Rufus

This wording is a little off -- makes it sound like you have to "check-in" to use the facilities. But, I won't split hairs in terminology. Bryant Park has free public bathrooms and they are heavily maintained daily, including tracking totals of users for each bathroom. I'd say look and hope for that kind of investment, and it'll pay off. The head of the Bryant Park Corporation, the organization that maintains the park, is noted as saying that the bathroom is the most important asset to the park. Other parks try to imitate it, but they don't allocate staff to their bathrooms as frequently.

Continuing my morning tear of comments on this site.... I think it's important to note which cranes will still be up later this year and into 2025. As office development dwindles, having some sign of development is incredibly helpful in showing that the city is growing and becoming a more robust hub. I'm hoping at least a couple of these cranes remain in the air for that time. I still remember how valuable seeing Skyhouse and 615 S. College were to keeping up appearances.

I think we need to understand that some of this has to do with the prevalence of hostile architecture/infrastructure in many CBDs. Even in New York, public bathrooms are scarce, and also rarely well maintained. But they are also vital assets, not only for the homeless but for tourists. Now, if these are just for the homeless, I still don't see a problem with that. It still gives an opportunity for outreach. To the $500k to homeless outreach -- if you've never been a part of that kind of work, you won't understand how hard it is. There is no forcing to shelters. But there is consistency, awareness, and relationship building. These workers develop relationships that eventually get them the tools to help homeless. It's not an immediate impact, but it does have some lasting impact. There is a careful act not to force people to shelters, but to ask if they want to go. It takes repetition. I've done some outreach in NYC, and it is thankless and dirty and yet so rewarding when you finally make the connection. Also, I wouldn't choose the word accommodations for the religious buildings. That does assume them to become housing shelters, and I'd rather see some of them be community facilities with trained medical staff, employment counselors, therapists, and facilities to clean up. That's my hope...but funding is the key.

This all but screams North Hills. Either the office development on the old JCP lot or in the new innovation district down the street. Or maybe Midtown Exchange. But anything other than those three sites would be a surprise. My money is on the innovation district bc Siemens is a name brand that can be a catalyst for other tech/energy/engineering firms.

I honestly have no idea where unless it's taking the vacant store next to LV...which is wild bc for some reason I thought LV was expanding into that space, but maybe I am crossing my wires. But that space is way too big for L'Occitance. As for Tommy Bahama...their restaurants are great draws, so I am excited to see it. And that opens up a huge space next to Gucci.

Looks like Bally, Breitling, Tudor, and Vuori are opening in the mall. The watch stores seem pretty meh, but standard considering they are likely offshoots of Fink's. Bally is an interesting choice, but they have been in major expansion mode since their rebranding. Vuori I'm surprised hasn't been in the area yet...I know so many people that love them and could only find them at REI.

I would also market the hell out of that parking garage as an opportunity too. I mean, that combination could be transformative.

But I will add the the ones that have occurred have been at a much smaller scale, and with a higher price point to offset the conversion. 230 S. Tryon and the Trust aren't cheap places to live, and mainly are condos instead of apartments, IIRC.

No shade to Baltimore, but I would say it shows the value of smaller market teams compared to the major markets: Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta...maybe Philly and Washington. Smaller markets would be Milwaukee, MSP, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Denver, Vegas(Oakland), Tampa, Detroit (wild for a 5m metro, but yes). I believe this because these markets don't garner that starpower seen in other markets. I'd maybe put Atlanta here, but given their success over the last 5 years, it would be wild to think they aren't a standard for other markets. I also don't think a low valuation is a bad thing. These smaller market teams have to be run on thin margins to make it work. They don't have the appeal that the major markets have, but they still are able to pull it off.

I signed up in 2005 at the ripe age of 17 and never looked back. It's thanks to this site that I became an urban planner and writer.

@KJHburg the store next to Lacoste is Hugo Boss which is moving over there. Also, I didn't know Diptyque was opening! I believe the LV space is slightly bigger...IIRC, they are expanding merchandise but I don't think it'll include apparel yet.

I would not sound the warning sirens for DTR just yet. It's still very popular, and is still vibrant. I think Wells leaving is a symptom of its larger real estate overstretch than anything else. That being said, this would be a great opportunity for DRA and others to look at why corporate entities are choosing NH or elsewhere for their operations. Is it employee desire? Is it QOL? Is it accessibility? How do we address all of those?

I would say Fenton is too far for most of Raleigh, and not to mention that one of the pulls of Crabtree (before Triangle Town Center was built) was its accessibility to Eastern NC . If, IF Crabtree were to close, I would say Lego, Apple, Brooks Brothers, Coach, The North Face, and Tommy Bahama would move to North Hills. It's the best located and offers the same brand value as other existing retailers there do. IMHO, the only other option for those 6 is the Village District based on the wealth and design of the shopping center. The others would go to TTC, if they aren't there already. Why? Because even though TTC is kind of a dud, I still think its location and the growth to the east make it ideal for the reach of wider population.

