Quote Originally Posted by DetroitPlanner View Post
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.