urbanSTL

STLrainbow wrote:Macro Sun is closing.

STLrainbow wrote:The Simply Elegant Bridal shop on Olive (Ludwig Lofts Building) has closed.

Neither of which is surprising. Niche retailers in a low-traffic environment = no business.

^ yup.... need a lot more foot traffic downtown. I was hopeful that the opening of the comic book store would be the first of at least a couple follow-ons but it wasn't to be. Stakeholders got to figure a retail plan out and perhaps subsidize a few shops.... I suppose the M/X area might be a logical concentration but I'm not sure how many good storefronts are available.

STLrainbow wrote:^ yup.... need a lot more foot traffic downtown. I was hopeful that the opening of the comic book store would be the first of at least a couple follow-ons but it wasn't to be. Stakeholders got to figure a retail plan out and perhaps subsidize a few shops.... I suppose the M/X area might be a logical concentration but I'm not sure how many good storefronts are available.

I don't know the name of it, but the large gift/housewares shop in the MX on 7th closed recently as well. Is there any retail at all anymore?

^ Trova was the shop at the M/X. So what's left? Not much... Levine Hats, AIA bookstore, Star Clipper. maybe a few men's items at Dapper Gents. a modest women's boutique or two. A couple knick-knack places. Sad.

^ did not know. strike another off the list.

btw, I had referenced Star Clipper earlier, but see I didn't put it in the previous post... I'll add it in.

A few weeks ago I saw a lady walking around downtown with a few shopping bags like you see in other cities and it struck me as so very odd. You just don't see that. She must have got off Metrolink from Galleria or something. She looked like an out of towner and didn't realize what she was doing.

Interesting enough... as much as St. Louis Centre was absolute aweful in the end... it did still have Walgreens, Foot Locker, and other chains. Why those retailers did not "relocate" downtown instead of just leaving is beyond me.

Macy's loss was also just a kick in the butt. I know that STL's downtown store wasn't alone... as Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Spokane, Houston and other downtown stores were also shuttered.

That was just the beginning... These Downtown Macy's Stores will close after the holidays:

Just announced a few days ago the beautiful Downtown Portland (Oregon) store will also close (and downtown Portland is crowded and full of shopping): http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/new ... pring.html

Also just announced this last month, that Minneapolis Downtown Macy's is going to be sold and closed: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... store.html

Downtown Denver Store will close this year as well:
http://koin.com/2016/11/10/downtown-mac ... ld-closed/

Macy's to close downtown Honolulu store
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/2049 ... lulu-store

Downtown San Francisco huge 250,000sq ft store to close end of year:
http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/08/1 ... again.aspx

Macy's State Street (old Marshall Fields) looks like it may be on the chopping list by the end of the year when Macy's announces full 100 stores closing
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/

Cincy (the home of Macy's Headquarters) will most likely [reported] lose it's downtown store next year as well.

^ No doubt brick & mortar retail is getting tougher, but with a higher residential and office population we should be able to attract at least a decent degree. Having the right vision and leadership will help, too. Maybe something like the Fashion Incubator will lead to some success.

Federated bit off more than they could chew, I guess. (And May before them, sadly.) And I think they did themselves no favors by rebranding everywhere. There was some real local pride associated with the historic names, and I suspect they lost that. I went to St. Louis Center and the Famous fairly regularly back in the day. But I don't believe I ever once sat foot in the place after it became Macy's. Can't imagine the stores in Philadelphia or Chicago have faired all that much better.

Here's a few possibilities for shopping downtown this holiday season:

StarClipper
Levine Hats
AIA Bookstore
MacroSun (25% going out of biz sale)
Big Shark Bicycles

I'm sure they'd appreciate the business. Anything else of note?

I think Downtown will attract more chain resturant and retail stores when the population hits that critical mass. Places like Walgreens, Marshall's, Dunkin Donuts, Chick-Fila, Foot Looker could pop up in empty storefronts. No doubt that the addition of hotels and apartments will lead to more neighborhood retail in the area, especially stores that cater to conventioneers. It's pretty pathetic that a major convention can come to town and tourist have virtually no place to shop, this conveys to out-of-towners who will likely not leave downtown that the city is dead. I would actually be for TIF or subsidizes for retail that will boost foot traffic downtown and fill in store fronts.

STLrainbow wrote:Here's a few possibilities for shopping downtown this holiday season:

StarClipper
Levine Hats
AIA Bookstore
MacroSun (25% going out of biz sale)
Big Shark Bicycles

I'm sure they'd appreciate the business. Anything else of note?

Some more options for downtown from Jared Opsal:

Karmel's Krafts, DNA Clothing, Honey's Child Boutique, Dapper Gents

I was just at the old Marshall Field's store this past weekend. It will be a shame if it closes.

A couple more possibilities....

