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RETAIL Reviving Downtown-One Block at a Time

By D Magazine |

WHEN NORMAN GREEN moved the Stars hockey team from Minneapolis to Dallas in June 1993, he soon turned his attention to downtown as a potential site for a new sports arena. “Fans were telling me downtown was not safe and not attractive, especially when we played games at night. 1 was quick to disagree.”

The Canadian-born Green has experience to back up his opinion. He made the money to get into big-league sports by building retail malls and stores, some of them in the downtown area of his home city of Calgary. So Green knew how to look at downtown Dallas from a retailer’s point of view.

“It was easy to see that retail for downtown Dallas was doable, and that when appropriate retail stores materialized, the negative concerns about security would disappear.”

When Green sold die Stars earlier this year, he turned his attention full-time to the question of revitalizing downtown.

“This is a problem I’ve seen solved before,” Green says. “It’s not brain surgery. Anyone who doubts it should take a quick drive over to Fort Worth. You don’t need to go to Toronto or San Francisco to see a thriving retail market downtown. Fort Worth has already done it.”

For Green, Neiman Marcus is the bulwark of the current downtown and the launching pad of the new downtown. He has some definite ideas about how shopping could be successfully reintroduced into the Centra! Business District.

Why do you think retail can work downtown?

Because it already does. Neiman’s is a destination store. People come from all over town-and ail over the world-to shop there. Other stores of similar quality would draw people, too.

How does that happen, then? How do we lure those quality merchants?

By thinking small. We don’t need five-year plans or massive infiisions of public money to attract great retail. Take one dilapidated block, Main from Akard to Ervay. Take out die dirt}’, often boarded-up storefronts, redo them beautifully, and fill them with top companies like Banana Republic, or Nike, or the Gap, with perhaps a fine restaurant–and it’s done. One little block would overnight change the perception of downtown from “Its deserted and ugly” to “You have to go see this!”

What pitch do you make to retailers?

When I was in the business of building shopping centers, if someone had come to me and said, “We’d like you to build a shopping center, and we already have a 100,000-square-foot anchor tenant,” I would have said, “Sure.” If they said they had a 200,000-square-foot department store, my response would have been, “That’s a slam-dunk.” And if they had a 200,000-square-foot tenant whose name happened to be Neiman Marcus, I would have said, “We could start construction tomorrow.” Think of this little block as a small shopping center, with an anchor tenant called Neiman Marcus. That instantly changes the picture, doesn’t it? Well, that’s how retailers think. I have no doubt we could bring in some of the best in the nation.

What needs to be done?

First, those old empty buildings need to be bought. I’ve already bought two buildings on Main Street. This is going to happen. I’ll give you a 10-step plan that will change the way we think of downtown within a lew months.

Focus specifically on Main between Akard and Ervay as the primary retail stretch.

Use Neiman Marcus as the main anchor for the retail are

Build contiguous parking. Shopping mall designers know customers want instant access to their cars. We need to build enough for at least ] ,000 cars and offer one hour of free parking for customers. We can then put valet services on Main to make access quick and comfortabl

Have design and signage control. All the storefronts must conform to design criteria just like at a mall. An historic theme might be appropriat

Soften Main Street aesthetically. This means trees, forming a continuous canopy of leaves as the branches touch one another, and music coming from the trees. This will create a festive atmosphere.

6. Make the street more intimate. Our streets are too broad to create the kind of atmosphere we want. European retail streets are more intimate, with better scale. Put in diagonal parking spaces on either side of the street ar each end and weave the traffic around them.

Engage an experienced shopping center manager to ensure that the tenant mix on Main Street attracts people. The manager would create daily promotions and events so the 100,000 people who work downtown would want to drop by.

Make that manager keep Main Street spotlessly clean.

Open a destination restaurant with valet parking that keeps the place alive at night. That might encourage the stores to stretch out their hours.

10. Put in attractive lighting. Give it a romantic and elegant feel.

Within months of this happening, retail would spread up and down Main, and over to Elm and Commerce. The attraction would be too much for people to resist.

But can retail downtown compete with NorthPark, the Galleria and other suburban malls?

Absolutely yes. Besides the 100,000 people who work downtown every day, another 50,000 to 100,000 visit every day. Have you seen the West End on a Saturday afternoon? This is a huge market waiting to buy stuff.

Doesn’t the tunnel system satisfy the retail needs of downtown workers?

Absolutely no. Those are service retailers who are there to serve office workers. High-end and high-volume fashion retailers, for example, need much more exposure than the tunnel can offer.

Isn’t die tunnel system vital because of our hot summer days?

Absolutely wrong. After all, Highland Park Village has the same climate as Main Street. People shop there, and they’ll shop downtown if we do the right things.

Is downtown safe for browsing from store to store?

It may be the safest place in the region. The police and the Central Dallas Association have done a phenomenal job. There are police everywhere. And when the stores open, there will be more people on the streets, creating an aura of excitement and tun and security.

We still hear critics say downtown will never be as good as it once was.

Absolutely wrong. Once one block of Main Street is redone, people’s attitudes will change overnight.

What’s needed now?

First, we property owners have to cooperate. We have to see this as a retail mall, not as separate buildings with separate identities and agendas. Second, out financial institutions have to step up to the plate to provide loans so the Downtown Tax Increment Financing District can get off the ground. That’s the only way we’ll get the parking we need. Third, the city must enforce the codes. It is a disgrace that stores are allowed to sit empty or be boarded up.

You’re talking about a clustering of mid-sized retailers. Will we see large department stores downtown again?

I doubt it. Frankly it’s not an appropriate use either for them or for downtown space. The opportunity is with specialty stores. Once again, there are no department stores in Highland Park Village. And we already have Neiman’s. I can’t stress this point enough: We’re already ahead of the game.

What’s your timetable? When are we going to see the remaking of Main Street?

Schedule an evening to drop by in June or next year. I’ll provide the champagne.

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