All we have is a proposal and silence? We don't know if it will be built? Where have you been? Construction financing has been secured, a huge, well-known GC was selected for the job, a white monolith was imploded, a Dee-Dee-size hole was dug, several levels of parking have been built in the hole, several massive overnight concrete pours have taken place for the foundation of the tower and the deck, and it looks like we're about to be above grade with steel coming out of the ground anytime soon.
Did a fairy fly over downtown, wiggle its nose, and make all of this happen, unbeknownst to the developers? Are they still trying to get zoning and figure out what to do with the existing structure while all this took place? Hmm....
I did read the article. It provides bullet points for creating great street-level retail. Fine. On this site, you have 3 streets. In the renderings, we have multi-story retail along all 3 streets, with internal corridors and plazas coming off those streets and more storefronts to accomodate 300,000 s.f. of space. Is there something wrong with that? I don't see blank walls anywhere - what renderings are you looking at? I see glass and storefronts and signage.
The fact is you can't fit it all onto the streets, there HAS to be some facing the interior. So they made open-air plazas and corridors with outdoor seating. I think the architects did a good job stuffing 10 lbs of sh-- into a 5 lb bag.
The other huge benefit of the design is that all the access points can be controlled for special events. For example, if they have the right license, you could take a drink from one bar and go out in the plaza with it, finish it, then go somewhere else. Or pay one cover charge at the gate at the street, if there is a charge, and get a wristband to go to any venue. I've seen this setup in other cities with similar developments.
Retailers shun the downtown area because NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE LIVE DOWNTOWN YET. You will NEVER get Gap, Banana, Victoria's Secret, Barnes & Noble, or Borders to be first movers to ANY downtown that lacks residents unless the deal is heavily subsidized. They simply won't do it. If you've seen them somewhere like that, the developers bought the deal and it's a loss-leader for them. My educated guess is that Ghazi couldn't afford to do that, but will have the space available in 5 or 10 years when leases start to expire and more people are (hopefully) living downtown.
And something that is attractive to chain outfits will always be attractive to local outfits too. I'd eat my hat if there wasn't a ton of local retailers dying to be there. The problem is two-fold: (1) The land was expensive, construction costs are sky-high, so the rent is almost certainly too expensive for a small company with limited capital to risk it in an unproven market, and (2) Construction and permanent lenders demand signed leases with national credit tenants to mitigate their risk, so that's what developers go after first, and everyone complains. Sorry, but that's reality. Everyone's just trying to off-load as much risk as possible, so this is what we end up with, and it happens all over the country every day.
Metro, you keep talking in circles. I ask how you would improve the design to your standards, etc, and you reply:
I'd like to hear specific changes you would make. What exactly is people-unfriendly? How would you make it more attractive to non-chain outfits? Steal the construction materials?
I love the design and the concept, and I can't WAIT to live there. The whole thing tickles me to death, and I'm tired of following the intelligent conversations around here littered with misinformation and misguided, baseless criticism.