coastalmindset

The ACC Hall of Fame, if it goes in Greensboro, should go next to the Coliseum. It will see the bulk of it's traffic from visitors to Greensboro and most of that traffic will come during tournament time. With the Men's and Women's ACC Basketball Tournaments and the Regional NCAA Basketball Tournament events that occur in Greensboro it would make sense for the people attending these events to have easy, walking access to the ACC Hall of Fame. The bulk of these visitors are not jumping into their cars and driving downtown to see a Hall of Fame and fight all that tournament traffic. Let's also look at where the bulk of hotel rooms are located in Greensboro. Not sure what the exact number is but there's a lot at Interstate 40 and High Point Road (The Sheraton and new Double Tree along with at least 5 others). The many travelers staying in these hotels and visitors to the convention center would be more likely to go 1 mile down the road than they would be to go 5 miles into downtown. And if we were to get the ACC Baseball Tournament where would most of those people stay at a $230 a night hotel like the O'Henry or in the limited space at the Marriott? A vast majority of them will be at High Point Road and Interstate 40 just 1 mile from the ACC Hall of Fame. Think about any time you visit a big city for a large event (sporting, business conference, concert, etc.) you are not going to drive across town when there are other activities close to where your hotel is. I usually try to walk anywhere I go in a big city since most things are convenient. Unless of course there is mass transit which provides easier access throughout town and let's face it a light rail system? We can't even run a city council meeting without some stupid controversy, how could we ever decide on a form of mass transit like a light rail system. Maybe it'll happen in 20 years when the leaders in this city learn how to run the city like adults. In the meantime we should do all that we can to help the area where one of the Greensboro's taxpayers biggest assets lies. High Point Road is dying and we will soon lose all the benefits we have from the Coliseum because people will no longer want to go near that run down section of town. The ACC Hall of Fame would provide a giant boost to this area and allow great events to continue on at the Coliseum.

nowensone I agree with you completely that Friendly Center, along with many other projects and ideas in Greensboro, have been very successful even though they are not cookie cutter and by the "rules". The difficult thing is that most corporations set a base model for their growth and they stick to those numbers as this model is what "works" for them. Remember that they are mostly in the game to please their shareholders/owners and to do just enough to keep their customers happy. With this in mind they know that people in Greensboro who really like CCF (this example works for most every other business as well, ie Nordstrom) are willing to drive to Streets, or other places, to get their fix. If only it were easier to convince the people at these companies who make the decisions (usually in the Real Estate Department) to look outside the box, it would make cities like Greensboro and destinations like Friendly Center so much better for all. Unfortunately it takes way too long for companies like CCF to look at other success stories and then realize they are missing out. I guess all their success says they are doing something right even though we don't like it. I hope our retail and restaurant developments in Greensboro stay strong so we can continue to grow and get the benefit of places like CCF but it seems like we have more than we can support as it is.

DaAchiever "Your neighbors 20 miles west salivate that we were even considered for an HHGregg." Not to change the thread but rumor has it that HH Greg is building a store on Hornaday Road in Greensboro (next to the Macy's at Guilford College and I-40). Have you heard the same thing? Just curious if there was any truth to this rumor. Maybe I missed this in another thread?

nowensome: "NO, we do have the mass for a CCF, it would be packed and constantly so, that's not homerism just basic demographics." You are correct in that Friendly Center has the highest mass of people of any major retail centers in Greensboro. But it still falls short of the CCF's target density of 250k in a 5 mile radius. Friendly rates right about 200k people in a 5 mile radius. Now with that said, and as I mentioned in a previous post, CCF will take into account other factors. Those factors would be things such as ease of accessability and household income, not to mention area growth. I will again use the Streets at Southpoint example again: They only have about 85k in 5 miles but show an 11% population growth rate over the next 5 years compared to Friendly's 3% growth rate at 5 miles. Not to mention Streets is right at a major interstate and here is the kicker, while their population is low their median income at 5 miles is $61,000 compared to Friendly's $44,000. That is a huge difference and as mentioned before Greensboro will only hinder itself by not seeking high paying jobs instead of continuing to rely on skilled labor jobs (ie FedEx). Now with that said the rules are always meant to be broken and with any luck, Friendly (maybe with the help on it's new owners, whoever they may be) or anywhere else in the city will land a CCF or other big name restaurant.

While I agree with DaAchiever that they typically would go into the "highest end" area of town and I don't see them in G'boro anytime soon, I believe in a city of this size they'd weigh other factors into their location selection. Typically a restaurant such as Cheesecake would want to be in the area of town that is the "newest" as far a development goes since we as consumers tend to follow the sheep mentality and that would certainly be Friendly at the moment. It's been interesting in my years here to see the shift from Four Seasons to Wendover to Friendly and now maybe a shift to downtown. There is not enough mass in this town to create the traffic a Cheesecake needs on a regular basis. In order to supplement the lack of actual population they would want to be in a location that is easily accessible. Unfortunately Friendly is not that easy to get to where as Four Seasons is very accessible. I think the Streets at Southpoint location is a very good example of this theory. The rooftops are not there, yet being right on the Interstate draws the crowd. So like was mentioned by DaAchiever I don't see them here anytime soon or at least until we see a significant population increase.

I believe their restaurant is about 12,000 sq ft at Southpark Mall, the Streets at Southpoint store is just under 13,000 sq ft and the Crabtree Valley restaurant is 12,500 sq ft. I was simply using 15,000 sq ft as a rough average knowing that they have a few monsters over 20,000 sq ft. When you are talking about that amount of space a few thousand feet isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. They will still require lots of space/parking and Friendly is so difficult to get in and out of I would find it hard to believe they'd put a restaurant there. I would see them either near Four Seasons due to the amount of Interstate traffic, hotel business, and ease of entry or in the downtown area. I'm not even sure downtown has enough regular traffic to support a Cheesecake. Just my opinion though. Maybe they could keep Wendover closed off so people have to go through downtown to drive traffic that way. HA!

With the heavy requirements that Cheesecake sets forth I'm not sure Friendly, or many places in Greensboro for that matter, can accommodate a Cheesecake Factory. They require a lot of land with a 15,000 sq ft store and a lot of parking. If they do make it here I would be very surprised to see them at Friendly unless they are going to do some more major demolition. I'd look for them at a new project with some extra space. I hope we get them soon. If you really want a Nordstrom you'd better start shopping at the others in NC and ordering things from their catalogs. They tend to base store placement on traffic from other cities and orders placed from those cities.