Cityplanner

Um...the Target space was formerly used by SAKS FIFTH AVENUE. I remember shopping there about 15-20 years ago. It was a small store.

I remember shopping in the Target space...back when it was a Saks Fifth Avenue. Kind of a drop in prestige? Central Greenville definitely could support a Target. The County Square site had two large discount stores back in the '70s and at least one was around until the '80s. There's definitely a market for a Target, and the downtown area could definitely support one. It's such a pain to drive to Woodruff Road. Hopefully a "real" Target will open in or near downtown. A mini-Target is better than no Target, but I'd prefer a "real" one.

Now that we'll be demolishing a derelict mall, when will it be McAlister Square's and Haywood Mall's turns?

Currently there is only one train in each direction three days a week between Charlotte and Atlanta. Does anyone see a 220-mph system as anything more than a pie-in-the-sky promise, given the current state of passenger rail on that route? Instead of spending money on studies and plans, why not spend money on maybe trying to return the route to where it was in, say, 1974. Back then it had 2 trains per day in each direction. Maybe then try to return it to where it was in 1970, with multiple trains per day in each direction. I’m not aware of any place in the US that went from one conventional train in each direction to a 220-mph system. All corridors that I know of have started with building up the frequency of conventional trains, and then incremental track improvements to increase speeds. I’d love a 220-mph system but that’s just not realistic, particularly given SC and GA attitudes to rail.

The Brooks Brothers space is a prime retail space: at a corner in a new building on the main drag in town. Hopefully a comparable tenant will be found. And since malls have owners that own malls around the US and can leverage that market power to get tenants and keep them, hopefully downtown has something similar to be luring new stores. If a Simon mall has a tenant that is going under, Simon just buys the tenant so it remains, and if a Simon mall needs a tenant, Simon can tell its tenants in other malls to locate in the mall that needs a tenant, or else. Maybe downtowns around the US need a similar nationwide management company, with similar power?

I have a great idea: how about a gift shop, with cute gifts for women?

I am told that Brooks Brothers closed simply because its new owners refused to pay back rent. Landlords that accepted that and waived back rent kept their stores. Landlords that wanted back rent paid lost their stores. Shame.

Taubman made the right choice to just sell the place. The only way I see to totally fix the problem would be for people who somehow get the idea to bring a gun to the mall and use it simply decide that they have better uses for their time, but that's a long-range approach. Getting rid of the low-end stores on the lower level might help, but then the mall would dramatically increase its vacancy rate. Maybe a better police presence and curfews, but that scares people off, too.

So the mall is already losing stores and now this. Really infuriating to let low-life thugs contribute to the downward spiral of a very nice development.

They're beautiful homes. I really like them.

It reminds me of the USSR's gift to Poland, the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science Neo-classical architecture is much better than brutalist or Mid-Century Modern, but it still needs to have the right proportions and details to be beautiful.

The Trehel/Cargo/SunTrust building is a very nice-looking building. Now why do we still have the Daniel Building and some other eyesores around, when buildings as nice as the Trehel one are being done these days (whether remodeled or newly built)?

If Haywood can't get an upscale tenant or mix of tenants for the Sears space, it should just give up, call it a day, lock the doors and turn out the lights. SouthPark seems to be doing fine.

Wouldn't having Burlington as an anchor dissuade higher-end stores from locating at Haywood?

Please tell me that the rumor that I'm hearing that Burlington (Coat Factory), coming to the former Sears space, is false. Please tell me that it's Von Maur or basically anything except Burlington.

I hadn't until recently, but it looks like a super-expensive version of Southern Tide or Harold's (sadly, RIP). Seems like an ideal fit for the space. I hate it when stores close, particularly as the ones I like the most always seem to go out of business, but that's life, I guess.

That's great news (for Greenville). I looked on the store list for Onward Reserve and it looks like it does locate in urban areas so maybe downtown is a better fit for its target location. Hopefully. I'm still hoping that Brooks Brothers comes back to life. That was such a beautiful store and the employees gave such excellent customer service. Much better than the NYC flagship, which also closed.

Exactly- nobody would spend $70k to build out a store with an expectation that the right to use the space could be revoked at any time.

That’s blatant racism: tricking people into spending $70,000 to build out a store and then canceling the lease.

No, I am just a customer of Brightline and see its publicly-available news. Brightline terminated its link with Virgin due to some financial issues with Virgin. Virgin didn’t terminate the link.

Good to hear as I’m concerned about losing Lululemon, since it has a seasonal pop-up store at Haywood.

Fortress didn’t own the land or track for the Las Vegas route, called Brightline West. It bought the land and is proceeding with the project, despite having to redo its financial planning. Brightline has specifically mentioned Atlanta-Charlotte as a potential route. If local governments would be proactive and try to lure Brightline, particularly given its previously-expressed interest, then that would help. The status of the uptown train station is unacceptable. 20 years of studies, plans and project and no new station to show for all of that.

Have you taken Brightline? The main station at Miami Worldcenter is gleaming and futuristic, and far snazzier than any airport or train station I've ever been in. Shiny, new, luxurious and very high-end--imagine an American Airlines Flagship Lounge to wait in while waiting for the 10:15am train for your commute. And even the local stations along the line are very sleek and luxurious. And all was completed much faster and efficiently than the Charlotte train station. If you haven't taken Brightline, please do, and I'll gladly hear you out once you've done so.

If we can step back a bit: This station has been "just around the corner" for about 20 years. I have zero confidence that government can get it done (at least in a timely and cost-effective manner). Time for the government to get out of the way and let Brightline take over this station and the whole CLT-DC route (or at least Charlotte-Raleigh or whatever it wants). If Brightline took over, we'd have a gleaming new station and gleaming new trains in short order.

Out of curiosity, what went wrong with Stony Point Fashion Park? It's clearly a failed center, and with sales much lower than at Short Pump, I would expect Saks and the other high-end stores there to close. (I see that Dillard's will keep low-productivity stores and just doesn't spend much money to run them.) Really too bad, given how attractive it is.