story atrium is because they had 100,000's of thousands of extra square feet in the place.

As far as Detroit is concerned, retail will be a tough nut to crack. There are however a lot more people living and working downtown, but the surrounding neighborhoods have a lot less people in them than in the early 1980's [[the last time retail was relatively healthy). Retail needs to concentrate on providing the daily needs of the workers and residents first.

Its going to be a long time before Saks is back.

[canuck]

I think Woodward could absolutely become a version of Chicago's state Street. More mid-range type of stores. DSW, Nordstrom Rack, Target, mega-Walgreens, Marshalls, etc. The city is ready for this type of development. No they can't support large department stores, but discount department stores would thrive well.

As for "shell of retail space." Hardly. The store was originally 9 floors of shopping. Today it's 9 floors of shopping. The basement was expanded and the 9th floor was reduced. 10-14 were storage, office, manufacturing, and staging. They still have all that. To me those were the coolest floors to see on a recent tour.

Detroit needs to build a decent downtown shopping area, continue to attract companies and large number of workers, and then have rail in service so that intensified residential and commercial development up Woodward to New Center makes reasonable sense.

Don't be too enthusiastic; paint a gloomy picture and thinly sugar coat it so nobody can tell if your optimism is something they should beat on at first glance.