Is it 2 stories of shopping? or is it a story of shopping and a story of parking?
It is an attractive building, although I wish it would have been built to be more pedestrian friendly by building next to the sidewalk. Just think, in the late 40's/early 50's the big downtown department stores started doing the suburban thing. You know where that lead. Now the suburban department stores are doing the urban thing. Where might this lead?
I stopped by after work to check it out, and my goodness was it packed. I imagine the store will do very well. As far as calling it an urban store, that might be a bit of a stretch. Its basically just a regular target on top of a parking garage, and there's really still a lot of parking out front, but that being said, it was a substantial investment to build the store this way, and I'm sure there was a time that either the store would have just closed, or they would have leveled a bunch of houses behind the store to put in a sea of parking spaces. It is an attractive looking store and I'm glad that they are investing in the city.
- 1,054
The Hampton Target grosses average daily sales around
$350,000
vs.
$80,000
At the Bridgeton Target on St. Charles Rock Rd.
This means that the Hampton Target is very profitable and successful.
I'm sorry I could not inform you all on up coming sales, but Target is a great retailer.
$350,000
vs.
$80,000
At the Bridgeton Target on St. Charles Rock Rd.
This means that the Hampton Target is very profitable and successful.
I'm sorry I could not inform you all on up coming sales, but Target is a great retailer.
- 1,610
Everyone knows the retail success of Hampton-Chippewa, but what still irks me is how risk-adverse major retailers are with locating elsewhere in the City, especially within blocks of this must-have location.
There are clearly development constraints to having your only City location at the corner of Hampton-Chippewa or very close proximity. Developers would rather now spend an arm and a leg acquiring and tearing down properties on the thus-far untouched northwest corner (Lindell Bank, National City, Wherehouse of Music) of Hampton-Chippewa than invest along South Kingshighway.
The success of anchors (PetsMart, OfficeMax) and unique stores (Starbuck's, Verizon, etc.) at Southtown Centre, while the smaller retail spaces remain empty clearly shows that South City, outside of the Hampton node, is greatly underserved in chain anchors and unique stores.
Given the slow absorption of remaining Southtown space, it appears that there is excess supply of smaller strip-mall standard retail space. Besides, much of our existing older storefronts with apartments already offer such for-lease space. But our dense purchasing power can support more unique stores new to South City (Best Buy, Border's, Trader Joe's, etc.).
Add it all up, and it just irks me at the missed opportunity for new chains to be successful and help redevelop the stretch of retail from Southtown Centre to Christy Plaza. And all because major commercial developers and/or their leasing chain retailers won't risk locating anywhere but land-constrained Hampton-Chippewa, despite the anchor and unique store successes in Southtown Centre.
But if developers and retailers would ever catch on, they'd likely try developing free-standing chain boxes surrounded by surface parking. So until our City comes up with better site plan review practices for more pedestrian-oriented design, maybe it's temporarily a mixed blessing that the private sector has been slow to realize our dense purchasing power.
There are clearly development constraints to having your only City location at the corner of Hampton-Chippewa or very close proximity. Developers would rather now spend an arm and a leg acquiring and tearing down properties on the thus-far untouched northwest corner (Lindell Bank, National City, Wherehouse of Music) of Hampton-Chippewa than invest along South Kingshighway.
The success of anchors (PetsMart, OfficeMax) and unique stores (Starbuck's, Verizon, etc.) at Southtown Centre, while the smaller retail spaces remain empty clearly shows that South City, outside of the Hampton node, is greatly underserved in chain anchors and unique stores.
Given the slow absorption of remaining Southtown space, it appears that there is excess supply of smaller strip-mall standard retail space. Besides, much of our existing older storefronts with apartments already offer such for-lease space. But our dense purchasing power can support more unique stores new to South City (Best Buy, Border's, Trader Joe's, etc.).
Add it all up, and it just irks me at the missed opportunity for new chains to be successful and help redevelop the stretch of retail from Southtown Centre to Christy Plaza. And all because major commercial developers and/or their leasing chain retailers won't risk locating anywhere but land-constrained Hampton-Chippewa, despite the anchor and unique store successes in Southtown Centre.
