New retail store in the CBD

[metro]

Did anyone catch the article in the JR this week about a new store that opened in I believe leadership square? The store is called Embellishments by M&W (same founders of M&W wallpaper). The store has home decor, furniture, jewelry, candles, and specialty home items. I know it doesn't sound the most exciting of news but at least retail is returning in the CBD

[HOT ROD]

yes, it all adds up in the end!

Good news!

[HOT ROD]

Check this out. Bellevue WA, Seattle's upscale suburb and anchor of the burgeoning Seattle Eastside, is planning a Safeway Flagship store in its downtown.

When I first saw this, I started cracking up; a Safeway storefront ... :boff:

Then I read more into the story and it will be a mixed use development with the 55,000 sq ft store on the bottom and residential on top. That got me thinkin, couldnt OKC support such a development in the Triangle or Downtown South districts?

Here is the story. ...

Safeway flagship store planned in Bellevue

By Monica Soto Ouchi

Seattle Times retail reporter

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Safeway has swapped this site at 410 Bellevue Way for land nearby where it plans to build a state-of-the-art grocery by mid-2007 in downtown Bellevue.

After a decade of chatter, Safeway has firmed up plans to open a Northwest flagship store in downtown Bellevue.

Safeway had already swapped the 2-acre site of its existing store for 3.7 acres to the south owned by developer Kemper Freeman Jr.

The grocery-store chain plans to use its new location at 300 Bellevue Way to build a 55,000-square-foot store as part of a larger retail, grocery and apartment complex. Washington, D.C.-based AvalonBay will develop the apartments.

Cherie Myers, spokeswoman for Safeway Pacific Northwest, said the store would be about 10,000-square-feet larger than a typical location and atypical of its other stores.

"Whatever we feel is the latest-and-greatest will be inside the store," she said.

Freeman said the Safeway project will break ground in the next 30 days.

Kemper Development, which owns Bellevue Square, and the hotel and office building Bellevue Place, has sought to change the character of downtown Bellevue.

In 2000, it added street-front, pedestrian-friendly retail with a 100,000-square-foot development anchored by Crate & Barrel at the corner of Bellevue Way and Northeast Eighth.

Kemper last year opened its $500 million, 1.4 million-square-foot Lincoln Square, furthering its plans to make Eighth reminiscent of Chicago's Magnificent Mile or Boston's Newbury Street.

After Safeway completes its new store in mid-2007, Freeman plans to turn the former grocery site into a mixed-used development similar to Lincoln Square.

"We have two years to see," Freeman said of plans to develop the location. "If the market isn't there, we'll stop."

Safeway's plans come at a time when the residential population is booming in downtown Bellevue. The city forecast the number of downtown residences should triple to 10,000 over the next 14 years.

Myers said Safeway originally planned to expand its existing store but found the site too small for its plans. "We have waited to do this for a long, long time," she said. "We're finally seeing some daylight."

[HOT ROD]

Could that work in Downtown OKC?

[Oki_Man5]

And on another thread, some scoffed at putting a Wal-Mart down there. What a crock!

[metro]

Not to mention the brilliance of the grocery store putting apartments above the store. They are guaranteeing themselves business right there on site. I would like to see OKC follow in these footsteps.

[Patrick]

And on another thread, some scoffed at putting a Wal-Mart down there. What a crock!

Difference is this is going to be an urban grocery store. Wal-Mart doesn't know what the word urban means.

By the way, Target has a few nice urban locations as well.

[HOT ROD]

very true, I think a host of nice "urban" stores (that we commonly see in the suburbs) would do very well in downtown and midtown OKC.

Again, residential/office above the retail/store + no parking lots (or at the minimum, small ones) IS the key!!!

Heck, if even Walmart agrees to this code then bring them on downtown!!! Im actually surprised they are not already downtown, given the GRIP they have on the OKC market (and the fact that they treat it as a test venue).

[Oki_Man5]

Difference is this is going to be an urban grocery store. Wal-Mart doesn't know what the word urban means.

By the way, Target has a few nice urban locations as well.

Patrick, I guess I do not know what you mean by using the word "urban" in this context. Please explain it to me.

I have never been in one, but how about Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Marts?

Pete

[plmccordj]

Not trying to be difficult but as someone that only checks in occasionally, I do not know initials. In this post it says...

Did anyone catch the article in the JR this week about a new store that opened in I believe leadership square? The store is called Embellishments by M&W (same founders of M&W wallpaper). The store has home decor, furniture, jewelry, candles, and specialty home items. I know it doesn't sound the most exciting of news but at least retail is returning in the CBD

What do these initials mean... JR, M&W, and CBD?

Thanks,
Paul

[John]

Not trying to be difficult but as someone that only checks in occasionally, I do not know initials. In this post it says...



What do these initials mean... JR, M&W, and CBD?

Thanks,
Paul

JR = Journal Record

M&W = M&W is the name of the business

CBD = Central business district, aka downtown

[windowphobe]

Definitions of "urban" vary a bit, but I think most people will agree that situating a building well back from the street and filling the intervening space with parking is not "urban."

[floater]

I think something like this is what Patrick is talking about:



The flagship Target store in downtown Minneapolis. Built to the curb and reflecting the design character of nearby buildings.

It would be great to see something like that as well in the Triangle area.