Ceci Boutique
Fresh Image Apparel
Gallery Furniture and Home Accents
Le Devine Collection
Kessler Mroz Jewelry
Vinciguerra Jewelry

I'm sure this would never happen but would love for the central portion of downtown to be declared a sales tax free zone (state & city) to provide incentive for stores and shoppers to concentrate there. Also would like to see tax incentives to downtown property owners who fill ground floor locations with retail and restaurants businesses while penalizing those that leave space empty or convert it to non service type businesses. One of the things I have frequently heard from business owners is the unrealistic rents some landlords are asking downtown which is why so many storefronts remain empty or underutilized. I think about 15 years or so of this type of incentive would be enough to get some sort of synergy going.

southcitygent wrote:I'm sure this would never happen but would love for the central portion of downtown to be declared a sales tax free zone (state & city) to provide incentive for stores and shoppers to concentrate there. Also would like to see tax incentives to downtown property owners who fill ground floor locations with retail and restaurants businesses while penalizing those that leave space empty or convert it to non service type businesses. One of the things I have frequently heard from business owners is the unrealistic rents some landlords are asking downtown which is why so many storefronts remain empty or underutilized. I think about 15 years or so of this type of incentive would be enough to get some sort of synergy going.

This is the sort of thinking that has gotten us into the current TIF wars that are plaguing the region as municipalities dangle tax incentives in front of retailers just to lure them away from wherever they currently are.

Okay, not quite an exhaustive list but here's a pretty decent overview of the rather limited shopping options downtown:

Men's clothing/accessories
Dapper Gents
Gallery Furniture and Home Accents
Fresh Image Apparel
Levin's
Levine Hats

Women's clothing/accessories
Ceci Boutique
Honey's Child Boutique
Le Devine Collection

Jewelry
Kessler Mroz Jewelry
Vinciguerra Jewelry

Specialty books/comics and related merchandise
AIA Bookstore
Star Clipper

Knick-knacks
Gallery Furniture and Home Accents
The Perch
MacroSun (25% going out of biz sale)

Bicycles
Big Shark Bicycles

Crafts
Karmel's Krafts

Specialty Gift shops
Blues, Cards, Arch, Gorlock Grind, etc.

Eyewear (I guess you can include this as retail)
Clarkson Eyecare
Erker's Fine Eyewear

I could be wrong, but I think the only national chain present is the small Majestic Athletic store at BPV.

^ Pathetic. Any other > 1 million Metros in America with such a disappointing shopping list for their downtown?

Randy wrote:^ Pathetic. Any other > 1 million Metros in America with such a disappointing shopping list for their downtown?

Yes, in fact I would argue that only about 10 U.S. cities have truly busy and vibrant downtowns. For cities in our size range. I would say New Orleans, Portland, and Denver had impressive downtowns, but these cities are way more centralized and they have nothing like the CWE. Then there is pretty much every Sunbelt city, even Downtown Miami, with it's Manhattanization was dead as a doorknob and autocentric, the real urban action is in Miami Beach. I think what hurts Downtown St. Louis is the lack of strong connections to the southside and lack of stable neighborhoods to the north, but I think it will get better. At least a decade or two from big city feel in my opinion. Also need much better planning and vision for downtown.

goat314 wrote:even Downtown Miami, with it's Manhattanization was dead as a doorknob and autocentric

I'd have to disagree with this a little based on my personal experience. I lived in downtown St. Louis for 7 years (2008-2015) and was in Miami for vacation for five days last February and spent some time in downtown Miami. I wouldn't say it was insanely vibrant, but I do recall various shops downtown and a VERY busy Whole Foods. I wouldn't say it was dead.

I suppose you could say there are various shops in DT STL and a busy Culinria, but Miami's downtown had a more lively, and quite frankly, safer feel to me than downtown STL.

That said, this is just my experience of being in DT Miami for a day or two. I suppose there could've been a convention or etc going on in downtown Miami when I was there that made it more active than usual.

goat314 wrote:

Randy wrote:^ Pathetic. Any other > 1 million Metros in America with such a disappointing shopping list for their downtown?

Yes, in fact I would argue that only about 10 U.S. cities have truly busy and vibrant downtowns.

i disagree. there's a continuum between "busy and vibrant" and "dead", and i'd say St. Louis has one of the deadest downtowns i've ever seen—even compared to most peer and smaller cities. i'm a broken record when it comes to the City Observatory storefront index, and I know it's not perfect, but it basically ranks St. Louis near or at the bottom in terms of retail density (which, of course, correlates with pedestrian activity). don't get me wrong. i love St. Louis. but our downtown is a sh*t show and its comeback is progressing slow as f*ck. hopefully the recent spate of redevelopment news portends better times. downtown needs to keep adding residents and the city needs to blow up the bridges to keep E. STL criminals out of downtown. oh, and we need a competent police chief.

Retail-wise I can't think of any similar-sized (2M-3M) peers that are as sad as ours... Indy, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, even Kansas City have at least some national chains and decent roster of local small shops/boutiques. KC may be the weakest. but it does have a Jos. A Bank for example and a larger amount of nice boutiques. And of course while we have CWE, they have the Plaza.

STLrainbow wrote:Retail-wise I can't think of any similar-sized (2M-3M) peers that are as sad as ours... Indy, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, even Kansas City have at least some national chains and decent roster of local small shops/boutiques. KC may be the weakest. but it does have a Jos. A Bank for example and a larger amount of nice boutiques. And of course while we have CWE, they have the Plaza.

I was referring more to activity than just retail density, but yes places like Tampa (where I currently live, makes St. Louis feel like Manhattan). Many cities like Vegas, which I just visited, downtown really isn't the center of activity. All I was pointing out was that St. Louis is on the upswing and there even some larger cities that I've been to, Phoenix and Houston, that are just as dead as St. Louis in many respects. What I will agree with is that Downtown St. Louis is thoroughly under-retailed, specifically with chains, but I get the impression that many cities directly subsidized retailers to locate downtown.