Comments on: Population increase hasn’t translated into retail growth

By: jcsbarber

jcsbarber — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:35:54 +0000

Paul wrote
Walker wrote
Paul wrote I don't think Tuttle is on its way out. I still go there once every month or so.
:shock:
I guess this means it's time for me to change my avatar, eh?
:P
Nooo! Why would you do that?
It's merely a humble homage...

LOL...that's hilarious. Good stuff, Paul.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:22:21 +0000

Walker wrote
Paul wrote I don't think Tuttle is on its way out. I still go there once every month or so.
:shock:
I guess this means it's time for me to change my avatar, eh?
:P

Nooo! Why would you do that?

It's merely a humble homage...

By: 20thousandinmypocket

20thousandinmypocket — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:19:01 +0000

i dont believe polaris is that successful. i mean they still have 1 big box retail space that isnt leased, i know for a fact the great indoors on a national level is not really performing, and also from what i have heard the saks in columbus is doing very poorly. i truthfully would not be surprised if both saks and great indoors were to shut their doors over the next 5 years. with lampert at the head of sears i really wouldnt not be surprised if he were to shut down the rest of the great indoors that are still around, or sell them to a pe firm or something. saks who knows if they can fix some of brad martin’s foulups. i heard something about getting rid of excess baggage in the conference call in nov for saks, but as i didnt listen to it i cant say what it was in reference to. all im saying is dont be surprised if neither of these stores survive.

By: Walker

Walker — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:00:23 +0000

Paul wrote I don't think Tuttle is on its way out. I still go there once every month or so.

:shock:

I guess this means it's time for me to change my avatar, eh?

By: Roland

Roland — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:14:01 +0000

With all the office space in the Tuttle area, there's a lot of lunchtime shoppers. There's also lots of housing being developed behind the mall and even more office space coming over by the Hilliard side.

I think Tuttle Mall will only see an increase in traffic for a few years to come.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 21:48:05 +0000

I don’t think Tuttle is on its way out. I still go there once every month or so.

By: Walker

Walker — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 10:02:12 +0000

That's why the focus of City Center shouldn't be on retail alone. The same sort of thing goes for other venues. If there was a new movie theater built downtown at the City Center (which I wouldn't advocate) it would come at the expense of the Arena Grand, The AMC Lennox and the Drexel Gateway theaters. If there were a new nightlife district at the City Center it would come at the expense of the Park Street nightlife area. If there were a new hotel complex at the City Center, it would come at the expense of the other downtown hotels.

If the focus is on a mixed-use development though it should have enough variety to be appealing without being too much of a detriment to other similar locals.

By: honavery

honavery — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 10:00:54 +0000

Is Tuttle on the demise? I hardly ever go there, but the last time I was there on a Sunday afternoon in November it was packed. Like really packed.

By: Brewmaster

Brewmaster — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 09:42:45 +0000

I hate building retail without population growth though. It just comes at the expense of existing retail. If you build something sucessful downtown, you’ll probably turn Tuttle into a ghost town, then need to spend millions bulldozing and redeveloping it.

By: Walker

Walker — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 19:40:11 +0000

I agree that downtown needs some more population density before we’ll see more commercial development, but shopping centers aren’t limited to regions. Not everyone that shops at Polaris lives within 5 miles of it. Not everyone that shops at Easton lives within 5 miles of it. So not everyone that would shop downtown needs to reside downtown. Hell, even in the heyday of the City Center we had hardly anyone else living downtown then. People travelled downtown for the City Center because it was a destination.

By: Brewmaster

Brewmaster — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 11:54:22 +0000

Also let's have a reality check here.

There have been about 1,500 housing units completed since 2002. That amounts to around 2,500 new residents.

There are about 750,000 people living in the Columbus Metro area and we've got two sucessful malls (Easton and Polaris), and one semi-sucessful mall (Tuttle).

I don't think anyone in thier right mind would think that a couple thousand residents is enough to resuscitate a massive mall on life support.

Can we support a few stand alone retailers? Perhaps. But those 2,500 new residents are still relatively spread out. We've got to get our density up before we can expect clothing stores to be popping up downtown.

By: Brewmaster

Brewmaster — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 16:03:51 +0000

I'll speak for myself here...

Walkability to things like work, grocery stores, restaurants, bars, banks, shipping stores, delis, coffee shops, dry cleaners, doctors offices, parks, movie theaters, and sporting events is the best thing about living downtown. That said, I don't want to be able to walk to a big box retailer because they are inherently unwalkable. Think about how many people drive from one big box to another within the SAME plaza. They'd break up the urban atmosphere if they all moved downtown. I understand that there are "urban" versions of walmarts, targets, etc... but I feel like we'd be selling out if one moved in.

Also, For as much as I go to Target, Best Buy, Lowe's, etc... I don't mind jumping in the car and driving 5-10 minutes.

By: Walker

Walker — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 14:57:33 +0000

I think new downtown residents are expected to continue to travel for their shopping at the moment until their numbers can increase. The City Center will be completely shut down before it gets any better, so I don't see any new real stores moving in there before then.

There is plenty of other downtown retail space that can be utilized that isn't part of the city center. I can see stores like the American Apparel in the Short North setting up in other areas downtown. That store isn't a part of a larger retail center. It's an island, but it's a destination because you can't find it anywhere else.

How about an H&M on Gay Street? I could see that happening and doing well. 8)

By: ddavis

ddavis — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 14:44:25 +0000

But with so many stores already gone from City Center, what stores are the new residents expected to patronize? The “everything under a buck” stores that now inhabit spaces of former clothing retailers?