DESTROYED: Providence Fruit & Produce Warehouse

[Frankie811]

Pretty much all the usual suspects have Manhattan locations now, I used to shop regularly at the Filene's Basement

[basachs]

Wow! And I thought that Filene's was only based in the Boston, Southern New England area. ESPECIALLY Filene's Basement, which I thought was only located in Boston, where hundreds, thousands of women went to the annual wedding dress sale.

[Frankie811]

They go down as far south as Georgia (Atlanta) and as west as Illinois as I have seen at least 2 in the Chicago area. FB is a totally seperate company and has expanded beyond Filene's.

[Cotuit]

The thing that Providence is most lacking is a Filene's Basement, in both New York and Boston I did most of my shopping there. And I loved it when the Marshall's opened in the Back Bay.

[Frankie811]

The thing that Providence is most lacking is a Filene's Basement, in both New York and Boston I did most of my shopping there. And I loved it when the Marshall's opened in the Back Bay.

[basachs]

So when Macy's, et al, took over Filene's, did that include Filene's Basement, or is that a seperate entity? I have a vivid recolection over the years of viewing reports from the Boston televison stations of hoards of women cramming into the Boston Filene's Basement store for bridal dress discount sales.

[Frankie811]

Nope, Filene's Basement is a seperate company and was not affected by the Macy's acquisition.

[Cotuit]

So, where in Prov would you like to see a FB? Downtown/downcity? Capital Center? Onlyville? University Heights? Wayland Sq? I think it would do quite well here since it's a recognized brand, and isn't every RI'er looking for a bargain?

[Liamlunchtray]

So, where in Prov would you like to see a FB? Downtown/downcity? Capital Center? Onlyville? University Heights? Wayland Sq? I think it would do quite well here since it's a recognized brand, and isn't every RI'er looking for a bargain?

[f1rehead]

Somewhat related, there is a Best Buy across the street from the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

(by related I mean: big box in urban setting with a big dose of SBER in both cities)

[runawayjim]

Somewhat related, there is a Best Buy across the street from the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

(by related I mean: big box in urban setting with a big dose of SBER in both cities)

[bhooley]

The Filene's Basement in Warwick always did very well, but was closed as part of their restructuring before they started their expansion. I think ALCO or the Produce site would be great.

[Recchia]

Fruit and Produce -> Farmer's Market!! And Craftland!!

Downcity -> TJMaxx, Marshalls, Best Buy, Trader Joes... no parking very urban.

[bhooley]

I think it may be premature to have no parking for a big box downtown. Once enough foot traffic is established then we can get rid of some, but to start we'll probly need atleast some rear parking or a deck or two. Even if one were to build in the parking lot district on half of one of the lots, keeping the remainder of the lot open, that'd be okay with me to start.

[runawayjim]

I think it may be premature to have no parking for a big box downtown. Once enough foot traffic is established then we can get rid of some, but to start we'll probly need atleast some rear parking or a deck or two. Even if one were to build in the parking lot district on half of one of the lots, keeping the remainder of the lot open, that'd be okay with me to start.

[Recchia]

i'm not opposed to parking, but i think that the idea of many lots rather than fewer garages is a bad idea. i like the idea of having the fruit and produce place being big box if it was put together a bit more urban mindedly with less parking lots and more garage spaces. they can increase the amount of building space they have and probably have even more parking by building just one garage rather than having the 3 lots (one 4-5 floor garage on one end of the building will probably hold more cars than the 3 lots they have in their pic).

[Recchia]

Here's a Stop and Shop in Queens with parking on the roof for Frankie:

And here's one in Boston on the Green Line:

The building in Queens, if it had more windows on its streetfront, would be a good fit for this parcel. Throw a TJMaxx and a Best Buy or Circuit City in there!

[jencoleslaw]

even in suburby sprawloriffic northern virginia, they used parking garages and limited surface parking at the newer grocery stores (wegmans, for example) and in Tysons Corner, the shoppingest place i've ever been to in my LIFE had big box retail (each store was two or three stories) built right to the street, with shared parking in a structure--crate and barrel, Best Buy and Borders, i think, shared the parking. And this was by no means an "urban area" but route 2 in warwick x 100,000. And they still figured out that land was more valuable with buildings on it than parking.

[Cotuit]

This is the Target/Best Buy I used to shop at in Queens:

LiveLocal

It's a round parking garage with the stores in the core, so you can enter from the street, or park and walk in from the garage. It's a rather cool looking building. There's subway stops a couple blocks in either direction, the one to the east is where I would transfer to the bus to get home.

This area of Queens is strip mall-y, but most have structured parking. Queens Blvd. is a horrible traffic sewer and has a high rate of accidents involving pedestrians. It's not the ideal example of an urban box, but the areas off Queens Blvd. are very walkable and this area is packed with transit. The Queens Mall is a few blocks to the east just off the LIE.

[runawayjim]

This is the Target/Best Buy I used to shop at in Queens:

LiveLocal

It's a round parking garage with the stores in the core, so you can enter from the street, or park and walk in from the garage. It's a rather cool looking building. There's subway stops a couple blocks in either direction, the one to the east is where I would transfer to the bus to get home.

This area of Queens is strip mall-y, but most have structured parking. Queens Blvd. is a horrible traffic sewer and has a high rate of accidents involving pedestrians. It's not the ideal example of an urban box, but the areas off Queens Blvd. are very walkable and this area is packed with transit. The Queens Mall is a few blocks to the east just off the LIE.

[Recchia]

It just dawned on me that the Daves Market on Airport Road is actually built in a somewhat urban fashion. Who woulda thought that the sprawl capital of Rhode Island would actually house a decent example of how suburban communities could build stores with ample parking yet still have decent pedestrian accessibility by being built on the sidewalk with nice huge windows. If only Warwick had attempted to build the rest of its sprawl like this:

[runawayjim]

It just dawned on me that the Daves Market on Airport Road is actually built in a somewhat urban fashion. Who woulda thought that the sprawl capital of Rhode Island would actually house a decent example of how suburban communities could build stores with ample parking yet still have decent pedestrian accessibility by being built on the sidewalk with nice huge windows. If only Warwick had attempted to build the rest of its sprawl like this:

[bhooley]

Another quote from the aforementioned book:

"Big retailers returning to downtowns are not automatically a good thing. If they bring the suburban form with them, either in an enclosed mall or free-standing box surrounded by parking, they do not reinforce or strengthen the downtown. In fact, essential urbanism is further eroded. The car-dependent sprawl pattern is simply imposed on an existing downtown."

I hope we can successfully change the plans for this project.

[mr2448]

It just dawned on me that the Daves Market on Airport Road is actually built in a somewhat urban fashion. Who woulda thought that the sprawl capital of Rhode Island would actually house a decent example of how suburban communities could build stores with ample parking yet still have decent pedestrian accessibility by being built on the sidewalk with nice huge windows. If only Warwick had attempted to build the rest of its sprawl like this:

[provid]

I came across this render which I will assume is from some months past: