Downtown Retail

[JonWylie]

https://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news...D4SXVZ_sBouuLI

Kind of stinks for the small pet store across the street on Washington

[Gistok]

https://www.dbusiness.com/daily-news...D4SXVZ_sBouuLI

Maybe the aquariums will leave us spellbound as we walk the perimeter of GCP... looking for food and entertainment... and marvel at how well hidden stick built constructions are these days.

I remember back in the early 1990s when a restaurant opened in the Fine Arts [[Adams Theatre entrance) building. It was called "On Stage", and there were 5 or 6 different sitting areas... such as in a French bistro with a metal Eiffel Tower in a corner, a train car dining area... etc. This would have been perfect for after theatre events. But the Adams never reopened, and neither did the United Artists... just surrounded by a dead zone.

But it was sad that all those cool seating areas remained after the restaurant went out of business [[and the building later razed)... no foot traffic in that area back then... and very little since. I realize that the church, Opera Stage House, and huge Tuller/UA block is empty and they all contribute to a lack of pedestrians. But something besides the Puppy Palace really needed to go on the Statler site, to tie into the Park Ave entertainment district and theatre district. GCP really needs restaurants/entertainments to tie it to all the spokes that lead away from it toward the other parts of downtown.

Back in the 1950s you could stand at Woodward and Adams, and in every way you looked you saw entertainment... all the theatres as spokes.... the Adams and Oriental on Adams. Ave. The United Artists and Michigan on Bagley, the Washington Theatre on Washington Blvd., the Telenews on lower Woodward, the Madison and Capitol on Broadway, the Wilson Theatre [[Music Hall) on Madison, and the State, Fox and Gem/Century up Woodward.

The city really needs to tie the entertainment district with the rest of downtown. But maybe this is the best we can hope for until the Ilitch's finally do something with all of their properties. In a sense... we probably have the Ilitch's to thank for just a Puppy Palace.