Quote Originally Posted by Bham1982 View Post
Urban malls have a dismal track record in the U.S., and there's no chance of an urban mall in downtown Detroit.

They often fail in far stronger cities. Ever seen the Block 37 disaster in downtown Chicago?
But on the flip side you have The Shops at North Bridge, Water Tower Place and 900 N. Michigan which is full of high end stores anchored by Nordstrom, Macy's and Bloomingdale's, respectively. You also have One Canal Place in New Orleans and Westfield Horton Plaza in San Diego.

Now I won't be the first to advocate for a shopping mall downtown, but the reason why RenCen's shopping plaza failed was because it was near nothing else. At least this plan, albeit just a rumor, is actually integrated into the rest of downtown.