Show your true colors are you an urbanite or suburbanite at heart?

[intcvlcphlga]

I posed this question in the "Favorite Triad Mall" thread, but thought it warranted its own topic. Here's the hypothetical question: If the 5 stores you most often frequent at Hanes Mall also had locations downtown - maybe a couple on 4th St between Spruce and Cherry, one on Trade between 6th and 7th, one on Liberty between 4th and 5th and one on 5th between Trade and Cherry - would you shop at the downtown location or the Hanes Mall location?

[DigitalSky]

both.

[ncbrian]

I posed this question in the "Favorite Triad Mall" thread, but thought it warranted its own topic. Here's the hypothetical question: If the 5 stores you most often frequent at Hanes Mall also had locations downtown - maybe a couple on 4th St between Spruce and Cherry, one on Trade between 6th and 7th, one on Liberty between 4th and 5th and one on 5th between Trade and Cherry - would you shop at the downtown location or the Hanes Mall location?

I would say yes if it was not the fact that I hardly go to the mall as it is , perhaps once a month at best. For maybe 90% of my purchases, I shop at 5 places: Lowes foods, Harris Teeter, Target, Barnes & Noble, & Best Buy with occasion forays to Borders, Fresh Market and local coffee shops. If they put a housewares store like Williams-Sonoma or an Eddie Bauer outlet, I would drop frequently in during working hours as I work downtown.

[intcvlcphlga]

I would say yes if it was not the fact that I hardly go to the mall as it is , perhaps once a month at best. For maybe 90% of my purchases, I shop at 5 places: Lowes foods, Harris Teeter, Target, Barnes & Noble, & Best Buy with occasion forays to Borders, Fresh Market and local coffee shops. If they put a housewares store like Williams-Sonoma or an Eddie Bauer outlet, I would drop frequently in during working hours as I work downtown.

William's Sonoma, Eddie Bauer, Borders, B&N and a grocery store (smaller or on 2 levels) would definitely work downtown.

[Hotlanta]

High end mall shops would really go great downtown! I think it would be really cool if instead of building a new mall in north winston, we built those stores downtown.Like a continuous strip of stores lining the streets along 4th St to West End. And, you could have your normal mall eateries like Sheetz and Chick Fil A with sidewalk seating outside. That would be awesome and nationally unique!

[NcSc74]

Yeah I would. Although I would prefer to live in a midtown area it would give me an excuse to leave normalcy and get out in the mix of things. How cool would it be if it were to evolve in to something like the ginza strip in Tokyo. Maybe not on that grand of scale but an attraction like that can pull shoppers from around the state and region. That is something to think about. Think of the added visitors to other downtown attractions and historical sites also.

[Hotlanta]

I have a feeling we could really do something downtown that would get us in the spotlight. If you took normal mall stores and unique ones and put them in a strip that went from Cherry to Brookstown on 4th St then you could really have something and it would also jump start alot of midrise developement that would make our area more urban than it already is. I don't think anything like this has been done in our nation.

[Noneck_08]

Both, but it really depends on what I'm doing. I usually go over on Hanes for more than just the mall, Sams Club, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. But yea, I would diffently do some shopping downtown.

[yadkinv]

I was in Portland, Oregon last october, and that downtown, and that city has done a similar thing downtown. The effect is great!

[Hotlanta]

It would be cool if we all got together and went to the next city council meeting to present our idea. Or if we couldn't do that, we could just e-mail the DWSP and see what they say.

[Hotlanta]

I was thinking about some of these posts and I decided that I would make a map of future retail if we were to have a "mini-sidewalk-mall" downtown. I have to admit that I wish this could happen becuase it would look so darn good and really give downtown Winston some real personality. The red on this map represents new retail as multi stories, the blue represents new restaurants (multi-story or not), the purple represents new condos and multi- story residential development, and orange represents new parking decks so there is no complaint of lack of parking. You may be wondering why there are purple areas with red or blue outlining them. This is to indicate that this is 2 or more stories with residential on top with restaurants or retail on the bottom. Some of these stores would be a first for our area and I think it would be neat if we got them. You know, trying to keep up the competition. I tried to put in stores that would cater to all walks of life. Like business professionals, teens, average adults, adventurous people, and housewives.

Retail included on map 1:

J Crew

LaCoste

Barnes and Noble (urban)

American Eagle

Eddie Bauer

Coach

Ann Taylor

Guess?

Williams Sonoma

Jos. A. Bank

Abercrombie & Fitch (adults & kids)

Hollister

Pacific Sun

Bananna Republic

Pottery Barn & Pottery Barn Kids

Gap (men, women, kids, baby, maternity, body)

Aeropostale

Victoria's Secret

bebe

American Apparel

Sharon Luggage

Carlyle and Company

Nine West

Bath and Body Works

Foot Locker (men, women, kids)

Apple Computer

Game Stop

Restaurants and Entertainment included on map 1:

Cold Stone Creamery

Doc Greens

Panera Bread

Harris Teeter (grocery store and multi story)

California Pizza Kitchen

Mamma Fu's Noodle House

REI (multi-story)

I will be releasing a second and third map that will cover the central and eastern parts of downtown. I wish this could all happen and maybe it could if we tried to encourage it.

[yadkinv]

WOW! I wish this could be sold as a workable idea!

[Hotlanta]

WOW! I wish this could be sold as a workable idea!

Yeah so do I!

[SouthJersey7]

Fantastic plan Hotlanta, the only thing I would suggest is to get some of the retail built into the parking garages. That way there would be abundant parking, and you could avoid the "blank streetwall" thing. But seriously that would be dynamite in downtown W-S.

[Hotlanta]

Fantastic plan Hotlanta, the only thing I would suggest is to get some of the retail built into the parking garages. That way there would be abundant parking, and you could avoid the "blank streetwall" thing. But seriously that would be dynamite in downtown W-S.

Actually where you see the parking decks and the retail, they are seperate structures. But, thank you for looking over it and all of you who gave positive comments about it. I wonder how much it would cost a developer to buy up all of that land to develop this. I am seriously think about contacting a developer about this.

[intcvlcphlga]

Actually where you see the parking decks and the retail, they are seperate structures. But, thank you for looking over it and all of you who gave positive comments about it. I wonder how much it would cost a developer to buy up all of that land to develop this. I am seriously think about contacting a developer about this.

Here's your opportunity: http://www.bizjournals.com/triad/stories/2...tml?jst=b_ln_hl . The owner of Hanes Mall is sponsoring a innovative retail business plan competition. Put together a business model that will make your above vision of downtown retail realistic and then use the the capital of the purveyors of suburban schlock to fund it...

[Hotlanta]

I didn't know where to post this but I decided here. This is an interesting article about the condo craze here in the Triad.

Condo mania?