I remember this proposal from the old Livable Streets website...god that was my first foray into urban planning, so long ago. Back to Crabtree, I remember when it was privately owned and it felt like a mall that was able to take risks and be a mix of local and national retailers, and it felt great. I went there during this last Christmas, and it felt like it had lost some of that character. Even the food court feels...staid.

I work in the Equitable Building in NYC owned b y Silverstein Properties. As a means of attracting new tenants, they operate two amenity floors. One is the 40th floor with a roof terrace and dining lounge. The other is a 10th Floor activity lounge behind an old insurance office door. The lounge has a kitchen, game room, yoga studio, two sound proof rooms, a library, dance room, and pool tables. It is never not busy. It seems wildly excessive, but talking to other tenants in the building, it's one of the main draws because so many young employees will actually go there to work instead of their cubicles. One architecture firm in the building even said that they are getting requests to reconfigure cubicles into more lounge workspace because staff hate the look of cubicles.

Unfortunately, I don't see how this doesn't expedite the demise of Crabtree. Idk...but with Fenton and North Hills having Madewell, and now Southpoint and North Hills having JCrew, it makes no sense to keep them at Crabtree either. The owners should've let Kane buy the mall so it could be seamlessly connected and not cannibalized by North Hills.

I'm sorry, but this is so exhausting because nothing will come out of this competition. Maybe it's my own sour grapes about the state of the world and organizations like CCCP, but I just get the impression this was all fluff for attention and nothing more. The renderings are all pretty. The buzz words are all buzzy. But at the end of the day, the only real project happening is the old Duke HQ -- conveniently called something trite: Brooklyn & Church (mean...come on). Office conversions are the new trend, and I hope we do see some traction with it becoming the new mode of re-adapting space in this new age of work from home. The problem is that no one really wants to have some teeth and actually play hardball here. The common argument is the economics behind retrofitting and the need to make this economically viable, and I get it, really I do, but we have a housing crisis in our country that also seems to dovetail nicely into responding to an environmental crisis of overbuilding sprawl, and yet no one has the cajones to actually put up and shut up. Even here in NYC, everyone is afraid to overstep and offend the Real Estate Board of NY (REBNY) because they are so politically powerful, and they don't want office conversions because it takes away their desire for high-priced office space at a premium. So until I see CCCP actually stand up and say that this is the way forward, and the City take the supportive stance, I am just going to acknowledge the pretty pictures and move on. I'm sure the architects had plenty of time in between designing boring 5 over 1 or EFIS hodgepodge like we see around the country. *rant over -- sorry folks, I'm sick with COVID and I am angsty

Most excited about the Calgary flight. Love that city.

The Courage are having issues? I know they have some issues with the coach (?), but I don't recall them struggling on the field or to attract fans. In fact, they are one of the more successful NWSL teams. Am I missing something?

This can be done so much better now...maybe I need to buy some extra pieces to confirm this. My dream is to build a model of the BOACC crown better.

If this is successful, consider this the future for SouthPark. Maybe not the entire mall, but it could offer an option to certain sections (I'm thinking both the Nordstrom and NM wings since they are the most recently constructed)

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Not to stray too far off topic here, but as someone who works in City government for another US City (NYC), I find the requirement to have an RFP that is open to the public and must show a competitive nature, while ultimately going for the cheapest option (in most cases) is one of the most annoying facets of developing public land. I can understand the context behind such endeavors, and this is likely my own sour grapes, but it is ridiculous the way these RFPs are usually created and evaluated and awarded. Most of you have no idea. First it's the back and forth just to get the content of the RFP correct and safe from any misunderstandings. Secondly it's the approvals to get the RFP posted, which usually have certain lead times and require the use of multiple public outputs. Then you have to receive the responses, hoping that all of them meet the requirements both content-wise and then financially, as well as showing healthy business acumen. And it has to be open for a set amount of time, legally. Then you have to evaluate the ones you want to potentially award, and it all has to be done openly. You have to come to an internal agreement on the standards of measurement by which you evaluate, and make sure everyone understands that standard. Then finally you get to award someone, but if the number of responses didn't meet the minimum required for the RFP, you usually have to start over. But say you get to award someone, well then you have to legally draft that award. And then it all has to be registered with the city's legal and business teams. And then...THEN...you get to discuss the terms of a legal agreement and process for development. This is usually at least 6months-1 year from when you released the RFP. And this back and forth takes years sometime, making the economics of the project increase. And what if another vendor has a problem and believes they were "left out" of the process? Well, that just means you either have to justify why you went with one vendor and make sure there are no holes so you don't have to release again. It's an exhaustive, over-bureaucratic process. So it's no wonder the City is trying to avoid re-doing this.

While I don't live in Charlotte anymore, I know these stores have locations in the city, and I frequent them online and here in NYC: Bonobos and Marine Layer