I was driving down Broadway after driving down the new downtown entrance at 6th and Walnut. The corridor really strikes me as a perfect place to be downtown and OKC's retail hot spot. There are medium to large warehouses which could house shops like Gap, Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, Fossil, Crate and Barrel, etc. There are a few smaller properties that could house the specialty shops like Coach and Nine West or even boutiques. And there are some empty spaces for new development for those that want to build rather than renovate, possible for an anchor department store, like Nordstrom’s or Neiman Marcus. And, it seems to me, that there is enough space between the properties on the east side and the tracks to erect plenty of parking garages that wouldn't be visible from the street.

On the other side of the tracks, you have Deep Deuce, the Brownstones, the Triangle, and other developments going up that will create some nice density numbers. You have the synergy of a major entertainment district just around the corner and more housing going up in mid-town. One day we could have some form of public transit that runs up and down Broadway (not just a tourist loop like the trolleys) completely connecting AA, BT, the CBD and convention area. IMO, such a plan would mirror the scheme, location, and synergy of shopping districts in major cities like Chicago and San Francisco. It would be like a smaller version of Michigan Ave or Union Square, respectively. The wide streetscape also seems perfect to handle the car traffic and future public transit. You could direct AA traffic to 10th street exit and BT traffic down 6th, minimizing the congestion.

The big question would be if these retailers would see such locations as merely cannibalizing their other locations here, if they have any. But I would suggest that it would be a way for them to expand their reach into the south side of the city and tap into the convention and tourism industries that are more and more centered in OKC's core. I think it would also take a single developer or a group of developers with the same vision to make it a reality.

It just seems like such a natural for the district and the answer to downtown's quest for retail. It would also feed off the growing density and create more, as well as connect downtown to uptown, which may very well end up being the center of OKC's alternative shopping and entertainment, sort of like a Melrose, Bucktown/Wicker Park, or Haight St.

Maybe I'm behind on this and everyone already shares this vision, but it seems to me like our retail solution is staring us right in the face. You fill AA with major retail and suddenly OKC becomes this well organized city with a city core as vibrant and diverse as any city in the region and would mirror some of America most popular cities in design (adjusted for scale, of course )