Re: Galleria Ideas
For the Galleria Site, I am in favour of a galleria type development with upscale and local retail stores and restaurants. Here in Seattle, we have a galleria called Westlake Centre that along with neighbouring anchor stores Nordstrom (the first and hq) and BonMarche (now BonMacy's) have brought retail back to Seattle.
Dont get me wrong, there was a period in the 1990's when downtown Seattle was in a great slump. Fredrick's and Nelson's and I Magnum closed their downtown anchor stores and many smaller retailers went with them. We were only left with Westlake Centre, Nordstrom and the Bon Marche. Most blamed the city fathers for allowing a galleria mall, which swallowed up the surrounding retail. Who knows why the upscale department stores F&N and IM closed, but they did.
That all changed toward the late 90's when Nordstrom announced they would move their anchor store and national hq to the old F&N building (which was more than two times larger that the old Nordies). Developers then announced the Old Nordy building would be remodeled for local upscale retail shoppes and those two events spurred a retail extravaganza that has continued to this day.
Now, we have a new upscale galleria type mall (called Pacific Place) that is across the street from the new Nordstrom (F&N Building) which is across the street from the Westlake Centre which is across the street from the old Nordies (now a collection of upscale retail). We then got a new Niketown, Gameworks, and two 20 something screen multiplexes across the street from each other.
Upscale anchor stores like the flagship Eddie Bauer, FAO and others sprung up as well in the same area (although EB is moving due to their financial strapped Parent Co and FAO closed). It got so bad that I think upscale retailers were locating downtown Seattle just for name-sake, as I almost never see anyone buying anything but I know their rent had to be very expensive. Every major upscaler wanted to have a downtown Seattle location, perhaps if nothing else just for looks!
So you could call this the Seattle answer to Chicago's Magnificent Michigan Avenue or Vancouver's Robson Street perhaps, but my point here is that a well planned galleria could spur additional development if the city ensures the correct mix of development and redevelopment.
Imagine if we still built a Westlake Centre type development on the Southern portion of the Galleria Site. Westlake is comprised of four floors of upscale and local retail and restaurants with a 20 something office tower looming above (sort of like 50 Penn Place but much more touristy). Below, Westlake connects to Seattle's underground bus tunner (soon to be light rail) and on the fourth floor the Seattle Monorail comes in.
What if a similar design was implemented in downtown at the Galleria Site? I am not necessarily talking about the bus tunnel or monorail, but I could easily see on the southern end, a four storey galleria with upscale and local retail with a 20 storey office tower or mixed office/hotel tower looming above. The galleria would connect below to the new Underground and perhaps with MAPS III a new light rail line would have a station right in front.
I imagine with the new upscale apartments and condos going in and with that momentum to continue for the next 10 years at least, that downtown could support high end retail again and the galleria concept I laid out might do the same for OKC as Westlake did for Seattle.
There used to be major anchor stores in downtown (and Capitol Hill) but with a Westlake type upscale galleria additional attention would be given for downtown OKC and then other stores might come to town - creating a new upscale district.
I think it would work, but we have to leave the OLD Dallas Style galleria behind as it predates other retail nearby. A westlake type design is much better for OKC, as it would be the focus of an emerging towne square. A well planned galleria would target new entrants to the market (the 20-35 something single-yuppie and tourist crowds) and would spur additional high end outside of the galleria itself that would cator to everyone else.
Now guys, in my mind - this is in addition to Bricktown and the developing deep Duece towne square. Sometimes, we need to think big and not put all of our eggs into just one part of downtown at the expense of others.
I think we could have four major retail sections downtown, if not five - Bricktown for tourists and families, Dduece for locals, Galleria for upscale local and transient tourists, and the emerging Walker district for locals. The fifth district could be WestTowne (the area of downtown west of the current alignment for the Arts district).
WestTowne would be over 18 oriented (if not over 25 oriented) and could contain either mainstream or local retail, bars, and dance clubs. It would not compete with Brick, nor would Galleria or deep duece, but would complement it!
OKC needs to appeal to every demographic, not just families! What about the teens? they have $$ What about the yuppies? Of course, they have $$ What about the students? They may not have $$ but they have word-of-mouth advertising and future $$.
Imagine the Renaissance, then!
Oklahoma City, the RENAISSANCE CITY!
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