But if developers and retailers would ever catch on, they'd likely try developing free-standing chain boxes surrounded by surface parking. So until our City comes up with better site plan review practices for more pedestrian-oriented design, maybe it's temporarily a mixed blessing that the private sector has been slow to realize our dense purchasing power.
southslider wrote:
The success of anchors (PetsMart, OfficeMax) and unique stores (Starbuck's, Verizon, etc.) at Southtown Centre, while the smaller retail spaces remain empty clearly shows that South City, outside of the Hampton node, is greatly underserved in chain anchors and unique stores.
I actually read on urban review stl that office max will close when the lease is up.
- 2,005
^I read thru that thread and that guy doesn't know what he's talking about
Anyway, I go to the Banfield(I mean my dog) inside the PetSmart. When they first opened the pet hospital, it was a couple years earlier then planned due to the better then expected business at PetSmart.
Dont kid yourselves. The new office max will be closed once the lease is up. The regional manager is a college friend.
The Bosnians are moving out of Bevo en masse. Check Mehlville's stats.
Kingshighway used to be the dividing line but no longer--Southhampton is already experiencing decay.
Its going to take a bold developer to be sold on any sort of Kingshighway/Chippewa plan for any sort of mixed use in the near future. Look for the blight continue West from Kingshighway to Hampton.
Anyway, I go to the Banfield(I mean my dog) inside the PetSmart. When they first opened the pet hospital, it was a couple years earlier then planned due to the better then expected business at PetSmart.
The only thing he has right in the post is Bosnians moving to South County. And it's not exactly en mas. While many have moved out there, they haven't exactly picked up the whole community and moved it out there. All the Bosnian businesses are still in the city too.
- 1,044
In my opinion much of the blame should fall on the alderman for not encouraging retailers to take a look at opportunities within a ward. One of the reasons I feel the CWE and East Loop have been successfully is because of Lyda Krewson. Downtown and the near south side have had Phyllis Young for many years. Most developers look for the easiest way to make a buck and the distorted perception of problems in the city scare too many of the big guys away.
- 1,610
bprop wrote:
I think it's the Office Depot in Christy Plaza a bit further south. In this case, Office Max is not a new store to south city, neither in concept (since Christy Plaza Office Depot) or actual chain (since Office Max moved from StL Marketplace).
PetsMart was a new store, at least in the form of a major retail chain, since there are independents like Pet Connections on South Vandeventer near South Kingshighway just a mile or so north.
New major retailers still lacking any City locations would include electronics, appliances, furniture, home decor, and bookstores. In each of these like the pet supplies example, there are fortunately independents, or even smaller chains like Radio Shack and Waldenbooks. But the giants still mostly overlook our City's purchasing power, or trust we continue to trek out to the County for shopping.
Nationally, many chains are increasingly building hybrid box stores within more urban footprints to serve inner-city locations. So, fortunately, new chains don't have to equal the standard big box.
I actually read on urban review stl that office max will close when the lease is up.
I think it's the Office Depot in Christy Plaza a bit further south. In this case, Office Max is not a new store to south city, neither in concept (since Christy Plaza Office Depot) or actual chain (since Office Max moved from StL Marketplace).
PetsMart was a new store, at least in the form of a major retail chain, since there are independents like Pet Connections on South Vandeventer near South Kingshighway just a mile or so north.
New major retailers still lacking any City locations would include electronics, appliances, furniture, home decor, and bookstores. In each of these like the pet supplies example, there are fortunately independents, or even smaller chains like Radio Shack and Waldenbooks. But the giants still mostly overlook our City's purchasing power, or trust we continue to trek out to the County for shopping.
Nationally, many chains are increasingly building hybrid box stores within more urban footprints to serve inner-city locations. So, fortunately, new chains don't have to equal the standard big box.
Unfortunately, the new Target also has the region's highest theft rate.
^Do you have any documentation to back that up? It's not that I don't believe you, but my dad knows one of the security guards, and he said that they have caught almost every shoplifter because there is a camera every 10 ft in the store.